Take the Next Step: Leading Lasting Change in the Church (Discoveries : Insights for Church Leadership) - Softcover

Lovett H. Weems Jr.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0687020840 ISBN 13: 9780687020843

Publisher: Abingdon Press, 2003

Synopsis

Learn how to work for genuine and effective change in your church without trying to throw out everything that has gone before. Pastors and other congregational leaders are eager to institute meaningful and effective change in their congregations. They know that old attitudes and perspectives prevent the church from fulfilling its mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Yet too often church advocates insist that if genuine change is to occur in the church, then everything must change. The board must be wiped clean, and new technologies, new worship styles, and even new theologies must replace what has come before. The problem with such calls for radical change, says Lovett Weems, Jr., is that they are not true to the way that genuine and lasting change takes place. Like every other organization, churches rest on a cultural foundation of shared assumptions, values, and practices. The paradox of successful change is that this foundation is at the same time the source of resistance to change and what makes change possible. Lasting, transformational change grows out of the congregation's current sense of its story and its mission. Transformational leaders know how to build on the church's identity, making new ministries and emphases the natural extension of what has gone before. In other words they know how to make the story of change the next chapter in the book of the congregation's life, rather than throwing the book away and trying to start over. An astute student of management and leadership theory, Weems offers congregational leaders essential insights into how they can work with and through their churches' ministries to bring about authentic and faithful growth.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

This is the field manual of a man who knows what he's talking about.  Lovett Weems has a singular talent for masterfully translating academic research into everyday practical lessons.  I urge you to apply Take the Next Step to your leadership challenges.  This book will take you the distance. -- Jim Kouzes, co-author of The Leadership Challenge

Take the Next Step should be on every pastor's reading list.  Drawing upon the best of both business and church leadership learnings, Lovett Weems describes what leaders do, how they do it, and then he offers example after example of leadership in action.  This is a great book by one of the churches finest leaders! -- Adam Hamilton, Senior Pastor, The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, author of Leading Beyond the Walls and Unleashing the Word

About the Author:

Lovett H. Weems Jr. is distinguished professor of church leadership and director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership at WesleyTheological Seminary in Washington, D.C. He came to this position in 2003 after 18 years as president of Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri. A native of Mississippi, Dr. Weems is a graduate of Millsaps College; Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University; and Wesley Theological Seminary. The author of several books published by Abingdon Press, his most recent includes Bearing Fruit: Ministry with Real Results (with Tom Berlin) and a revised edition of his classic, Church Leadership: Vision, Team, Culture, and Integrity. He co-edits the online newsletter Leading Ideas, available free at ChurchLeadership.com.

About this edition

• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0687020840
• ISBN 13: 9780687020843
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 168