The Leadership Ellipse: Shaping How We Lead by Who We Are
Digital Verbum Edition
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Overview
Everyone in a position of responsibility knows the tension of leadership. It may be between tasks or people, money or mission, the present or the future. One often neglected tension is between our inner spiritual longings and the outward needs of the group we lead.
But we need not feel forced to choose between the two. Leadership has more in common with an ellipse with two focal points than a bull’s-eye with a single target. The Leadership Ellipse is designed to help Christian leaders embrace both halves of the tension--our internal relationship with God and our external relationship with others--to find a truly authentic, integrated way to lead.
If you find yourself in a lonely, isolated place of leadership, this book can be your companion. If you find yourself longing to lead in a way that is truly Christian, this book can be your guide. And if you are simply exhausted, then this book can offer you a new way to find refreshment. There is life beyond the bull’s-eye.
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- Studies the tension of leadership.
- Helps Christian leaders embrace both halves of the tension.
- Guides to find a truly authentic, integrated way to lead.
- Introduction
- Part One: Shaping Our Inner World
- 1 A Weaned Soul: The Practice of Sabbath
- 2 A Growing Strength: The Practice of Pruning
- 3 A Renewed Mind: The Practice of Humble Thought
- 4 A Dancing Heart: The Practice of Involvement
- Part Two: Shaping Our Outer World
- 5 In a Frenzied World: The Perspective of Prayer
- 6 In a Lonely World: The Promise of Belonging
- 7 In a Fragmented World: The Pursuit of Shalom
- Part Three: Shaping Our Leadership
- 8 As More Than a Grasshopper: The Practice of Wholeheartedness
- 9 As an Organizational Ecologist: The Practice of Attentiveness
- 10 As a Grateful Creature: The Practice of Clarity
- Epilogue
- Appendix: InterVarsity Press Purpose and Values Statement
- Questions for Contemplation and Action
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Recommended Reading
[Bob Fryling’s] message is two-pronged: you can’t be a Christian activist without being contemplative; you can’t be a Christian contemplative without being an activist. With winsome accuracy he has joined two ways of life that are often ‘put asunder.’ It strikes me as a remarkable achievement. This is not a book of advice on how to do it; it is more like a personal journal of a Christian leader who has spent his life being a competent leader and a thoughtful Christian.
—From the foreword by Eugene H. Peterson, translator of The Message
As there are learning disabilities, so there are leadership disabilities, and chief among them is the gap that Bob Fryling highlights: between the leader’s outer and inner worlds. I find The Leadership Ellipse to be both challenging (dealing with debilitating but often overlooked issues like self-pity and jealousy) and hopeful (chock full of delightful analogies and wise counsel). Read this book to inspire you to leadership which is neither fat with ideas nor thin in practice, but truly elliptical--shaped like Jesus!
—Leighton Ford, author of The Attentive Life
What makes this book especially valuable among writings on leadership is its richness of detail concerning the fine texture of the leader’s life and personality. The weight the leader must bear, in order to carry through with the calling upon his or her life, simply crushes the person who is not, throughout their being, solidly joined with what is good and with God’s grace upon all of it. So joined, in ways the author makes clear, there is joy and love, space and creativity, no matter what.
—Dallas Willard, author of The Divine Conspiracy
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