Annotated Bibliography Church

This book offers three sections, which paves the way for concrete information for the leaders in a church in framing a relevant knowledge for developing an essential church. The two strengths include the stories and interviews of young adults help to strengthen the argument for essential church. The nineteen topics which revealed factual information and the expectation of the church.

Countries disintegrate, place of worship and corporation fail, people become dysfunctional, descendants lose their direction, and mankind drift from God on behalf of one distracting reason; insufficiency of leadership. These disappointments are often for the reason that of the deficiency of instruction, appropriate leadership, and misperception on what Christian leadership subsists and exactly how that leadership is pertinent to every component of professional and personal life. From a Christian worldview perspective, Psalm 112:5 explains, “A good man deals graciously and lends; He will guide his affairs with discretion” (NKJ). A Christian manager should always keep in mind that bounteousness and admiration for God, demonstrates that one has placed trust in Him, and not our material possessions.

In these chapters Banks and Ledbetter draw attention to the raw spiritual, theological, and religious concepts of leadership. Here the authors conduct a case study of a significant author of leadership material, Stephen Covey. It is revealed that many readers are influenced by his Mormon faith without truly understanding or discerning the undertones.[3] This continues with an exploration of other perceived authorities on the topic of leadership. One such study is of Laura Beth Jones, an woman writer with increasing influence as it relates to leadership. Chapter five addresses how to translate practices of leadership into individual context through the use of three basic yet important values: faithfulness, integrity, and a servant-like attitude. Exploration of these three traits is undergirder with discussion of authors such as Robert Greenleaf. He is one of many leaders who brought into popular leadership thinking the idea of ‘servant leadership’.The book closes by offering examples in the form of case-studies. These studies provide deeper insight into the foundational qualities of successful leaders over the span of several years and many different context. This offers the reader a broader view of leadership by showing its success in many different forms and context.

Servant leadership is one of several models that have some basis in ethics, according to Northouse (2013), in this way servant leadership distinguishes itself from trait, path-goal or transformational models. The aim of this paper will be to examine on attribute of servant-leadership, describing how the principles might be applied, and the impact of such an approach, in a practical setting. The second part of this paper will evaluate servant leadership’s relationship with the Christian religion and ask whether the model is compatible with other belief systems.

Servant-leadership is widely researched and discussed from a secular and Christian worldview (Fischer, 2010; see also Blanchard & Hodges, 2005). A Christian is called to follow God in all he does but life experiences can be conflicting in dealing with the spiritual and secular context; however, Christ wants his followers to operate within the context of the secular world. True servant-leadership is to emulate how Jesus led those around him - with complete selflessness and by serving others. Moreover, it is challenging for humans to be servant-leaders as they often desire

Comprised of fourteen chapters, the authors are explicit in readers comprehending this as a guide rather than a fix-all in turning around their churches. One chapter or section will not facilitate a change, rather a sequence of habits and efforts. Comprised of a large volume of statistical data, the facts remain constant; declining or plateaued churches can rebound. However, it will require change, change from the pulpit to the pews. Beginning with “0” or foundation, there are six criteria that should exist in all biblical churches, and are prominently and frequently mentioned in Scripture [2]: (1) Scriptural authority; (2) Biblical leadership; (3) Preaching and teaching; (4) Ordinances; (5) Covenant community; and (6) Mission. Additionally, the foundation emphasizes the need of becoming a

The author has clearly demonstrated his objectives set out in the introduction, and has provided examples for leadership that are able to be implemented in all business applications and not merely the church only. This work is to be commended for anyone interested in not only what makes leaders great; but as well, how they arrived at the summit and are able to remain there. Two things are clear from a complete reading of this book:

Keller critiques a detailed a four stage model of how Christianity can cultivate the culture. They are relevance, transformations, counterculturalist, and two kingdoms. Keller insist that ion order to a center church, you must have an equal balance of all four stages. As he began to wrap up the book Keller writes about church planting. It is very interesting to read because Keller is a very successful church planter. He has assist with plants in many denominations locally in Manhattan and abroad. Keller states, “New church planting is the best way to increase the number of believers in a city, and one of the best ways to renew the whole body of Christ”

Many of these servant leaders had courage that resonated the true characteristics and virtues necessary to lead God’s children and many of these biblical leaders, chosen by God often met with adversities, which often gave birth to their faith and perseverance to align in God, are will and grace. Biblical servant leaders were visionaries who had extraordinary characteristics, and qualities necessary to lead God’s children, which included characteristics of humility, courage, enabling others, wisdom, inspiration, meekness. According to the author Michael Youssef “through the example of Jesus, we see how important it is for leaders to be visionaries-yet leaders must be careful not to walk too far ahead of their followers…but you must do what you can to share your vision with them for the days

It seems that many have the idea that leadership is all about authority and power. This is seen both inside the church and outside as well, at least that has been this writer’s personal experience. The statement reiterated by Sampson (2011) drove home a major point and that is that leadership is more than simply demanding, commanding, or directing individuals under one’s control or authority, it has to do with one’s ability to influence others even when no apparent authority is present.

Aubrey Malphurs takes the definition of leadership and turns it up another notch. Leaders just don’t have influence over the people they lead. They use their influence “to influence people in a particular context to pursue their God-given direction”.[1] In other words, it is the church leadership’s job to help the people they lead to see God and His work in their lives, to understand their purpose,

A sentiment common to almost any organization is that the one fact that remains constant is change. As society changes, and human understanding grows, any organization that maintains a static posture, assures its demise. Churches and Christian organizations are no exception. The gospel may remain the same, but the method for communicating it must speak to the audience to assure understanding. The Christian leader must be prepared to meet this challenge by incorporating an effective model for change into his theology of leadership in order to keep the ministry relevant and effective. Searching for such a change agent can prove to be challenging as well. To aid in this search, four

Good and virtuous leaders are exemplified throughout the bible, but what was required of these early church leaders and are the requisites applicable to modern leadership? As leaders continue to incorporate a biblical ethical component to their leadership practices, it is hoped that good ethical leader succession will be duplicated. This applied exegetical paper will utilize a socio-rhetorical criticism approach to convey what was expected of the early church leaders and how those expectations can relate to modern leaders. I will analyze Titus 1 a Pastoral Epistle written by Apostle Paul through the process of Social and Cultural Texture analysis. Then, the analysis will explore the virtue and ethical leadership ideas of the Apostle Paul. Lastly, this paper will highlight how the ethical concepts are applicable to modern leadership practices.

Effective leadership approaches from a biblical perspective consist of God’s nature in his manifested character. Christian leaders are willing to pay the price to lead in Christ’s affliction. Paul said there is a price to pay in order to lead and Jesus reminded us, “Remember what I told you: 'A servant is not greater than his master. ' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also” (John 15:20, New International Version). Christian leaders need core attributes of God’s styles and approaches, support and linkage from scriptures, and knowledge of his leadership models of truth for effective leadership. However, these perspectives will gave me a better appreciation and insight of who God is and who I can be with his guidance.

The New Testament leaders are an example of how church leaders of today should also behave and work[8]. They ought to be able to teach, guide the believers in the way of God and nurture their spiritual gifts. The New Testament leaders had to boldly defend the word of God in case of any false teaching. Basing on this New Testament leadership, it is important to make sure that any believer appointed to the leadership office has the laid down qualifications[9].