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E-book
Author Lynch, Chloe, author.

Title Ecclesial leadership as friendship / Chloe Lynch
Published Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019
©2019

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Description 1 online resource (xvii, 258 pages)
Series Explorations in practical, pastoral and empirical theology
Explorations in practical, pastoral, and empirical theology.
Contents Cover; Half Title; Series Page; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Foreword; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Practical theology and acts of prophetic imagination; The movements of prophetic imagination; PART I Expressing the pain; 1 Leadership and the dominant consciousness; Leadership, leaders and managerialism; Managerialism and ecclesial leadership; Expressing the pain; 2 Seeking an alternative consciousness; The pain of a near-silence; Questioning the language of leadership; Whispers of incarnation; Incarnation and practice; PART II A deep remembering
3 Memories of servanthoodServant-leadership; Servanthood and ecclesial leadership; 4 Memories of incarnation; Tracing the inner logic of the incarnation; Apprehending the reality of God in the incarnation; 5 Memories of the church; The kenotic and ek-static community; The telos of the church and its ministry; The incarnational and evangelical Christian; PART III Coding the discourse; 6 Incarnational ecclesial leadership and the eschatological inbreaking; Incarnational ecclesial leadership: an alternative discourse; Coding the discourse of incarnational ecclesial leadership
7 'I have called you friends . . .'Friendship in the Facebook generation; Friendship in John 15:12-17; Thomas and friendship; Aelred and friendship; 8 Friendship: love's ideal; Particularity, preference and exclusivity; Mutuality, vulnerability and fidelity; Friendship reclaimed; PART IV Practising hope; 9 Incarnational ecclesial leadership and the prophetic imagination; Imagining incarnational ecclesial leadership as friendship; Friendship-leadership: imagining a concrete praxis; Imagining the next steps; 10 Prophetic hope in a groaning creation; Appendix: Imagination's starting points
Summary When it comes to talking about the activity of directing the church, the language of leadership and leaders is increasingly popular. Yet what is leadership - and how might theological narratives better resource the discourse and practice of leadership in ecclesial contexts? In identifying and critiquing managerialism as a dominant narrative of leadership in the Western church, this book calls for an alternative approach founded on the concept of friendship. Engaging with the wider field of leadership studies, the book establishes an understanding of leadership activity and brings it into conversation with an incarnational ecclesiology. The result is a prophetic reimagining of ecclesial leadership in terms of a relational, kenotic praxis. This praxis of mutuality and love is framed here in the rich language of Christian friendship. The book also wrestles deeply with the embodiment of such a praxis, making explicit the power behaviours typical of friendship-leadership and offering constructive guidance for practitioners in the task of implementation within a complex and fractured world. This book offers a new vision of the centrality of friendship to leadership of a healthy church community. As such, it will be of great use to scholars of practical theology, ecclesiology and leadership, as well as practitioners in church ministry
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Chloe Lynch is Lecturer in Practical Theology at London School of Theology, UK. She has also spent a decade leading a church in West London and worked for a number of years as a City solicitor
Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on April 23, 2019)
Subject Christian leadership.
Friendship.
Friends
RELIGION -- Christian Ministry -- Pastoral Resources.
RELIGION -- Leadership.
RELIGION -- Christianity -- Theology -- Ecclesiology.
Christian leadership
Friendship
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2019003437
ISBN 9780429019357
0429019351
9780429672941
0429672942
9780429669965
0429671458 electronic book
9780429671456
0429669968