Be Surrendered: Finding the Maturity to Lead (Be Discipled)

“It goes against everything I believe, but I just can’t keep this baby, Al.” Jen said after a long, deep sigh. Al knew that Jen Wolansky was facing insurmountable problems—everything in her family was falling apart and it was up to Jen alone to hold things together. An unexpected pregnancy was the last thing she needed. How could Pastor Al help Jen lead her family in a different direction? Did Al, or Jen, have the maturity for this?

Be Surrendered follows our first book, Be Different: Finding the Resilience to Lead. This second book traces the same characters, Pastor Al and the Wolansky family, as they try to put their lives back together in the wake of terrible events. This is a book for leaders about leadership—specifically, how we can lead like Jesus in troubled times. Every leader encounters enormous suffering in this life, and if we attempt to lead like Jesus the suffering only seems to increase. How do any of us find the maturity to lead, especially to lead like Jesus?

We argue that finding the maturity to lead like Jesus springs from surrendering ourselves to God in troubled times. Surrender is what takes us to the next level of differentiation, the topic of our first book. Surrender is what makes us mature. Surrender is what places us in the center of God’s will when we don’t have the wisdom or strength to understand His will. Surrender is how we access the grace God has for leaders. Surrender is what Jesus did when He was in the greatest trouble of His life, Who “kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Peter 2:23).

This is a book about how you, when you suffer as a leader, can “entrust [your] soul to a faithful Creator in doing what is right” (1 Peter 4:19) so that you, like Jesus, can rise again with joy-filled maturity.