Leadership, God’s Agency, and Disruptions: Confronting Modernity’s Wager

by Mark Lau Branson, Alan J. Roxburgh

Leaders in congregations and Christian organizations wrestle with an unraveling of the world in which they have little experience and training. While they are offered unending resources by experts on leadership, some with claims to biblical blueprints, the challenges seem mismatched to those methods. Branson and Roxburgh frame the situation as one in which "modernity's wager"--the conviction that God is not necessary for life and wisdom and meaning--has defined the Western imagination. Because churches and leaders are colonized by this ethos, even when God is named and beliefs are claimed, approaches to leadership are blind to God's agency. Branson and Roxburgh approach this challenge as a work in practical theology, attending to our cultural context, narratives of God's disruptive initiatives in Scripture, and a reshaping of leadership theories with a priority on God's agency. With years of experience as teachers, consultants, and guides, they name practices which lead to more faithful participation. Leadership, God's Agency, and Disruption is wide-ranging in cultural and biblical scholarship, challenging in its engagement with numerous leadership studies, and practical with its focus toward the on-the-ground life of churches and organizations.

331 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 24, 2022

Reviews

[Dan Bouchelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This excellent work should not just be read to add to the mental compost of our mind, like most books, but should be studied with an eye toward developing a local plan of engagement for churches and Christian non-profits all though the western and western-shaped world. The authors synthesize the seminal works of such authors as Edwin Friedman, Tod Bolsinger, Lesslie Newbigin, Brian McLaren, and the Gospel and Culture Network authors, into a missiological primer for the next decade of the church’s engagement in the world. I will not only be reviewing this work repeatedly for planning my own ministry practice at MRN, but recommending it to other leaders I know in congregational ministry and Christian non-profit leadership and asking them to become part of a community of discernment for following God’s lead into the next phase of his mission in our world.