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Category: Books
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 Title: Leadership Next: changing leaders in a changing culture  | views:426 |  Review by John L Ng - Jan 08
Leadership Next: changing leaders in a changing culture
By Eddie Gibbs, InerVarsity Press 2005
In some ways, some materials in this monograph, published three years ago, by Eddie Gibbs, the professor of church growth at Fuller Theological Seminary, are already outdated if you take the author’s premise. We live not only in a changing world but in a rapidly changing one. As a seminary professor, I realize too well that what my students are learning today is for a world that will no longer exist tomorrow. How do you prepare pastors to lead churches that are not yet? Gibbs wants us to be like the elders of Issachar in I Chronicles 12.32. We need to understand the changing times and know what to do.
Today’s atmosphere of the church is shaped by seven trends (not all from Gibbs, a few are from me): 1 church attendance is in decline, especially among those who are under thirty who believe without belonging; 2 smaller churches, two in three in America, struggle with adequate ministry due to limited resources, human and financial; 3 while the western and northern hemisphere churches in the world are declining, churches in the southern hemisphere and Asia are growing. We can learn from them; 4 almost half of seminarians are women. This demographic has already changed the alignment of pastoral leadership; 5 after decades of silent exodus, middle-agers are returning to church with families seeking faith roots and meaningful community; 6 the consumer approach to church ministry in the past decades has produced a generation of irresponsible, non-committal members. The seeker friendly model is not working; 7 the church local is more diverse than ever in faith and practice, life style and experience, cultural values and social tastes. This diversity challenges the church to be more inclusive and forgiven.
These changing trends in church and culture demand a change in pastoral leadership. The traditional model of teaching and preaching is obsolete. The new model seeks to pastor others by networking relationships. Pastoral work is done, therefore, through the pastor’s character, charisma, competence. First, integrity and authenticity are foundational in pastoral leadership. Second, pastoral work can only be accomplished with a ministry team led and nurtured by a pastor who is dynamic and genuine. Third, competent leadership requires intentional management of goals, people and resources. To supplement these three C’s, Gibbs gives a top ten list of leadership qualities: long-suffering, passion, non-conformity, creativity, curiosity, hope, humility, inclusiveness, relational and forgiving.
Because the making of a leader is both nature and nurture, Gibbs also urges that every pastor-leader cultivates mentoring relationships. Since the high cost of leadership demands intense, intentional and sacrificial choices, seasoned mentors are needed to guide a pastor through the stages of his/her growth and development. |
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| Review submitted: 2009/2/27
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