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Leading Faithful Innovation
Following God into a Hopeful Future
- Dwight J. Zscheile, Michael Binder and Tessa Pinkstaff
- Fortress Press
- 2023, 162 Pages, Paperback
- ISBN: 9781506488776
What might God be up to amid the seismic changes the church and our culture are undergoing? What opportunities will congregations encounter if they rediscover and follow God’s leading? Leading Faithful Innovation offers a practical, hands-on approach to addressing this challenge, a process that culminates in the hope that comes from following the Spirit.
Dwight Zscheile, Michael Binder, and Tessa Pinkstaff build on Scripture, theology, and the latest leadership and change theories to guide church leaders on a journey toward grassroots, participatory spiritual growth. This faithful innovation begins with a three-step process: listening to God and to each other, acting so we can learn, and sharing our stories in community. Real-life stories and supportive spiritual practices make each step toward effective change accessible and actionable.
The book then examines how these steps change the culture of a church, establishing a new, biblically grounded way of being church. The authors present leadership practices that invite readers to redefine their leadership identity, accept the loss of their role as the primary driver of their congregation, and discover new hope and possibility. These topics are again fleshed out with real-life stories and undergirded by suggested practices. Throughout the book, the authors demonstrate that faithful innovation is not another program or an add-on to what readers are already doing. It is a path to a new normal. It is an ongoing way of following God that allows the Spirit of God to drive the energy among the people of the church.
“A timely book filled with helpful wisdom and insight that pushes beyond an overly simplistic programmatic approach toward a full embrace of our deeper call as the church to be a Spirit-led, outward-focused, relationship-based, community-building movement for a rapidly changed and still changing, post-pandemic world. It’s time for the church to learn how to let go and follow—rather than attempt to control and lead—God.”
–Mike Housholder, senior pastor, Lutheran Church of Hope, West Des Moines, Iowa
“Provocative and inspiring in equal measure, Leading Faithful Innovation will kindle your thinking about how God is inviting us to live as a church in new ways. Anyone and everyone who cares about being a more effective Christian disciple will cherish this book. And it is a remarkable textbook with lessons for leadership in any sector.”
–Linda Koch Lorimer, vice president for international and strategic initiatives, emerita, Yale University