Summer Reading

Books about Leadership

Is a ‘good’ Christian leader the same as a successful business leader or are there fundamental differences between the two?

These books explore what good Christian leadership looks like in theory and practice:

• Growing Leaders: Reflections on Leadership, Life and Jesus by James Lawrence
  A helpful introduction that examines the pressures Christian leaders face in the modern world, and how they can be raised up and developed.
• Leadership or Servanthood? Walking in the Steps of Jesus by Hwa Yung
  In a world of self-seeking, this book reminds us that Jesus showed that spiritual authority is connected with service and obedience.
• Servants and Fools: a Biblical Theology of Leadership by Arthur Boers
  A look at Christian leadership and how Jesus modelled a life of service and sacrifice.
• In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership by Henri Nouwen
  Drawing from his life in ministry, Nouwen explores the challenges of leadership and what scripture can teach us.
• Relational leadership: a Biblical Model for Influence and Service by Walter Wright
  Informed by leadership teaching, his own experience and insights from Jude, Philemon and Colossians, Wright shows how leadership is not an assigned role, but a way of living.

Books about Mission

Many of us would like to be better at living a missional life, but don’t know where to start. These books are a good place to start!

• The Drama of Scripture: Finding our Place in the Biblical Story by Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen
  A best-selling textbook on the Biblical narrative as a drama in 7 acts, and how it establishes a Christian worldview in which we are invited to play our part.
• Bible and Mission: Christian Mission in a Postmodern World by Richard Bauckham
  An examination of biblical mission, the uniqueness of Christianity, and being sensitive to postmodern concerns.
• A Time for Mission: The Challenge for Global Christianity by Samuel Escobar
  A book that sheds light on how the global church can cross geographical, cultural and social barriers.
• The Symphony of Mission by Michael Goheen and Jim Mullins
  An examination of how we can all play our different parts within a wider ‘symphony’ of mission – a book that helped shape Innovista Ireland’s ‘Find Your Place’.
• Abide and Go by Michael Gorman
  Drawing from John’s gospel, this shows how Christian disciples become more missional through Jesus and the work of the Spirit.
• Embracing Justice by Isabelle Hamley
  Exploring what spirituality shaped by biblical portrayals of justice would look like in the 21^st century.
• The Other Side of the Wall by Munther Isaac
  A reflection of faith, lament and hope from Palestinian Christians witnessing from behind ‘the wall’.
• The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative by Chris Wright
  An award-winning book on how holistic mission forms the basis for the whole Bible.
• Faithful Presence: Seven Disciplines that Shape the Church for Mission by David Fitch
  A call to rediscover historical sacramental disciplines, so that the church can be reimagined as the living embodiment of Christ, dwelling in and reflecting God’s faithful presence.