Good pastoral leadership is not a "by the numbers" proposition. It is a matter of heart and soul, of devoting the whole self to the vision God gives for the congregation in which one serves. Yet neither is it purely intuitive; it requires hard, careful thinking about the directions and details of the path down which God calls. When Adam Hamilton became pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, its membership consisted of himself and his family. Ten years later the church averages between five and six thousand worshipers per weekend. Throughout this remarkable period, Hamilton learned many serious lessons about both the broad visions and the specific details of pastoral leadership. Bringing a depth of analytical skills often lacking in visionary leaders, in this book he goes beyond simply telling the story of Church of the Resurrection. He shares the questions that he learned to ask about the largely unchurched population to which Church of the Resurrection has reached out. Further, he demonstrates what he learned by listening to the answers to these questions, and how doing so has made possible a number of strategically crucial decisions the church has made. One of those crucial decisions was to make more traditional forms of worship and praise the center of the congregation's life. The result is that the example of Church of the Resurrection offers pastors and church leaders (especially those in mainline denominations) the realization that they need not completely change their liturgical and theological identity in order to reach out to the unchurched. Drawing on his own experience, as well as the detailed research on the characteristics of highly successful congregations he undertook during a sabbatical leave, Hamilton offers pastors and other church leaders solid, substantive thinking on steps that congregations can take to become centers of vibrant outreach and mission.Also available in:Adobe Ebook 9780687026753Microsoft Ebook 9780687027491

"Beyond the walls is a battle cry that mobilizes . . . The walls that surround us, protect us, and embrace us can also inhibit movement, limit understanding, restrict engagement, and diminish our relevance in the wider world. I realized that my walls, and the walls of leaders everywhere, were not only the walls of current policy, practice, procedure, and assumption but also the walls of the past--safe, familiar, and secure. This recognition was just the first of several as we worked through a process to take ourselves and our organizations beyond the walls to new levels of performance and positive changes in the lives of people." --from the Introduction by Frances Hesselbein In Leading Beyond the Walls, twenty-nine great thinkers examine leaders adept at establishing partnerships, alliances, and networks both within and outside their organizations. They address the challenge of leading in an age when the old rules and conventional boundaries no longer exist. Peter F. Drucker, Stephen R. Covey, Peter M. Senge, Jim Collins, Noel Tichy, Regina E. Herzlinger, C.K. Prahalad, and Sally Helgesen are among those who explore new ways of building relationships, new approaches to strategy and marketing, new models of employee relations, and other innovations. Their essays herald a new world where success comes to those willing to move beyond the walls of tradition and inertia. To read the first chapter from this book, click here.

How clear are your windows? How biblical is your worldview? Discover Your Windows analyzes how you think about your involvement in the church. The way you see your world drives your behavior. In this dynamic book, Church Doctor Kent Hunter explores ten worldviews (windows) that greatly affect your life and your church. Based on research of over 18,000 church members, Hunter reveals that most tensions in churches are focused on symptoms rather than the issues that lie behind them--conflicting worldviews.

This guide shows readers how to transform a traditional organization into an evolutionary one with a framework and mindset that offer a new way of leading and approaching change. Now more than ever, society is demanding change, and organizations are being asked to shift into more conscious and agile business practices. Yet, most of what people believe about leadership, effective workplaces, and how to create lasting change is either incomplete or outright incorrect. And even if the desire to change is there, understanding of how to achieve it is elusive. This book holds the key. It introduces the Shift Evolutionary Leadership Framework (SELF), which helps leaders create the understanding and application needed to evolve high performance. At the core of the book are dozens of business patterns that cut across seven dimensions of organizational functioning. The traps of traditional organizations are contrasted with the high-performance practices of evolutionary organizations. Authors Michael Sahota and Audree Tata Sahota explain the steps of leading beyond change—evolving beyond servant leadership to make the inner shift needed to unlock the practical skills and techniques. Whether readers call this shift business agility, Teal Agility, evolutionary, or the future of work, it is possible to create high-performing organizations filled with energized people who are able to surf the waves of change.

In this searingly personal spiritual exploration, Wilkes treads a pilgrim's path that takes him behind the walls of a monastery and back into the everyday world as a changed man.

In Church Without Walls, prominent author Jim Petersen offers an exciting definition of the church that pushes beyond the too-small boundaries we've inherited from the past. This book explores why some church forms impede the gospel in today's postmodern world.

In the Society, everyone is happy.Drea Young has grown up living in the shadow of the wall. Not only does she know there's nothing left beyond it, but she also knows that it's there to protect the citizens of the United Society of the Reestablishment. That doesn't stop her from feeling trapped, though. Why? Everything in her world is perfect. There's no more struggle, no war or crime, no conflict.No choice.Drea has always thought she was alone in her blasphemous thoughts, but then she gets to know Jerrick Carter and realizes she couldn't be more wrong. Quiet and Brooding - and incredibly gorgeous - Jerrick helps her understand not just the world around her, but herself as well, and the more Drea learns about the Society, the more desperate she becomes to break free. But after a lifetime of being controlled, she isn't sure if she's strong enough to leave everything she knows and loves behind...

Refine your leadership effectiveness and expand your leadership legacy! Whether you’re an aspiring leader, or you consider yourself a veteran searching for a fresh perspective, leadership in an age of disruption, high expectations, and exploding demands is challenging. In addition to wise applications of power, this small, yet robust, book focuses on the duty leaders face to forge and strengthen bonds of trust and further the school improvement agenda. Designed to ignite your intellectual curiosity, the author coaches leaders on: · Honing the dispositions and interpersonal competencies necessary for leadership effectiveness · Strengthening self-regard and attitudes toward others · Developing a strong human rights orientation · Ensuring that equity and excellence go hand in hand · Defining what it takes to inspire and motivate others to act · Implementing an inside-out approach that empowers them to be agile and flexible leaders Well suited for any organizational setting, the ideas and action steps offered in Reaching the Heart of Leadership aim to re-ignite the passion and determination in individuals who continue to make a difference in the lives of those they serve.

Leading Organizational Learning brings together today’s top thinkers in organizational learning—including Jon Katzenbach, Margaret J. Wheatley, Dave Ulrich, Calhoun W. Wick, Beverly Kaye, and other thought and industry leaders. This handbook helps business, government, and nonprofit leaders understand how to master learning and knowledge sharing within their organizations. This one-of-a-kind volume is filled with chapters that directly address the most current ideas, concepts, and practices on the topic of organizational learning. Acclaimed authors, world-renowned thought, global, and industry leaders, managing directors, and presidents of leading organizations have contributed their original essays to this provocative collection. Leading Organizational Learning Offers ten guidelines to help key employees and knowledge workers do a better job of influencing upper management Demonstrates the best way to move ideas through an organization Outlines the principles that facilitate knowledge management Explains how people learn on the job Discusses how larger organizations can leverage their “bigness” Proposes a method of knowledge mapping to effectively organize and use knowledge in decisionmaking Outlines the knowledge and attributes integral to the success of today’s executives Discusses passing knowledge from person to person Explains how consultants can help organizations develop ideas Debunks the myths and explores the realities of knowledge management

The Routledge Handbook of Applied Communication Research provides a state-of-the-art review of communication scholarship that addresses real-world concerns, issues, and problems. This comprehensive examination of applied communication research, including its foundations, research methods employed, significant issues confronted, important contexts in which such research has been conducted, and overviews of some exemplary programs of applied communication research, shows how such research has and can make a difference in the world and in people’s lives. The sections and chapters in this Handbook: explain what constitutes applied communication scholarship, encompassing a wide range of approaches and clarifying relationships among theoretical perspectives, methodological procedures, and applied practices demonstrate the breadth and depth of applied communication scholarship review and synthesize literature about applied communication areas and topics in coherent, innovative, and pedagogically sound ways set agendas for future applied communication scholarship. Unique to this volume are chapters presenting exemplary programs of applied communication research that demonstrate the principles and practices of such scholarship, written by the scholars who conducted the programs. As an impressive benchmark in the ongoing growth and development of communication scholarship, editors Lawrence R. Frey and Kenneth N. Cissna provide an exceptional resource that will help new and experienced scholars alike to understand, appreciate, and conduct high-quality communication research that can positively affect people’s lives.