Gil Rendle > Quotes

“At times of disorientation people need to go back to identity, purpose, and context.”
― Gil Rendle, Quietly Courageous: Leading the Church in a Changing World

“Living systems can only count on a limited economy of resources in an environment that carries multiple demands for survival.”
― Gil Rendle, Holy Conversations: Strategic Planning as a Spiritual Practice for Congregations

“it is about a thoughtful and purposeful courage, it is also, as noted, necessarily a book about the assumptions and temptations that keep us from courageous leadership. One of the realities that I will explore is that in times of great turmoil, leaders are always asked to produce change—to make things different in their systems so that others will find a better future. But if asked for change, leaders will not be rewarded for the change produced, only for how well they keep things the same—following the known ways and the established rules so that they don’t make people uncomfortable. It is the difference between management and leadership, following the old adage that management asks the question of whether we are doing things right, while leadership asks the question of whether we are doing right things. Doing things right is comforting because it is a known and familiar path, even if it doesn’t lead to a viable future. Being asked if we are doing right things is, by contrast, deeply disturbing. Because now the people must stop to figure out, again, who they are, what their purpose is, and how they will live out that purpose in the context that has changed around them. It is, I suppose, as natural as it is disconcerting that we ask our leaders for change that will prepare our way into the future but then reward them for the comfort of continuing to do things in the old, known ways that make us feel secure but lock us into the limits of the present. It takes courage to make people purposefully uncomfortable.”
― Gil Rendle, Quietly Courageous: Leading the Church in a Changing World

“It is, however, challenging to note that we are now living in this current aftermath that is defined by micropowers and small communities but are still dependent on our memories of size and strength and still constrained by the polity, policies, and practices once effective in large institutions.”
― Gil Rendle, Quietly Courageous: Leading the Church in a Changing World

“highly effective people invest little energy on their existing problem situations. Instead, they focus attention and energy on their desired outcomes or on what they want instead of these problems . . . A key to high performance across all these research contexts has been the ability to develop, articulate and stay focused on a compelling outcome. To note the difference between problems and possibilities, Penna and Phillips invite the following exercise. Think of a moderately serious problem at work or in your home. Pose and answer these questions: Why do you have this problem? What caused it? Who is to blame for it? What obstacles are there to solving it? Now take the same situation and answer these questions: What do you want instead of the problem? (Be sure to go beyond merely eliminating the problem.) What would it be like if the problem were solved? What would you see, hear and feel? Imagine the problem is solved. What has been gained?”
― Gil Rendle, Doing the Math of Mission: Fruits, Faithfulness, and Metrics

“We do wish for easy answers, for silver bullets, for proven programs, for implementable solutions. When paradigms shift, when deep change is needed, our very assumptions, values and behaviors are questioned. The real challenge is to re-invent the very world we live in.”
― Gil Rendle, Doing the Math of Mission: Fruits, Faithfulness, and Metrics

“Allow planning and discernment to take the needed amount of time.”
― Gil Rendle, Holy Conversations: Strategic Planning as a Spiritual Practice for Congregations