Leaders Respond Rather than React.
Steinke enables readers to quickly get a 50,000-feet view of what happens when challenging events occur in churches. This perspective enables leaders to properly analyze the problem and have confidence and emotional strength to implement solutions.
For example, understanding that people are usually more interested in relieving their own anxiety rather than managing the crisis is a key factor in the strategy a leader uses in a crisis. By focusing on relieving anxiety, a leader can more quickly get to the heart of the issue and ignore the static (e.g. blaming, criticizing, taking offence, desire for instant solutions, avoiding responsibility) that anxiety causes.
The solution is for a leader to use calm, reflective, and principled action toward working through the problems. He responds rather than reacts. He changes the conflict from a win/lose situation to a learning situation so that both groups can focus on solving the problem rather than wining. The effects of this thoughtful approach will permeate the whole organization and offset the negative effects caused by those who are controlled by anxiety.
If you would like help in analyzing and solving conflicts in churches, this book is for you. It will give you the theoretical and practical help that you are looking for.
Related posts:
- Friday Book Review: Protégé: Developing Your Next Generation of Church Leaders by Steve Saccone, 5 stars
- Friday Book Review: City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era by Michael Gerson & Peter Wehner, 3 Stars
- Book Review: Why Churches Die by Mac Brunson and Ergun Caner, 2 Stars
- Book Review: A Failure of Nerve by Edwin H. Friedman, 5 Stars
