Leadership in Faith Formation
Explore the theory and practice of contemporary leadership approaches through 
articles, books, audio and video podcasts, and online resources

To access an article or website just click on the title or link. 

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Leadership Approaches

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Adaptive Leadership
Change Leadership
Leadership Challenge
Leading at a Higher Level
Servant Leadership
Spirituality & Leadership

1. Adaptive Leadership - Ronald Heifetz & Martin Linsky

The Adaptive Leader - Risky Business? - Susan DeGenring
This paper helps leaders understand several leadership paradoxes, and by applying the principles of Adaptive Leadership, leaders can minimize risk and heighten results in achieving positive, sustainable change.
(The Adaptive Leader, June 2005, www.interactionassociates.com)

Becoming an Adaptive Leader - Ronald Heifetz and Martin Linsky
This article from the Lifelong Faith Journal summarizes the key concepts and processes of adaptive leadership as developed by Heifetz and Linsky. 

Video: Leadership on the Line - Marty Linsky 
Leadership is dangerous because people resist change, says the co-founder of Cambridge Leadership Associates. But leaders who care about their purpose should face that resistance.
(FaithandLeadership.com)

Video: Leadership, Adaptability, Thriving - Ronald Heifetz
Ronald A. Heifetz, co-founder of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, is known worldwide for his seminal work on the practice and teaching of leadership. He delivered this address Oct. 14, 2008, at the Convocation & Pastors School at Duke Divinity School.
(FaithandLeadership.com)

Video: The Nature of Adaptive Leadership- Ronald Heifetz
Knowing the difference between adaptive and technical challenges is one of the key tasks of leadership, says Ronald A. Heifetz in an interview with Faith & Leadership.
(FaithandLeadership.com)

When Leadership Spells Danger - Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky
Focusing on education, the authors describe how leading meaningful change in education takes courage, commitment, and political savvy; and how to apply adaptive leadership to educational settings. 
(Educational Leadership, April 2004, Volume 61, Number 7)

2. Change Leadership

Becoming a Change Leader - Dan and Chip Heath
This article from the Lifelong Faith Journal summarizes the key concepts and processes of the 3-part change framework developed by Dan Heath and Chip Heath in Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard (Broadway Books, 2010). 

Making Change Happen and Making It Stick - Ashley Harshak, DeAnne Aguirre, and Anna Brow
Five factors make the greatest difference in fostering the new behaviors needed for a transformation. All of them reflect the basic importance of people in implementing and embedding change. (Strategy and Business, December 2010)

3. The Leadership Challenge - James Kouzes & Barry Posner

Leadership Challenge Overview - from The Leadership Challenge Book by James Kouzes and Barry Posner
In this excerpt from The Leadership Challenge Kouzes and Posner describe the five practices of exemplary leadership: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart.

The Leadership Challenge Approach - Summary

The Leadership Challenge - FAQs

Video: The Leadership Challenge: Overview - James Kouzes and Barry Posner
An introduction to the five leadership practices and ten leadership commitments developed through the research of James Kouzes and Barry Posner.

The Ten Truths of Leadership - James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
In The Truth about Leadership James Kouzes and Barry Posner share what they’ve learned from over 30 years of leadership research (over 1 million responses to their Leadership Practices Inventory), teaching, and writing. This article summarizes the 10 truths - the fundamental principles that inform and support the practices of leadership. “The truths we’ve written about are things you can count on. They are realities of leadership that will help you to think, decide, and act more effectively. They provide lessons that will sustain you in your personal and professional development. They are truths that address what is real about leadership.”
(From The Truth about Leadership: The No-Fads, Heart of the Matter Facts You Need to Know. Jossey-Bass, 2010) 

4. Leading at a Higher Level - Ken Blanchard & Associates

The following three resources present the key leadership concepts develop over 30 years of research and practice by Ken Blanchard and his associates and presented in the book, Leading at a High Level.

Leading at a Higher Level - Article
(Success from Home, Volume 3, Issue 7)

Leading at a Higher Level - Book Summary
(Soundview Executive Book Summaries)

Leading at a Higher Level - Introduction & Chapter 1
(www.kenblanchard.com)

Video: Leading at a Higher Level - Ken Blanchard 
Ken Blanchard presents the major themes of leadership from his book, Leading at Higher Level. (The Drucker Institute)

Lead Like Jesus - Ken Blanchard
This article explores what it means to lead like Jesus through two internal and two external domains. When the heart, head, hands, and habits are aligned, extraordinary levels of loyalty, trust and productivity will result. When they’re not, frustration, mistrust, and diminished long-term productivity are the result.
(Source: Church Management Report, April 2005)

5. Servant Leadership

The Key Practices of Servant-Leaders - Kent M. Keith 
(Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, www.www.greenleaf.org)

Practicing Servant Leadership - Larry Spears
(Leader to Leader, Fall 2004)

Strategic Servant Leadership: 5 Critical Elements in Effectively Modeling a Serving Attitude - Ronald F. Smedley
(Christian Management Report, April 2005)

The Understanding and Practice of Servant Leadership - Larry Spears
(www.regent.edu/acad/sls/publications/conference_proceedings/servant_leadership_roundtable/2005/pdf/ spears_practice.pdf)

6. Spirituality & Leadership - Ruth Haley Barton

A Leader's Lifeline in Ministry - Ruth Haley Barton
(TheTransformingCenter.org)

Raising Up Leaders and Managers to Lead Like Jesus - Edward A. Smith
This short article presents three biblical principles that are essential to leadership development. 
(Church Management Report, April 2005)

Spiritual Rhythms in the Life of the Leader - Ruth Haley Barton
(TheTransformingCenter.org)

Strengthening the Soul of Leadership - Ruth Haley Barton
(TheTransformingCenter.org)

The Transforming Leader - Ruth Haley Barton
(TheTransformingCenter.org)

7. Strengths-Based Leadership - Tom Rath and Barry Conchie (Gallup)

Strengths-Based Leadership Website
Nearly a decade ago, Gallup unveiled the results of a landmark 30-year research project that ignited a global conversation on the topic of strengths. More than 3 million people have since taken Gallup's StrengthsFinder Assessment. In recent years, while continuing to learn more about strengths, Gallup scientists examined decades of data on the topic of leadership. They studied more than one million work teams, conducted more than 20,000 in-depth interviews with leaders, and even interviewed more than 10,000 folloers around the world to ask exactly why they followed the most important leader in their life. The results were reported in the book, Strengths-Based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie. Based on their discoveries, the book identifies three keys to being a more effective leader: knowing your strengths and investing in others' strengths, getting people with the right strengths on your team, and understanding and meeting the four basic needs of those who look to you for leadership. 

Strengths-Based Leadership Synopsis 

Articles, Podcasts, & Websites

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Articles

Developing Leaders in a Postmodern World - Pat Springle
The postmodern culture certainly shapes the lives of young people, but it also has a profound impact on every person of every age in every church. To develop leaders in this culture, many next generation pastors have concluded that they have to lower the bar of entry into the process, select more carefully than ever, and connect deeply by mentoring to impart truth, skills, and character.
(Leadership Network)

Leading from Within - Parker Palmer
This article is Chapter 5 in Parker Palmer's book, Let Your Life Speak, and describes the inner work of leadership.  
(Center for Courage and Renewal)

Local Forces for Good - Leslie R. Crutchfield & Heather McLeod-Grant
The authors of the influential book Forces for Good examine how their framework of six practices for creating high-impact nonprofits applies to local and smaller organizations: 1) share leadership, 2) inspire evangelists, 3) nurture nonprofit networks, 4) advocate and serve, 5) make markets work, and 6) master the art of adaptation. 
(Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2012)

Working Wikily - Diana Scearce, Gabriel Kasper, & Heather McLeod Grant
Most nonprofits use social media like Facebook and Twitter as an ancillary part of what they do. A few organizations, however, are using these tools to fundamentally change the way they work and increase their social impact. Working wikily is characterized by greater openness, transparency, decentralized decision making, and collective action.(Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2010)

Working Wikily 2.0 - Diana Scearce, Gabriel Kasper, & Heather McLeod Grant
The new social networking tools are only the beginning. The deeper news is actually about the networks behind the tools, and how these networks are fundamentally changing the way we live and work. In other words, it’s not the wiki; it’s how wikis and other social media tools are engendering a new, networked mindset—a way of working wikily—that is characterized by principles of openness, transparency, decentralized decision-making, and distributed action. 
(www.workingwikily.net) 

Podcasts

Leadership and Change - Parker Palmer 
The work we help people do inwardly has consequences in the larger world. It's true for the teachers, physicians, and clergy who go back to their institutions not only with personally renewed hearts, but with new ways of being in the world which spread renewal to others.  It's also true for leaders, the best of whom are able to bring their own identity and integrity into their public work, those whose inner transformation flows out into a needy world. In this podcast, Parker Palmer speaks of the link between inner work and institutional and social transformation. (Center for Courage & Renewal)

Leadership from the Inside Out - Kevin Harney 
The author of Leadership from the Inside Out offers reflections on why so many gifted and passionate leaders end up on the sidelines of ministry rather than finishing well, how to avoid the pitfalls that face those who serve Christ and his church, and what steps leaders can take that will propel them forward into a more faithful and fruitful ministry.

Leadership the World Hungers For - L. Gregory Jones
You're invited to the most exciting adventure in the world, says Duke Divinity School Dean L. Gregory Jones in this 2008 lecture: Bearing transformative witness through effective and faithful Christian leadership.

Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership - Ruth Haley Barton
Ruth Haley Barton discusses her book, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership. Born out of her own experience with burn out and feeling far away from God even in the midst of a thriving leadership role, Barton looks at the life of Moses for wisdom in how to handle the pressures of leadership while weaving in spiritual practices to strengthen your own soul.

What's Christian about Christian Leadership Interviews
(Faith & Leadership, Duke Divinity School)

What's Christian about Christian Leadership? - Ronald Heifetz
Christians can help people of all faiths understand “the nature and practice of love,” says leadership expert Ronald A. Heifetz.

What’s Christian about Christian Leadership? - Brian Blount
Faith, humility and the ability to honor different perspectives are vital attributes of Christian leadership, says the Rev. Dr. Brian K. Blount.

What's Christian about Christian Leadership? - Robert Schnase
The life and ministry of Jesus is the source, tone, texture and telos of Christian leadership, says Bishop Robert Schnase.

What’s Christian about Christian Leadership? - Gene Robinson
Christian leaders empower those whom they lead, says Bishop V. Gene Robinson.

What's Christian about Christian Leadership? - Vashti McKenzie
The role model for leadership is Jesus, says Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie.

What's Christian about Christian Leadership? - Adam Hamilton
Before we’re leaders, we’re followers, the Rev. Adam Hamilton says in an interview with local television news anchor David Crabtree.

What's Christian about Christian Leadership? - Janice Huie
Christian leadership begins and ends in God, says Bishop Janice Riggle Huie.

Online Resources for Leaders

The Alban Institute: www.alban.org

Center for Courage and Renewal: www.couragerenewal.org

Faith & Leadership (Duke Divinity): http://faithandleadership.com

Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership: www.greenleaf.org

Injoy (John Maxwell): www.injoy.com

Leader to Leader Institute: www.pfdf.org

The Leadership Challenge (Kouzes & Posner): www.leadershipchallenge.com/WileyCDA

Leadership Network: http://leadnet.org

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Leadership Theory & Practice Books

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
John C. Maxwell (Thomas Nelson, 2007)

People frequently ask John Maxwell to define the essentials of leadership. "If you were to take everything you've learned about leadership over the years and boil it down into a short list," they ask, "what would it be?" This book is his answer to that often-asked question. One of the most important truths he has learned over the years is this: Leadership is leadership, no matter where you go or what you do. Times change. Technology marches forward. Cultures vary from place to place. But the true principles of leadership are constant - whether you're looking at the citizens of ancient Greece, the Hebrews in the Old Testament, the armies of the last two hundred years, the rulers of modern Europe, the pastors in local churches, or the businesspeople of today's global economy. Leadership principles stand the test of time. They are irrefutable. He reminds us to keep in mind four ideas: 1) the laws can be learned; 2) the laws can stand alone; 3) the laws carry consequences with them (apply the laws, and people will follow you. Violate or ignore them, and you will not be able to lead others); and 4) these laws are the foundation of leadership. Once you learn the principles, you have to practice them and apply them to your life.

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The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential
John C. Maxwell (Center Steet, 2011)

Through in-depth explanations and examples, John Maxwell describes each stage of the Five Levels of Leadership and shows how people can move to the next level to become more influential, respected, and successful leaders. The five levels include:
1. Position - People follow because they have to.
2. Permission - People follow because they want to.
3. Production - People follow because of what you have done for the organization.
4. Person Development - People follow because of what you have done for them personally.
5. Pinnacle - People follow because of who you are and what you represent.

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The End of Leadership
Barbara Kellerman (Harper Business, 2012)

From one of the pioneers in the field of leadership studies comes a provocative reassessment of how people lead in the digital age: in The End of Leadership, Barbara Kellerman reveals a new way of thinking about leadership—and followership—in the twenty-first century. Building off of the strengths and insights of her work as a scholar and a teacher, Kellerman critically reexamines our most strongly-held assumptions about the role of leadership in driving success. Revealing which of our beliefs have become dangerously out-of-date thanks to advances in social media culture, she also calls into question the value of the so-called “leadership industry” itself. Asking whether leadership can truly be taught, Kellerman forces us to think critically and expansively about how to thrive as leaders in a global information age. Kellerman asks: Given the precipitous decline of leaders in the estimation of their followers, are there alternatives to the existing models—ways of teaching leadership that take into account the vicissitudes of the twenty-first century?

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Everyone Leads: Building Leadership from the Community Up
Paul Schmitz (Jossey-Bass, 2012)

This new book envisions new leadership possibilities within all people and their communities. It also offers a set of practices that will help leaders be more effective at bringing diverse people and groups together to solve problems. While many leadership books today focus on how to lead organizations, this book is about how to lead communities. It outlines five leadership values that are essential today: diversity and inclusion; teamwork and collaboration; recognizing and mobilizing assets; continuous learning; and integrity. The book offers a path of hope for all those who want to build and engage the diverse leadership our communities need today. The book is organized around a new definition of leadership: It is an action everyone can take, not a position few hold; it is about taking personal and social responsibility to work with others on common goals; and it is the practice of values that engage diverse individuals and groups to work together effectively. Not everyone can lead in every context, but everyone does have the capacity to step up, take responsibility, and work with others to make progress on the issues they care about.

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Heart, Mind, and Strength: Theory and Practice for Congregational Leadership
Jeffrey D. Jones (Alban Books, 2008)

Leadership, observes Jeffrey Jones, is never about you. Leadership, Jones also insists, is always about you—Christ’s disciple, part of the system, an individual with your own anxieties and a personal life that shapes both your personhood and your relationships. Heart, Mind, and Strength is about dealing with the tension between these two realities. What we know is important. So is who we are—maybe even more so. Jones shares both theoretical and practical insights that will inform the “what” and influence the “who” of your leadership in transformative ways. Jones organizes the book around the daily practices of leadership, treating it as both a skill and an art. Heart, Mind, and Strength will enhance your practice of ministry by providing well-grounded theory related to the practical concerns you encounter in the daily work of balancing what you know with who you are.

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Just Lead! - A No Whining, No Complaining, No Nonsense Practical Guide for Women Leaders in the Church
Sherry Surratt & Jenni Catron (Jossey-Bass, 2013)

Just Lead! provides practical leadership help for women to develop skills to lead themselves and others with the character, confidence and authenticity of a godly woman. The book shows what holds women back and then focuses the skills women need to lead others effectively. Using this hands-on, practical resource will inspire women leaders in the church to use its ideas to gain strength and lead well. The book helps women successfully navigate the transitions necessary to lead well in church and ministry settings; offers women a practical guide for breaking the "stained-glass window" and becoming effective leaders; and addresses leadership issues such as leading mixed gender teams, earning and giving respect, and navigating through relational landmines. Just Lead! challenges women to embrace their identity as leaders and equips them with the skills they need to lead others well.

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Leadership Can Be Taught
Sharon Daloz Parks (Harvard Business Press, 2005)

If leaders are made, not born, what is the best way to teach the skills they need to be effective? Sharon Daloz Parks invites readers to step into the classroom of Harvard leadership virtuoso Ronald Heifetz and his colleagues to understand a dynamic type of leadership and experience a mode of learning called “case in point.” Case-in-point uses individuals’ own experiences—and the classroom environment itself-as a “crucible” for learning. She describes Heifetz's multidisciplinary approach to teaching leadership, which uses personal experience and seminar, simulation, presentation, discussion and dialogue, clinical-therapeutic practice, coaching, the laboratory, art, writing, and case study. Parks analyzes the underlying theory, overall concepts including presence and authority, and use in social groups and the workplace. She calls upon the stories and experiences of teachers and others who have applied the method. Leadership Can Be Taught reveals how we can learn, practice, and teach the art of leadership in more skilled, effective, and inspired forms.  

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The Leadership Challenge (5th Edition, 25th Anniversary)
James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner (Jossey-Bass, 2012)

For more than 25 years, The Leadership Challenge has been the most trusted source on becoming a better leader, selling more than 2 million copies in over 20 languages since its first publication. Based on Kouzes and Posner's extensive research, this all-new edition casts their enduring work in context for today's world, proving how leadership is a relationship that must be nurtured, and most importantly, that it can be learned. It features over 100 all-new case studies and examples, which show The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership in action around the world; focuses on the toughest organizational challenges leaders face today; and addresses changes in how people work and what people want from their work

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Leadership for Vital Congregations
Anthony B. Robinson (Pilgrim Press, 2006)

Leadership for Vital Congregations is an essential leadership tool for church leaders who wish to revitalize their leadership style and approach in order to become more effective leaders. It offers functional strategies to lead; information on developing as a spiritual leader; and ways in which the congregation can understand the importance of leadership. Chapters include: Leaders: Who Are They and What Do They Do?, Enriching our Frameworks and Languages of Leadership, Pastoral Leadership: Seven Strategies, Developing Spiritual Leaders, Roles and Responsibilities of a Congregation in Supporting Leadership, What Keeps You Going?, Leadership as a Spiritual Practice

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Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading 
Martin Linsky & Ronald A. Heifetz (Harvard Business Press, 2002)

For all its passion and promise, for all its excitement and rewards, leading is risky, dangerous work. Why? Because real leadership-the kind that surfaces conflict, challenges long-held beliefs, and demands new ways of doing things, causes pain. And when people feel threatened, they take aim at the person pushing for change. In Leadership on the Line Heifetz and Linsky show that it is possible to put ourselves on the line, respond effectively to the risks, and live to celebrate our efforts. With compelling examples the authors illustrate proven strategies for surviving and thriving amidst the dangers of leading. This is a first personal survival guide for individuals seeking to lead - whether you are supporting unpopular initiatives, promoting provocative new ideas, questioning the gap between values and behavior of your colleagues, or asking family and friends to face up to unpleasant realities. 

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Leadership without Easy Answers
Ronald A. Heifetz (Harvard Business Press, 1998)

Ronald Heifetz presents a theory of leadership applicable to both public and private leaders who are tackling complex contemporary problems. Central to the theory is the distinction between routine technical problems, which can be solved through expertise, and adaptive problems, such as crime, poverty, and educational reform, which require innovative approaches, including consideration of values. Heifetz addresses four major strategies of leadership: 1) to approach problems as adaptive challenges by diagnosing the situation in light of the values involved and avoiding authoritative solutions; 2) to regulate the level of stress caused by confronting issues; 3) to focus on relevant issues, and 4) to shift responsibility for problems from the leader to all the primary stakeholders. The theory is applied to an analysis of historical accounts of local, national, and international events. 

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The Practice of Adaptive Leadership
Ronald Heifetz, Martin Linksy, and Alexander Grashow (Harvard Business Press, 2009)

When change requires you to challenge people's familiar reality, it can be difficult, dangerous work. Whatever the context, whether in the private or the public sector, many will feel threatened as you push though major changes. But as a leader, you need to find a way to make it work. Ron Heifetz first defined this problem with his distinctive theory of Adaptive Leadership in Leadership Without Easy Answers. In a second book, Leadership on the Line, Heifetz and co-author Marty Linsky highlighted the individual and organizational dangers of leading through deep change in business, politics, and community life. Heifetz, Linsky, and co-author Alexander Grashow are taking the next step: The Practice of Adaptive Leadership is a hands-on, practical guide containing stories, tools, diagrams, cases, and worksheets to help you develop your skills as an adaptive leader, able to take people outside their comfort zones and assess and address the toughest challenges.

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Principled Ministry: A Guidebook for Catholic Church Leaders
Louglan Sofield and Carrroll Juliano (Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 2011)

More than a “how-to” leadership guide Principled Ministry offers real-life examples of principled ministers who are serving the Catholic Church and invites readers to incorporate these disciplines into their own leadership style. Expanding on The Collaborative Leader, their foundational work on collaborative ministry, the authors offer thirty principles for effective, spiritually healthy, mission-focused ministry. These disciplines include: 1) set boundaries; 2) facilitate, don’t dominate; 3) think developmentally; 4) be comfortable with conflict; and 5) avoid ambiguity. Arranged into five chapters, the principles are explored in light of the best servant-leadership theory and praxis and situated within a variety of contexts and ministerial settings. An ancillary workbook, available for free download, helps both the apprentice and well-seasoned leader immediately apply the lessons and incorporate the disciplines presented in this practical book. 

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Resilient MinistryWhat Pastors Told Us About Surviving and Thriving
Bob Burns , Tasha Chapman and Donald C. Guthrie 
(InterVarsity Press, 2013)

What does it take to have fruitful ministry over the long haul? The stresses of pastoring are well known and can be a match for even the best-prepared, most experienced in ministry--multiple tasks, long hours, taxing responsibilities and, yes, some challenging personalities. Too often the results can be burnout, being run out or just feeling worn out. To find out how pastors can thrive as well as survive, the authors undertook a five-year in-depth research project among working pastors. Here in this ground-breaking book is the distilled wisdom of dozens of pastors who have been on the front lines of ministry. We hear from them what works, what doesn't and what distinctive issues people in ministry face. The authors uncover five key themes that promote healthy, sustainable ministry that lasts: spiritual formation, self-care, emotional and cultural intelligence, marriage and family, leadership and management. These themes are unpacked from the vantage point of ministry on the ground. Questions for personal evaluation and reflection are included throughout the book to bring home the significance of each section.

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RENEW 52: 50+ Ideas to Revitalize Your Congregation from Leaders under 50
(Luther Seminary, free)

Renew 52: 50+ Ideas to Revitalize Your Congregation from Leaders under 50 is a free e-book, edited by David J. Lose, that features short essays from 54 Christian leaders in 15 different traditions. The authors are guided by the conviction that congregations are the primary place where the Spirit is at work for the renewal of the church. Pick one or read them all—and revitalize your congregation. The Spirit is moving in exciting ways. We are on the cusp of exciting, if unpredictable, renewal. In spite of the well-documented story of mainline decline, there is a lot of growth, a lot of potential, and a lot of hope in our congregations as well.
Download free from Luther Seminary.

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The Spirit-Led Leader: Nine Leadership Practices and Soul Principles
Timothy C. Geoffrion (Alban Books, 2005)

In our postmodern, experience-oriented culture, people are longing for greater authenticity, integrity, and depth in their pastors and leaders. Leaders often struggle with knowing how to integrate their spiritual values and practices into their leadership and management roles. Designed for Christian leaders, The Spirit-Led Leader addresses the critical fusion of spiritual life and leadership for those who not only want to see results but also desire to care just as deeply about who they are and how they lead as they do about what they produce and accomplish. Geoffrion creates a new vision for spiritual leadership as partly an art, partly a result of careful planning, and always a working of the grace of God.    

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Surface to Soul: Coaching Spiritual Vitality in Congregations
Jim LaDoux (Vibrant Faith Ministries, 2012)

Surface to Soul is as workbook for leaders who seek spiritual vitality for themselves and the congregations they serve. Written with pastors and lay leaders in mind, this workbook guides congregational leaders through a six-step CHANGE process for coaching spiritual vitality into all areas of home and congregational ministry: Connect, Highlight, Align, Navigate, Guide, Evaluate. Using the CHANGE process leaders will develop and plan SMART goals that focus on what matters most and moves ministry forward; and integrate best practices for enhancing their congregation's ability to communicate God's preferred future, exercise leadership, and execute and evaluate ministries. One of the workbook’s key features is a CHANGE Agent’s Toolkit, which gives leaders 30 tools they can use to help create a culture of vibrant faith within their congregations. The book provides a roadmap for creating a congregational culture that energizes people to live and love like Jesus.

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Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard
Chip Heath and Dan Heath (Broadway Books, 2010)

Switch asks the following question: Why is it so hard to make lasting changes in our companies, in our communities, and in our own lives? The primary obstacle, say the Heaths, is a conflict that's built into our brains. Psychologists have discovered that our minds are ruled by two different systems—the rational mind and the emotional mind—that compete for control. The rational mind wants a great beach body; the emotional mind wants that Oreo cookie. The rational mind wants to change something at work; the emotional mind loves the comfort of the existing routine. This tension can doom a change effort—but if it is overcome, change can come quickly. In Switch, the Heaths show how everyday people—employees and managers, parents and nurses—have united both minds and, as a result, achieved dramatic results. In a compelling, story-driven narrative, the Heaths bring together decades of counterintuitive research in psychology, sociology, and other fields to shed new light on how we can effect transformative change. Switch shows that successful changes follow a pattern, a pattern you can use to make the changes that matter to you, whether your interest is in changing the world or changing your waistline.    

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Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership
Ruth Haley Barton (IVP Books, 2008)

Do you find yourself busy ministering to others and helping them experience God, but never finding time to be with God yourself? The demands of ministry can make you think you have to choose between helping others to be formed spiritually or setting aside time for your own spiritual growth. With a never-ending list of people and decisions that need your attention, often your own soul suffers, growing parched and fatigued. Focusing on your spiritual formation is often the best choice you can make for yourself and for those you lead. In Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership, spiritual director Ruth Haley Barton reveals the urgency of making your own growth priority in order to serve and lead well in long-term ministry. But she doesn’t stop there. Knowing the demands of ministry, Barton helps you establish daily formational rhythms and soul-nurturing practices to ensure your soul gets the nourishment it needs. Here is an invitation that frees you to lead with wisdom and strength as you are led and formed by the Holy Spirit and equipped for even more powerful ministry.

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Transforming Leadership
Katherine Tyler Scott (Church Publishing, 2010)

The times in which we live demand the moral responsibility of accurately reading the realities of different and emerging context. Ministry and authority are no longer resident in just one individual. Clergy and laity share responsibility for leadership and ministry; all share responsibility for the wise and judicious use of their God-given authority. Power is not just perceived as the possession of a few; it is not the currency of many. According to Katherine Tyler Scott, it is this new view of leadership that will enable the church to grow in strength and stature.

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Transforming Leadership: A New Vision for a Church in Mission
Norma Cook Everist and Craig L. Nessan (Fortress Press, 2008)

Transforming Leadership sets forth the core values and leadership practices that can bring fundamental transformation to the life of the local church. Based on experience and research, Everist and Nessan explore three dimensions of transforming leadership: (1) how leaders are formed and transformed, (2) how transforming leadership can renew congregations and focus their ministry to do justice, and (3) how congregations can be transformed by empowering all members to use their gifts for ministry. Transforming leadership is deeply rooted in theological conviction, expressed in genuine love for the people one serves, and cultivated through wise practices. The book grapples with challenging congregational dynamics, promotes the ministry of all the baptized, and provides vision for the lasting renewal of the church in mission.

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The Truth about Leadership
James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner (Jossey-Bass, 2010)

In these turbulent times, when the very foundations of organizations and societies are shaken, leaders need to move beyond pessimistic predictions, trendy fads, and simplistic solutions. They need to turn to what's real and what's proven. In their new book, Kouzes and Posner reveal ten time-tested truths that show what every leader must know, the questions they must be prepared to answer, and the real-world issues they will likely face. Based on thirty years of research, more than one million responses to Kouzes and Posner's leadership assessment, and the questions people most want leaders to answer, the book explores the fundamental, enduring truths of leadership that hold constant regardless of context or circumstance - leaders make a difference, credibility, values, trust, leading by example, heart, and more; and shows emerging leaders what they need to know to be effective. Drawing from cases spanning three generations of leaders from around the world, this is a book leaders can use to bring about the essential changes that will renew organizations and communities.

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