readings

Youth Ministry 3.0 ~ by Mark Oestreicher

Is "affinity" the new "identity"?  In the 1960s, youth culture's top priority was discovering identity (Who am I?).  As the century moved on and youth culture played more and more of a significant role in Western society, autonomy (How am I unique?) was upgraded to that primary role.  But now, suggests Mark Oestreicher, affinity (Where do I belong?) has moved to the top.[1]

Churches and parachurch ministries have done well in the last 50 years addressing the identity and autonomy of adolescents.  Age-specific youth groups have become a major hallmark of the way ministry is practiced.  These groups have focused on helping preteens, teens and tweens discover who they are and how each is created uniquely by God.  Adolescents have been for the most part affirmed in their identity and autonomy by churches and ministry organizations.

Oestreicher, the president of Youth Specialties, has spent tremendous energy surveying the youth ministry landscape in North American.  He has come tot he conclusion that our churches and para-churches have been far too slow responding to the shift towards affinity.  "Youth ministries," he writes, "are built on assumptions and values and methods that are outdated for the teenagers we passionately want to serve today." [2]

This hypothesis resonates with my own research.  In many cases, youth ministries in themselves have been extremely successful in helping students and young adults find a rooted confidence in God as well as in providing a tangible experience of God's intentions for the Church in terms of community and incarnational faith.  But in terms of helping youth and young adults gain a sense of belonging in a larger, wider movement outside of their own segmented age group, our organizations seem to have really fallen short.  In other words, once someone graduates from youth group, our churches really struggle to know how to provide a welcoming and engaging environment. 

There are many possible approaches to the present situation.  One approach involves continuing the status-quo of cookie-cutter age-segregated games and discipleship programs that provide tremendous identity and autonomy of discipleship for teens and tweens but fail to incorporate young people into the body of a local church.  While this approach was once necessary, it seems inappropriate and inadequate to address the issues facing adolescents in the current age. 

Another approach is what Oesteicher terms "youth ministry 3.0" - a contextualized, present-focused, communion/mission-oriented ministry.  This approach promises to be a bit messier (not in regards to gross-out games), with a shift in emphasis from deciphering how to create the greatest weekly program to discerning how to create the best possible network of leadership-development and equipping-culture for young people.  By necessity this will mean that youth ministry must exhibit more integration with parents and church leaders while still promoting the identity and autonomy of adolescents.  Considering the actual and potential network of belonging, youth ministry needs to move towards a mentality of being there, in person, in communion with God, in active-practice of faith for the specific needs of the student.

[1] Oestreicher, Mark.  Youth Ministry 3.0: A Manifestor of Where We've Been, Where We Are, And Where We Need to Go. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008, 43.

[2] ibid., 43

The Leadership Jump ~ by Jimmy Long

In the rapidly changing climate of leadership within organizations there is rarely a smooth transition of influence from existing leaders to emerging leaders.  Instead of a baton change, what's more likely, suggests Jimmy Long, is a biatholon... or better... a jump.  Can an organization make the leap?

Long speculates that emerging leadership challenges will force new leaders to change paradigms, not inherit the same course of action.  Rather than receiving the tag from the former runner to race around the same course, new leaders will need permission and empowerment to tackle a new mode of challenges in a completely creative manner free from prior practices. 

In his book [Long, Jimmy.  The Leadership Jump: Building Partnerships Between Existing and Emerging Christian Leaders (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009)] Long passionately presents the leadership tensions facing organizations like churches that rely upon multi-generational investment.  Existing leaders are caught with having control of organizations and having difficulty in giving that control over to emerging leaders for a myriad of reasons.  The most glaring reasons could be that existing leaders can't find emerging leaders who are ready to accept their positional authority... and emerging leaders don't want to receive the type of leadership that existing leaders have to give.  Up-and-coming generational trends are shifting from a top-down reliance upon a singular leader towards an environment of shared leadership, trust, giftings, and actival-mission.  Churches need to prepare for this.  What's needed is a cultural shift of typology where existing and emerging leaders partner in valuing the past and adapting for the future.

I personally resonate with the themes in The Leadership Jump.  It doesn't take long to scope my writings and my practice to realize that the emerging modes suggested by Long are embedded into my praxis of life.  And those who know me know that I have too often struggled with the "old way of doing things" that often dictates the methods of ministry in churches.  But those who know me also know how much I love churches and bleed in prayer and sweat for them.  I respect so many former and existing leaders... those people who have lead me to Christ and shaped my heart for God's mission.  But I fear that a new day in our North American society has dawned and the church was caught sleeping in. 

I highly recommend Long's book as an introduction to the changes that are necessary if organizations and churches are going to successful merge into new millennial structures.  A new kind of leadership is in the works... and Long does well in describing what it will take.  I agree with Long's principles and insights, even when I don't agree with his terminology [e.g. Long suggests that existing leadership could be titled as a "heroic" model and emerging leadership is "post-heroic."  These terms aren't incorrect, but to use a title that implies that emerging leadership is not heroic is a misnomer.  Obama's campaign proved otherwise... and emerging church leaders like Erwin McManus are often referred to as "heroes."  Better would have been "Solo" or "Superman" over 'heroic" and "Shared" or "Justice League" (to be silly) over "post-heroic".]  Here is a very useful summary of the book provided by Long table on page 42 along with my all-too-brief parenthetical explanations).

The Leader's Position

• Heroic Leader   --->   Post-Heroic Leader   (Movement from solo to shared.  Again, I don't like these titles, but I agree with Long's principle.)
• Guarded   --->   Community  (Movement from impersonal to personal networks)
• Positional Authority   --->   Earned Authority  (Movement title to practice)

The Leader's Role

• Task   --->   Community  (movement from office to starbucks)
• Directing --->   Empowering  (movement from top-down to bottom-up)
• Destination --->   Journey  (movement from ends to means)

Leadership's Future

• Aspiring --->   Inspiring  (movement from self-pursuits to catalyst of others) 

*** One final note: This book was recommended to me from my old college friend Chris Theule-VanDam, the Young Life Regional Director for Western Great Lakes.  The principles laid out in Long's book at times strongly correspond with the major themes discovered in my dissertation study (e.g. collaborative culture, adaptive leadership structures, etc).  I was delighted to find Long referencing Len Hjalmarson's site, a good friend and fellow doctoral cohort of mine.  Also, I found Dr. Larry Perkins' review of Long's book very insightful and offering a healthy perspective on the issues of this book.  Larry is a professor and friend whom I respect and whose Scriptural perception humbles my own.  He reads Long's book through the honest lens of an existing leader who has instrumentally shaped hundreds of ministry-minded people over the years.

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction ~ by Eugene Peterson

I'm a bit stunned this morning that I have never yet included a "readings" review of a Eugene Peterson book.  His writings and teachings have shaped me profoundly as a pastor and as a theologian.  At Regent College, I was privileged to take 3 courses with him and to have him as our small group host for two years- while he was working on the Old Testament translations for The Message.  My favorite book of his is Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places.  Most impacting is the pastoral series beginning with Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work.  So, you can see, I'm a bit surprised that I have never yet offered a review of any of his works.  I'm correcting that omission today.

In light of some (more) recent pastoral scandals in North America, I picked up a book that every pastor should read.  Eugene Peterson's A Long Obedience in the Same Direction (IVP).  It was first published in 1980 while Peterson was pastoring in Maryland, prior to his days of fame as the translator of The Message.  He was still just tinkering with translations back then... and I was just coming to know Jesus as an eight-year old kid in Indiana.

The title and theme is based upon a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche: "The essential think 'in heaven and earth' is... that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living."

Peterson launches from this quote into a study of the life-patter of successive Psalms (120-134) that enable us to live in obedience to God for the length of our days.  The book is about traveling the long road of true discipleship; following Jesus persistently and passionately.  The book recognizes the subtle temptations that lure many people off of the road and offers a map and an alignment that, if used, will keep us free from stumbling.

One conviction that under-girds the book, Peterson notes in the 20th anniversary edition, is this: "That everything in the gospel is livable and that my pastoral task was to get it lived." (201)  In this conviction, Peterson learned that this was "going to take some time" so he "settled in for the long haul." (202)   The second under-girding conviction is this: "Scripture and Prayer."  This conviction works our practically by recognizing that a person is "neither capable nor competent to form Christ in another person, to shape a life discipleship in a man, woman or child.  That is supernatural work," Peterson notes, "and I am not supernatural.  Mine was a more modest work of Scripture and prayer- helping people listen to God speak to them from the Scriptures and then joining them in answering God as personally and honestly as we could in lives of prayer."  Peterson recalls that "this turned out to be slow work" and in his impatience he would often get in the way of the Holy Spirit. (202)

I'm at an age now that Peterson was when he wrote the book.  I'm recognizing now the need for longevity and sustained righteousness in ministry that I had not recognized before.  In my more youthful days, the zeal of ministry overwhelmed everything, even my pursuit of persistent holiness.  Now, I sense I'm moving into a phase of necessary consistency, of demonstrated endurance, of prolonged depth, of experienced passion.  As a pastor, I'm recognizing that one of the greatest witnesses I can give is to exercise obedience to God over the every-day course of my life; to declare as possible a pattern of joyous endurance of faith.  This book helps remind me of that and helps teach me to live it.

Peterson concludes the 20th anniversary edition with this imaginative scene that reveals the power behind this book:

    "I sometimes amuse myself by imagining Friedrich Nietzsche, who announced the death of God and who is now long dead himself, showing up in my study as I'm writing my books.  He looks over my bookshelves and sees part of a sentence he wrote as a title on one of my books.  He learns that I wrote teh book.  He beams (although I do have trouble imagining Nietzshe beaming).  How pleased he is to find that I have kept his wonderful sentence "A long obedience in the same direction" in circulation into the third Christian millennium.

    "Then he takes the book off the shelf and looks through it.  His face furrows into an angry frown.  The old atheist was convinced that Christians, by promoting the weak and ineffectual Jesus to keep the weakest, spiritually diseased, morally unfit and inferior parts of the population alive and reproducing, were a malign influence on civilization and would be the ruin of us all.  He thought he'd delivered a death blow, and now he finds us still at it.

    "I love imagining him standing there angry and appalled, beard smoking, astonished that these weak, inadequate, ineffectual and unfit Christians are alive still, and still reproducing." (206)

** Peterson, Eugene H.  A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press), 2000.

Paradigmatic Church & Culture

The following list is a working bibliography concerning "Paradigmatic Church & Culture" for my dissertation project:

PARADIGMATIC CHURCH & CULTURE:

Ashley, Jennifer.  The Relevant Church: A New Vision for Communities of Faith.  Orlando, FL: Relevant Books, 2005.

Barna, George.  Revolution: Finding Vibrant Faith Beyond the Walls of the Sanctuary.  Carol Stream, IL: Barna / Tyndale House Publishers, 2005.

Clapp, Rodney.  A Peculiar People: The Church as Culture in a Post-Christian Society.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996.

Conder, Tim.  The Church in Transition: The Journey of Existing Churches into the Emerging Culture.  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006.

Dockery, David S., ed. The Challenge of Postmodernism.  Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001.

Everts, Don and Doug Schaupp.  I Once Was Lost: What Postmodern Skeptics Taught Us About Their Path to Jesus.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008.

Gibbs, Eddie and Ryan K. Bolger.  Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures.  Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005.

Grenz, Stanley J.  A Primer on Postmodernism.  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996.

McLaren, Brian D.  A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey.  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2001.

----------------------.  Church on the Other Side: Doing Ministry in the Postmodern Matrix.  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000.

McNeal, Reggie. The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church. El Cajon, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2003.

Miller, Donald.  Blue Like Jazz.  Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003.

------------------.  Searching for God Knows What. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2004.

Miller, Mark.  Experiential Storytelling: (Re)Discovering Narrative to Communicate God’s Message.  El Cajon, CA: EmergentYS, 2003.

Ortlip, Ben, “Extreme Makeover Church Edition,” Catalyst, vol.1: Challenge the Process (2006): 76-81.

Palmer, Jim.  Wide Open Spaces: Beyond Paint-by-Number Christianity.  Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2007.

Raschke, Carl.  The Next Reformation: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernity.  Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 2004.

Richardson, Rick.  ReImagining Evangelism: Inviting Friends on a Spiritual Journey.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006.

Ringma, Charles R.  Catch the Wind: A Precursor to the Emergent Church.  Vancouver, BC: Regent College Publishing, 1994.

Sweet, Leonard, ed. The Church in Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives.  El Cajon, CA: EmergentYS, 2003.

-------------------.  The Gospel According to Starbucks: Living with a Grande Passion. Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 2007.

-------------------.  Postmodern Pilgrims: First Century Passion for a 21st Century World.  Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 2000.

Webber, Robert E.  Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World.   Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999.

----------------------. The Younger Evangelicals: Facing the Challenges of the New World.  Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002.

Yancey, Philip.  Church: Why Bother?  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998.

Spiritual Formation & Pastoral Ministry

The following list is a working bibliography concerning "Spiritual Formation & Pastoral Ministry" for my dissertation project:

SPIRITUAL FORMATION & PASTORAL MINISTRY:

Mannoia, Kevin.  The Integrity Factor: A Journey in Leadership Formation.  Vancouver, BC: Regent College Publishing, 1996.

McKinley, Rick.  This Beautiful Mess: Practicing the Presence of the Kingdom of God.  Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2006.

Mulholland Jr, M. Robert.  Invitation to a Journey: A Road Map for Spiritual Formation.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993.

Nouwen, Henri J. M. Creative Ministry.  New York: Image Book, 1971.
---------------------------.  In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership.  New York: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1989.

Palmer, Parker J. To Know as We are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey.  San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993.

Powers, Joni Grace and Robert Pyne.  Life Space: The Practice of Life with God.  Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 2007.

Yaconelli, Michael.  Messy Spirituality.  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007.

Religious Data

The following list is a working bibliography concerning "Religious Data" for my dissertation project:

RELIGIOUS DATA:

Bibby, Reginald W.  Restless Gods: The Renaissance of Religion in Canada.  Toronto, ON: Novalis, 2004.

Kinnaman, David and Gabe Lyons.  UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity… and Why it Matters.  Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007.

North American Baptist Conference Leadership Centers, “A Year in Review: A Report on the Conference-Wide Pastor and Participant Survey.”  Oakbrook Terrace, IL: September 2006.

Olson, David T.  The American Church in Crisis.  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008. 

Woods, C. Jeff.  Congregational Megatrends.  New York, NY: Alban Institute, 1996.

Wuthnow, Robert.  After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion.  Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007.

Missional Theology & Praxis:

The following list is a working bibliography concerning "Missional Theology & Praxis" for my dissertation project:

MISSIONAL THEOLOGY & PRAXIS:

Allen, Roland.  Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours?  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1962.

Barrett, Lois Y. et. al.  Treasure in Clay Jars: Patterns in Missional Faithfulness.  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004.

Driscoll, Mark. Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church.  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006.

------------------.  The Radical Reformission: Reaching Out without Selling Out.  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004.

Donovan, Vincent J.  Christianity Rediscovered.  Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1970.

Frost, Michael.  Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture.  Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2006.

----------------- and Alan Hirsch.  The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church.  Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003.

Guder, Darrell L. ed.  Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America.  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998.

Henderson, Jim and Matt Casper.  Jim & Casper Go to Church: Frank Conversation about Faith, Churches, and Well-Meaning Christians.  Carol Stream, IL: Barna / Tyndale House Publishers, 2007.

Hirsch, Alan.  The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church.  Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2006.

Hunter, III, George.  The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West… Again.  Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000.

Kirk, Morgan and Harbor Partin, “A Time to Plant? The New Seeds of the Multigenerational Church,” Relevant Leader, issue 20 (Fall 2007), 34-35.

Ma, Jaeson.  The Blueprint: A Revolutionary Plan to Plant Missional Communities on Campus.  Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 2007.

Mancini, Will.  Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture and Create Movement.  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008.

McConnell, Scott.  Multi-Site Churches: Guidance for the Movement’s Next Generation.  Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2009.

Minatrea, Milfred.  Shaped by God’s Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches.  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2004.

Peterson, Jim.  Church Without Walls: Moving Beyond Traditional Boundaries.  Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1992.

Pope, Randy.  The Intentional Church: Moving from Church Success to Community Transformation.  Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2002.

Roxburgh, Alan. The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World.  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2006.

Snyder, Howard.  Decoding the Church: Mapping the DNA of Christ’s Body.  Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002.

--------------------.  Models of the Kingdom: Gospel, Culture and Mission in Biblical and Historical Perspective.  Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1991.

Stetzer, Ed and David Putman.  Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church can Become a Missionary in Your Community.  Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006

-------------. Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can Too.  Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 2007.

-------------. Planting Missional Churches: Planting and Church That’s Biblically Sound and Reaching People in Culture.  Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006.

Van Gelder, Craig.  The Essence of the Church: A Community Created by the Spirit.  Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000.

----------------------.  The Ministry of the Missional Church: A Community Led by the Spirit.  Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007.

----------------------, ed. The Missional Church & Denominations: Helping Congregations Develop a Missional Identity.  Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008.

Watson, David.  Called & Committed: World-Changing Discipleship.  Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1982.

Generational Transference

The following list is a working bibliography concerning "Generational Transference" for my dissertation project:

GENERATIONAL TRANSFERENCE:

Brooks, Steven.  Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: The Release of Mantles to the End-Time Generation.  Shippensberg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, Inc., 2008.

Conger, Jay A. and Benjamin, Beth. Building Leaders: How Successful Companies Develop the Next Generation.  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999.

------------------- and Ronald E. Riggio.  The Practice of Leadership: Developing the Next Generation of Leaders.  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007.

Cunningham, Sarah.  Dear Church: Letters from a Disillusioned Generation.  San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2007.

Kimball, Dan. Emerging Worship: Creating Worship Gatherings for New Generations.  El Cajon, CA: EmergentYS, 2004.

-----------------.  They Like Jesus but Not the Church: Insights from Emerging Generations.  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007.

Leith, John H.  From Generation to Generation: The Renewal of the Church According to its Own Theology.  Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1990.

MacDonald, Gordon.  Who Stole My Church?  What to Do When Your Church Tries to Enter the 21st Century.  Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2008.

Martoia, Ron, “Greeting the Future with Both Hands Free,” Relevant Leader, issue 19 (Summer 2007), 10-11.

Menconi, Peter.  The Intergenerational Church: Understanding Congregations from WWII to www.com.T Littleton, CO: Mt. Sage Publishing, 2008.

Mueller, Walt.  Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture: Bridging Teen Worldviews and Christian Truth.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006.

Rainer, Thom S.  The Bridger Generation: America’s Second Largest Generation. What They Believe.  How to Reach Them.  Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 2006.

--------------------. and Eric Geiger.  Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process for Making Disciples.  Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 2006.

-------------------. and Sam S. Rainer III.  Essential Church: Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts.  Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 2008.

Robinson, Garet and Jonathon Merritt, “From an 8-Track Church to an MP3 Movement: How to Enact a Culture of Change,” Relevant Leader, issue 20 (Fall 2007), 36-41.

Wraight, David.  The Next Wave: Empowering the Generation that Will Change our World.  Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2008.

Environmental Architecture

The following list is a working bibliography concerning "Environmental Architecture" for my dissertation project:

ENVIRONMENTAL ARCHITECTURE:

Adizes, Ichak.  Corporate Lifecycles: How and Why Corporations Grow and Die and What to Do About It.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Press, 1990.

Brewin, Kevin, “Upside Down Leadership: Leading the Self-Organizing Church,” Relevant Leader, issue 19 (Summer 2007), 42-43.

Brown, Juanita with David Isaacs.  The World Café: Shaping our Futures Through Conversations that Matter.  San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.  2005.

Cole, Neil.  Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens.  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2005.

Collins, Jim.  Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.  San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2002.

---------------.  Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t.  San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2001.

Fulmer, William E.  Shaping the Adaptive Organization: Landscapes, Learning, and Leadership in Volatile Times.  AMACOM, 2000.

Haeckel, Stephan H.  Adaptive Enterprise: Creating and Leading Sense-and-Respond Organizations.  Whitby, ON.  McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1999.

Malphurs, Aubrey.  Building Leaders: Blueprints for Developing Leadership at Every Level of Your Church.  Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 2004.

McManus, Erwin Raphael, “The Story of Your Community,” Catalyst, vol. 1: Challenging the Process, 126-131.

--------------------------------.  An Unstoppable Force: Daring to Become the Church God had in Mind.  Loveland, CO: Group, 2001.

Myers, Joseph.  The Search to Belong: Rethinking Intimacy, Community and Small Groups.  El Cajon, CA: EmergentYS, 2003.

Pascale, R. Millemann, M., and Gioja, L.  Surfing on the Edge of Chaos: The Laws of Nature and The New Laws of Business.  New York: Crown Publishing, 2000.

Senge, Peter, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, and Betty Sue Flowers.  Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society.  New York: Doubleday, 2004.

Stevens, R. Paul and Phil Collins.  The Equipping Pastor: A Systems Approach to Congregational Leadership.  Alban Institute, 1993.

Suggs, Rob, “Another Brick in the Wall: The Architecture of Supernatural Community,” Catalyst, vol. 1: Challenging the Process (2006), 118-123.

Taylor, Steve.  The Out of Bounds Church: Learning to Create a Community of Faith in a Culture of Change.  El Cajon, CA: EmergentYS, 2005.

Wheatley, Margeret J.  Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World.  San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006.  

White, James Emery.  Rethinking the Church: A Challenge to Creative Redesign in an Age of Transition, Revised and Expanded.  Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 2003.

Leadership Theory & Praxis

The following list is a working bibliography concerning "Leadership Theory and Praxis" for my dissertation project:

LEADERSHIP THEORY & PRAXIS

Bass, Bernard.  The Practice of Leadership: Developing the Next Generation of Leaders.  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2006.

Creps, Earl.  Off-Road Disciplines: Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders.  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2006.DePree, Max.  Leadership is an Art.  New York: Doubleday, 2004.

Fullan, Michael.  Leading In a Culture of Change.  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001.Gibbs, Eddie.  LeadershipNext: Changing Leaders in a Changing Culture.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005.

Greenleaf, Robert K.  Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness.  New York: Paulist Press, 1977.

Keel, Tim. Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor & Chaos.  Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007.

Kotter, John.  Leading Change.  Whitby, ON: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1996.

Kouzes, James M. and Barry Z. Posner.  The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition.  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2007.

MacCoby, Michael.  The Leaders We Need: And What Makes Us Follow.  Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2007.

McCallum, Dennis and Jessica Lowery.  Organic Discipleship: Mentoring Others Into Spiritual Maturity and Leadership.  Houston, TX: Touch Publishing, 2006.

Ogden, Greg and Daniel Meyer.  Leadership Essentials: Shaping Vision, Multiplying Influence, Defining Character.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007.

Stanley, Andy.  The Next Generation Leader: 5 Essentials for Those Who Will Shape the Future.  Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2003.

Steffen, David.  “Catalyzing Meaningful Change Through Adaptive Leadership,” Transformations in Public Health 5, no.1 [Spring 2003]: 1, 3.

Thrall, Bill and Bruce McNicol and Ken McElrath.  The Ascent of a Leader: How Ordinary Relationships Develop Extraordinary Character and Influence.  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1999.

Wilkes, C. Gene.  Jesus on Leadership: Discovering the Secrets of Servant Leadership from the Life of Christ.  Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1998.

total church ~ by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis

"Church is not a meeting you attend or a place you enter.  It is an identity that is ours in Christ.  It is an identity that shapes the whole of life so that life and mission become "total church." 

In their book, Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community (Crossway, 2008), Tim Chester and Steve Timmis offer some excellent realignment for existing churches that may have fallen into the rut of programming religious activity.  I just picked up this book last night and have not gotten into the meat of the pages yet.  But what I've read so far... I like.

I've been saying, sometimes ranting, for a while that church is not a show on Sunday mornings that we go to... watch... and then leave.  Church is us... those who desire to follow Jesus... and it is all encompassing of our lives.  Church is who we are every day of the week.  This book seems to be trying to communicate that smartly and gently.  I'm thankful for the respectful affirmation! :)

Tim and Steve offer humble yet blunt insight into the ways existing churches have become trapped... and challenge them to wake up.  They also offer firm wisdom for emerging churches that have not embraced the Word as the source of belief and practice.  They say "theology that matters is not the theology we profess but the theology we practice" (18).  A church should not be so Bible-focused that it loses its mission and enrichment of community.  Neither, on the other hand should a church be so community focused that it loses it's emphasis on teaching the Word.  Neither should a church be so mission focused that it neglects the Gospel and community.  Here's what Tim and Steve suggest... A church should be (16):

1. Gospel-centered (both Word-centered and Mission-centered)
2. Community-centered 

They also offer some practical suggestions for what a Gospel-centered and Community-centered church might mean... Here are just a few they mention (18):

• seeing church as an identity instead of a responsibility to be juggled alongside other commitments
• celebrating ordinary life as the context in which the word of God is proclaimed with 'God-talk' as a normal feature of everyday conversation
• running fewer evangelistic events, youth clubs, and social projects and spending more time sharing our lives with unbelievers
• switching the emphasis from Bible teaching to Bible learning and action
• learning to disciple one another - and to be discipled - day by day
• having churches that are messy instead of churches that pretend
  

More information about this book is available at resurgence.

Bridging Divided Worlds ~ by Jackson Carroll and Wade Roof

       Churches have always struggled with generational changes.  The rate of change in the last fifty years has only exacerbated that tension.  Pre-boomers, baby boomers, gen Xers and Millenials present a phenomenal range of perceptions and world views in regards to religion. 
        Bridging Divided Worlds presents an enormous study of congregational trends in the United States regarding the unities and disunities of generational realities in American churches... 

Restless Gods ~ by Reginald Bibby

        Restless Gods shares the results of extensive research into the spiritual practices of Canadians over the last 50 years.  Trends relating to church attendance, cultural secularization, and renewed interest in spirituality among emerging generations are examined alongside future prospectives for religion.  Reginald Bibby masterfully articulates the extensive survey findings and brings the reader along in interpreting the data.   In doing so, Restless Gods offers a valuable insight into the religious desires, frustrations and aspirations of the over thirty million people that call Canada home.          
        The portrait of religious life in Canada is an intriguing one... 

Reimagining Church ~ by Frank Viola

        The sub-title for Reimagining Church by Frank Viola (author of Pagan Christianity) is "Pursuing The Dream of Organic Christianity."  Frank Viola is striving for a version of Christianity free from much of the bureaucratic restraints that Western society has grown accustomed to.  In this pursuit, Viola promotes a movement away from established institutions of local churches towards the planting of house churches wherever people live.  The Church Jesus intends is one that grows developmentally just as a living organism. 
        Viola considers modern local churches to be encumbered by properties, bills, hierarchal governments, and denominational traditions that have obscured and even perverted the expression of true Christianity as Jesus intended.  At times, Viola can certainly overstate his aim.  This book could actually alienate many of the "traditional" people that perhaps could otherwise have benefited from it's emphasis.  For instance, in a valuable chapter on "reimagining leadership", Viola states: "The modern clergy system is a religious artifact that has no biblical basis" (160).  His point is that the "positional" role of clergy in so many modern local churches does not reflect the New Testament "functional" intentions for leaders.  But to say that there is "no" biblical basis for the clergy system today is an exageration.  Countless statements like this in the 300+ pages of this book will most likely serve as obstacles for the reimagination of the church.
        But a thoughtful introspection of this book reveals some quality affirmations of many of the new directions of emerging church thought over the last 20 years.  This is a worth-while book for those who love the Church but recognize the tensions strainting the current institutional expressions of the local church.  If the 15 chapters are too much to digest straight through, they also serve as useful resources on their own.  Viola's reflections on the Lord's Supper (chapter 3), Gathering Place (chapter 4), Leadership (chapter 8), and "Objections and Responses about Leadership" (Appendix) are very engaging.  Further engagement on organic issues facing the Church today are available at Viola's website: http://www.reimaginingchurch.org/

Deadly Viper ~ by Mike Foster & Jud Wilhite

Hands down, Deadly Viper is one of the coolest books in the history of reading.  It's square.  It's black.  It's about kung-fu and assassins.  It's pages are magazine style.  It's a fresh focus on ancient truths.  It's not girly at all.  It talks about Dog the Bounty Hunter.  It's graphically outstandingly engagingly imaginatively extremely impressive.  Plus, this book is really good.  So good that I actually ruined it's pure graphic beauty by underlining and dog-earing and scribbling notes in the margins. 

Mike Foster, founder of xxxchurch and Jud Wilhite, a pastor, bring a wonderfully freeing and yet challenging reflection to the concept of our personal character... and how so many things are lying in wait to attack it.  While the authors come from a Christian perspective, they aren't overbearing at all in how they communicate it.  In fact, it would be easy to read this book without realizing how biblical it is.  And what else amazes me is that such a cool book could focus on things like integrity vs. stupid temptations, and how to remain intact through it all.  I highly recommend this book for personal convictive enjoyment... and also for guys that may not be comfortable reading a "Christian" book but who could use a little kick in the pants to live well.

LeadershipNext ~ by Eddie Gibbs

LeadershipNext is a great resource for existing and emerging leaders who want to structure their churches to best address the changes in culture.  Eddie Gibbs, an Anglican Boomer who has studyied, written and engaged extensively in the Buster and Mosaic generations, offers what he considers to be the necessary changes in leadership within the church.  And I must say, it's brilliant stuff.

To summarize, Gibbs suggests that many of our churches have inherited rigid, bureaucratic structures that inhibit change.  Think "committees" and "bylaws" and "Robert's Rules of Order."  Gibbs says that leadership needs to be flexible so that it can continually pursue its mission.  Leadership needs to be fractal and reproducible, not linear and bounded.  In other words, churches must function with the interconnectivity of a body, with each part serving the rest.  This involves a bottom-up or a peer approach to leadership that equips every member of a church to own ministry.  This is a lateral network of collaboration between multiple "segments" of a church.  No more hierarchical bureaucracies.  No more CEO mentalities.  No more degenerative churches.  It's time to regenerate over and over and over again. 

Maybe because this book is word for word supportive of my dissertation project I think it is to be brilliant.  In fact, LeadershipNext will become a central citation of my literature research.  But even if you aren't writing some crazy thesis about the correlation of adaptive leadership and generational transference of ministry, you'll still be deeply impacted and challenged by this book.

Gibbs, Eddie.  LeadershipNext: Changing Leaders in a Changing Culture. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005. 237 pages.

The American Church In Crisis ~ by David T. Olson

The American Church in Crisis, by David T. Olson, is a sobering study of church attendance statistics over the last 50 years, with particular emphasis on the trends from 2000 to 2005.  This extremely thorough survey of over 200,000 churches presents a myriad of useful graphs and figures which shed light on the complacent commitment of typical American church goer from several different denominations from every county in the United States.  It doesn't take long for the truth to sink in that while the American population has increased significantly, the church has not kept pace.  In fact, the church has barely grown... and in many places, even shrunk significantly.

Most interesting to me in this study were the statistics related to the patterns of church attendance   according to the average age of the attendees and the average age of the churches themselves.  For instance, Olson confirmed that a church that has a continual increases in the median age of a congregant, statistically speaking, is a church that eventually dies.  Another trend is that once churches reach 40 years of age, on average they enter a period of long and sustained decline in attendance.  Church plants that make it to ten years of age (sadly, many don't) show the same trends. 

Olson cites many reasons for these trends and offers some admonitions to stem the decline.  He  even effectively compares the downward percentages of the American church to the downward presence of the Dodo bird.  A shrinking church, where deaths outnumber births and where congregations fail to adapt to new neighbors and predators and shifting environments, is one that moves towards extinction.

For those who are interested in first hand statistics of the status of local church in America, The American Church in Crisis is a must have resource.

*Olson, David T. The American Church in Crisis: Groundbreaking Research Based on a National Database of Over 200,000 Churches. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008, 237 pages.

Leading In A Culture of Change ~ by Michael Fullan

Michael Fullan is a professor of policy studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.  That means he thinks and teaches a lot about way to bring about societal transformation through leadership process and structure.  Fullan's studies of culture and learning behaviors have led him to suggest that the day of hierarchical leadership is over.  What's needed in this rapidly evolving society is a new framework for leading within these complex changes.  The traditional model operates as a linear, independent, segregated machine while the emerging culture functions as a nonlinear, dynamic, symbiotic organism. 

Fullan's book, Leading In a Culture of Change, is a remarkably crisp presentation of his suggestions for transitioning traditional leadership models towards emerging structures based on moral imperatives, attentiveness to culture, and reciprocal relationships.  As investment in these foundations is made, then knowledge workers can be developed and coherence of direction and accomplishment can be achieved in this rapidly changing world.

Though this is a book meant for secular consumption, it has a tremendous relevance for the current state of leadership in North American churches.  Frankly, I believe any church leader should digest Leading In a Culture of Change.  This is a book that takes the vision-making process out of the hands of one autocratic pastor and into the hands of the laos, the people of God.  It values the "knowledge workers" of a church, those people who are living their lives where they are, rather than promoting the false idea that the pastor is the dispenser of knowledge.  Leading In a Culture of Change is an inspirational book grounded in the basic Christian principles of bottom-up leadership (At one point, Fullan even quotes GK Chesterton).

In the last day I have read this book twice.  Once from the front and once backwards.  I dog-eared every third page and scribbled all over it's pages with interactive notations.  It is so refreshing to find a "secular" resource that affirms what I've come to believe are more biblically appropriate models of leadership than many of the industrial, hierarchical structures of our society that our North American churches have passed on for generations.  If you care about the future of local churches and their ability to adapt to and address  the pressing complexities of cultural change, then get this book!

*Fullan, Michael.  Leading in a Culture of Change.  Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, 2001, 166 pages.

The Leaders We Need ~ by Michael MacCoby

The Leaders We Need: And What Makes Us Follow is an anthropological and psychoanalytical reflection on the essence of leadership in our changing culture.  Michael MacCoby, an Oxford school of business teacher, suggests that the autocratic and bureaucratic methods of leadership prevelant in North America over the last 300 years are no longer appropriate in today's age.  Leadership now must evidence interactivity and collaboration.  MacCoby cites human behavior studies, cultural trends, and organizational case studies through out his research.  And interestingly, though writing from a secular perspective, offers tremendous resource from biblical and theological concepts of leadership.

The reason for my review of this book regards how this book relates to church leadership, chapter four is flat-out relevant.  MacCoby paints a clear picture of the need for every leadership structure to adapt from the traditional hierarchy models towards one that reflects a more interactive social character.  Here's an example of one of MacCoby's useful tables:

FROM BUREAUCRATIC TO INTERACTIVE SOCIAL CHARACTER*

                                    Bureaucratic                      Interactive

Ideals                           - stability                            - continual improvement
                                    - hierarchy/autonomy           - networks/independence
                                    - organizational loyalty         - free agency
                                    - producing excellence         - creating value

Social Character           - inner-directed                    - interactive
                                     - paternal authority              - peer/sibling authority
                                     - precise, methodological     - experimental, innovative

Socioeconomic base     - market-controlling              - entrepreneurial
                                      - bureaucracies                   - internet
                                      - slow-changing technology  - new technology
                                       - national markets              - global markets
                                       - employment security        - employment insecurity
                                       - traditional family               - diverse family structures

The way that society functions has changed drastically in the last generation.  Most institutions that desire to thrive in the years ahead, like education centers and corporations, are trying to adapt to these changing social operative trends.  My guess, however, is that most churches have not changed much at all in terms of their functioning.  Secular books like The Leaders We Need present church leaders with an opportunity to learn how to recalibrate themselves to better pursue their compelling purpose for existence.

*MacCoby, Michael.  The Leaders We Need: And What Makes Us Follow. Harvard Business School Press: Boston, MA, 2007, 248 pages.

* Reproduced from MacCoby, p.65, Table 4-1.

Red Moon Rising ~ by Pete Craig & Dave Roberts

    Since most of us can’t sit down and have coffee with Pete Craig, Red Moon Rising is a very welcome book.  It tells the story of the 24-7 Prayer movement, which has captured the hearts of thousands of believers in hundreds of communities around the world.  What started as a desire to pray in Craig’s church community just a few years ago, has catalyzed worldwide.  Red Moon Rising is full of Craig self-deprecating honesty alongside his passionate conviction to see people praying together. 
    How Craig is at the core of this whole movement is still a surprise to him.  And from a logistical perspective, that astonishment is easy to understand.  The book is certainly not the most organized chronology of events I’ve ever read.  Often I found myself very lost in the when and the where and the who that Craig spoke about.  But from a spiritual perspective, Craig’s involvement in the explosion of 24-7 around the world makes absolute sense.  As the pages of this book are turned, it becomes increasingly evident that Craig is raw with love for God and people.  That love is on fire, but it is not burned up.  So from his first visionary prayers on the cliffs of Cape St. Vincent, Craig has been just trying to pursue God and people.  And because his passion has been contagious, there are now many many many people doing the same thing together.
    Red Moon Rising is half a personal story and half an annual report.  It covers Craig’s own journey in the discovery of God’s work in this prayer movement and it covers dozens of eye-witness accounts of this movement from around the world.  (A new friend of mine, Dan King, who is linked to this blog and a new successor of my youth position at Parksville Baptist happens to be one of those eye-witness accounts in this book.)
    Anyone who wants to be a part of 24-7 definitely needs to read this book.  And those who have no idea yet what 24-7 is all about, may find this a very curious read.  Hopefully, for each of us, it will spark us to pray more… and to pray more together… and to pray more that God will pour down his Spirit in these days in our cities.

Craig, Pete & Dave Roberts.  Red Moon Rising: How 24-7 Prayer is Awakening a Generation. Relevant Books: Orlando, FL, 2003, 255 pages.