Called by God to Serve


Book Description

Lutheran Voices provides quality, accessible books by Lutheran authors that inform, teach, inspire, and renew. Grounded in Lutheran theology and practice, the books cover a wide range of subjects and themes of interest to members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the wider Christian community. Church councils and leadership groups will discover ten helpful devotional reflections and discussion starters for a three-year cycle, focusing on the task of serving from a biblical and theological perspective. Insights from family systems theory provide a framework for the reflections. Through discussion of theory and by encountering and responding to real-life situations, participants will ponder aspects of what they are called to do together.




Called to Serve Leader's Edition


Book Description

LEADER'S EDITIONA basic Bible survey course for Orthodox Christians.This is the Leader's Edition, for Bible Study leaders, Church school teachers, clergy and introduction to Scripture class teachers.




Christ-Centered Leadership at Work


Book Description

Jim DeVries, a successful entrepreneur, and Rick Sessoms, an acknowledged leadership educator, join together to challenge existing and potential leaders to impact our culture for Christ. By encouraging others to accept a call to serve in the workplace, they can serve as salt and light starting each Monday, affecting all areas of culture. Jim and Rick begin by showing how mistaken beliefs have devalued everyday work as a means of serving God. While telling the stories of their journey to become leaders, they provide living examples of how God developed them into successful leaders. They share their mistakes, the obstacles they faced, and the valley and mountaintop experiences God shepherded them through. All leading to a new understanding of God's view of success and significance. They give examples of building a healthy culture within an organization and common mistakes that a leader will make to damage it.Don't expect a book that teaches techniques to help you climb the ladder of success. Instead, it shows how you can develop as a genuine leader interested in helping your followers develop as new leaders. You will learn that others will gladly follow you not because you are perfect but because you strive to keep your beliefs, words, and actions in harmony. The book has four parts: God's call to work and leadership; One Leader's Journey; Creating a healthy culture; and Caution and encouragement. Three additional sections are: Learning to communicate responsibly, Learning from Jesus, the master communicator, and Learning effective lay leadership in the church. About the AuthorsJim DeVriesJim graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in mechanical engineering. He worked for Sarns Inc., now a part of Terumo Medical Corporation, Baxter Laboratories, and Medtronic Incorporated. Jim is an entrepreneur, inventor, and sculptor, who founded DLP, Inc. He received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1992, presented jointly by Ernst and Young, Inc. Magazine, and Merrill Lynch. A doctor of Letters from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary in 2005 and the University of Michigan, College of Engineering, Alumni Merit Award in 2012. Rick SessomsRick is the founder and CEO of Freedom to Lead International(R), a non-profit entity that uses story, images, and music to cultivate Christ-centered leaders. He has been a missionary, pastor, and educator and has coached leaders and provided consultation for ministry organizations throughout the Americas, Africa, Europe, North Asia, South Asia, and Oceania. Rick has an MDiv, a DMin, and a Ph.D. in organizational leadership. He formerly served as chair of the Lausanne Leadership Development Working Group. Rick and his wife, Tina, have two grown children.




The Serving Leader


Book Description

At a time of increasing concern about ethics at the top, The Serving Leader calls for leadership that is both more moral and more effective than the ruthless, bottom-line approach that has brought disgrace to once-mighty organizations. The book takes a practical "action approach" to servant leadership-a concept espoused by Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey and many others. In this second book in The Ken Blanchard series, the authors use a compelling story based on real people to make its five principles of servant leadership accessible to a wide audience. "An amazing new kind of book that will challenge and inspire." -Harvey Mackay, author of Swim with the Sharks without Being Eaten Alive




Selected to Serve, Updated Second Edition


Book Description

Updated 2022 EditionThis useful guide for church leaders covers all aspects of officer training: call, duties, ethics, the Presbyterian Constitution, and much more. Congregations will find this resource indispensable for the recruitment and training of effective church leaders. Earl S. Johnson, Jr. has revised this best-selling book to include the new standards from the new Form of Government in the Book of Order




Insights on Leadership


Book Description

From INSIGHTS ON LEADERSHIP . . . Robert K. Greenleaf from "The Servant as Leader" "The servant-leader is servant first. Becoming a servant-leader begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. . . . The best test is this: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?" Stephen R. Covey from "Servant-Leadership from the Inside Out" "You may be able to buy someone's hand and back, but you cannot buy their heart, mind, and spirit. And in the competitive reality of today's global marketplace, it will be only those organizations whose people not only willingly volunteer their tremendous creative talent, commitment, and loyalty, but whose organizations align their structures, systems, and management style to support the empowerment of their people that will survive and thrive as market leaders." Ken Blanchard from "Servant-Leadership Revisited" "With the traditional pyramid, the boss is always responsible and the staff are supposed to be responsive to the boss. When you turn the pyramid upside down, those roles get reversed. Your people become responsible and the job of management is to be responsive to their people. That creates a very different environment for implementation. If you work for your people, then what is the purpose of being a manager? To help them accomplish their goals. Your job is to help them win." INSIGHTS ON LEADERSHIP CONTRIBUTORS Stephen R. Covey * Larry C. Spears * Robert K. Greenleaf * Ken Blanchard * Elizabeth Jeffries * Joe Batten * Lawrence J. Lad and David Luechauer * Jack Lowe Jr. * Ann McGee-Cooper * Peter Block * Susana Barciela * John J. Gardiner * Richard P. Nielsen * Jill W. Graham * Bill Bottum with Dorothy Lenz * Robert E. Kelley * Judith A. Sturnick * Parker J. Palmer * Diane Cory * Diane Fassel * Thomas A. Bausch * Christine Wicker * James Conley and Fraya Wagner-Marsh * Joseph Jaworski * John P. Schuster * Ken Melrose * John S. Lore * James A. Autry * Irving R. Stubbs * James M. Kouzes * Jeffrey N. McCollum * Margaret J. Wheatley * Don M. Frick "It is one of the great ironies of our age that we created organizations to constrain our problematic human natures, and now the only thing that can save these organizations is a full appreciation of the expansive capacities of us humans." --Margaret J. Wheatley from "What Is Our Work?" Leadership without hierarchy? Organization in a whirlwind of change? Community and shared responsibility in a global village? Soul in a free-enterprise world? Robert Greenleaf's visionary theory of Servant-Leadership continues to engage many of the best minds in and out of business. Greenleaf's prescriptions for employee empowerment and organizational change continue to achieve nothing short of miraculous results in organizations worldwide. As one enthusiastic observer wrote in Fortune magazine, "Once the consensus is forged, watch out: With everybody on board, your so-called implementation proceeds 'wham-bam.'" In this sequel to the critically acclaimed Reflections on Leadership, many of today's most respected business thinkers share their insights into key aspects of Robert Greenleaf's revolutionary thinking. Over the course of 33 essays, a dream team consisting of such luminaries as Stephen Covey, Ken Blanchard, Peter Block, Margaret Wheatley, John Schuster, and James Autry explore how Greenleaf has influenced today's business leaders and discuss a range of leadership principles at the heart of his philosophy, including stewardship, the spirit of the workplace, and the concept of healing leadership. A source of inspiration and instruction, Insights on Leadership is required reading for senior executives, community leaders, and managers in for-profit and nonprofit organizations.




Built to Serve


Book Description

Most people wake up and drive to a job that they hate. Think about your five closest friends. Are they happy? Do they live their lives with purpose? Do you? We put on a fake front for what we want people to see and think about us, but the reality is most people aren’t happy. We’re lost. We settle. We aren’t happy with where we are. You can’t be happy if you don’t know your purpose. It’s not possible. You want more but you don’t even know where to start. You know there is more out there. You see others having success and you want it, too; there is nothing wrong with that. You just need help finding your purpose so you can find the success you see all around you. You can be productive, crush your goals, pretend that all the things that you’ve acquired actually mean something…but at the end of the day, if you don’t know your purpose, you’ll always feel like there’s something missing. You’ll know that you’re capable of more and that you’re not living the life you should be. You might be fooling the world, but you’re not fooling the person looking back at you in the mirror. You need to find your actual power source. Your purpose is your source of power. Once you find your purpose it’ll fuel you for life. You’ll do things that you never thought you were capable of. Achieving your purpose will force you to morph into a stronger version of yourself. You’ll have to push through fears, insecurities, and doubts that held you back. But somehow it’ll all feel possible and necessary because you’re purpose-driven now…and that’s the only thing you’ll ever need.




Start with Why


Book Description

The inspirational bestseller that ignited a movement and asked us to find our WHY Discover the book that is captivating millions on TikTok and that served as the basis for one of the most popular TED Talks of all time—with more than 56 million views and counting. Over a decade ago, Simon Sinek started a movement that inspired millions to demand purpose at work, to ask what was the WHY of their organization. Since then, millions have been touched by the power of his ideas, and these ideas remain as relevant and timely as ever. START WITH WHY asks (and answers) the questions: why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over? People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers had little in common, but they all started with WHY. They realized that people won't truly buy into a product, service, movement, or idea until they understand the WHY behind it. START WITH WHY shows that the leaders who have had the greatest influence in the world all think, act and communicate the same way—and it's the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY.




Lead Like Jesus


Book Description

Learn how to lead like Jesus, whether in the home, the church, the community, or the marketplace; moving not only from success to significance but taking a step beyond significance--surrender.




Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership


Book Description

Seven Pillars of Servant Leadership (Rev.) offers concrete, functional skills necessary to practice servant leadership—to lead by serving first.