Overview

WILL WE BECOME A SCANDAL TO THOSE WHO LOOK TO US AS LEADERS, OR WILL WE CHOOSE TO IMITATE THE SCANDALOUS WAY OF CHRIST? The fall of high-profile leaders has sadly become an epidemic, and although books and podcasts have sought to uncover the problem, they often fail to identify the root cause. In The Scandal of Leadership, JR Woodward offers a deeper diagnosis, outlining a more comprehensive understanding of power abuses in the church and the critical role of imitation. Drawing from Scripture and the scholarship of Walter Wink, René Girard, and William Stringfellow, as well as from positive examples of leaders such as Óscar Romero, this book offers a robust theology of the Powers--of Satan, the demonic, and the principalities and powers explored in the Bible. By unmasking the Powers of domination, Woodward seeks to help missional leaders practice a self-emptying spirituality that reshapes their desires and forms them into Christlike servants who join God's mission in the world.

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9781955142243

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The Scandal of Leadership tackles one of the most urgent challenges facing the church today-the promulgation of domineering leadership-and rightly casts this problem as more than just a matter of individual leaders gone astray but rather of broken systems of formation and imitation. MATTHEW CROASMUN, associate research scholar, Yale Center for Faith & Culture; author, The Emergence of Sin: The Cosmic Tyrant in Romans With the help of Girard, Wink, and Stringfellow, JR makes an important contribution to imagining how we dwellers in institutions can live in them self-critically. Through his enriched understanding of the principalities and powers, he offers religious leaders, or those who would become such, a realistic and dynamic set of criteria to judge by which ""other"" they are being run and so learn to avoid dysfunctional and destructive patterns of church life. Highly recommended. JAMES ALISON, Catholic priest and theologian With careful theological work engaging key discursive writers on power, Woodward pulls the wool off our eyes and helps us see the ultimate personalities behind the oft lapses into building personality cults-the principalities and powers of Pauline theology, the spirits behind institutions, the ""structuring structures,"" to use psychospiritual language. REV. ESTHER ACOLATSE, PhD, professor, Pastoral Theology and World Christianity, Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary; author, Powers, Principalities, and the Spirit JR Woodward not only presents a necessary postmortem of this dysfunctional leadership, but he also shines a possible way forward that releases the church from cultural captivity. Through the possibility of positive imitation of previously unexplored models and examples, Woodward offers a hope beyond the scandal of leadership. SOONG-CHAN RAH, Robert Munger Professor of Evangelism, Fuller Theological Seminary; author, Prophetic Lament This book is a leadership-paradigm-shifter! The Scandal of Leadership brings together theology and multiple sciences to expose ""the Powers"" at war. DAN WHITE JR., author, Love Over Fear; cofounder, The Kineo Center, Puerto Rico This book is a sensation! Instead of allowing the raft of recent high-profile leadership scandals to be put down to a ""few bad apples,"" JR Woodward unmasks the subtle ways the Powers try to misdirect church leaders' affections and manipulate them to mimic their patterns of domination. The answer, he reveals, is nothing less than a fresh call to ""the kenotic journey""-the giving up of oneself to the cause of Christ. Every Christian leader should read this. MICHAEL FROST, Morling College, Sydney Finally! An academically robust and comprehensive missiological study into why so many pastors and church leaders have fallen to scandal. This is a deep analysis of how we've come to the place we're at and what role the powers have played and continue to play in our lives. DANIEL IM, lead pastor, Beulah Alliance Church; podcaster; author, You Are What You Do If unseen Powers are most powerful when we don't talk about them, then this book will seriously unsettle those Powers. In this timely and rigorous examination of why leadership so often corrupts good leaders, JR Woodward invites us to discern who we're imitating. Such a deep, spiritual investigation will disrupt the forces of domineering leadership and help us name our temptations, transforming us from the inside out and restoring integrity to individuals and systems and to our mission. MANDY SMITH, pastor; author, The Vulnerable Pastor and Unfettered

"The Scandal of Leadership tackles one of the most urgent challenges facing the church today-the promulgation of domineering leadership-and rightly casts this problem as more than just a matter of individual leaders gone astray but rather of broken systems of formation and imitation. MATTHEW CROASMUN, associate research scholar, Yale Center for Faith & Culture; author, The Emergence of Sin: The Cosmic Tyrant in Romans With the help of Girard, Wink, and Stringfellow, JR makes an important contribution to imagining how we dwellers in institutions can live in them self-critically. Through his enriched understanding of the principalities and powers, he offers religious leaders, or those who would become such, a realistic and dynamic set of criteria to judge by which ""other"" they are being run and so learn to avoid dysfunctional and destructive patterns of church life. Highly recommended. JAMES ALISON, Catholic priest and theologian With careful theological work engaging key discursive writers on power, Woodward pulls the wool off our eyes and helps us see the ultimate personalities behind the oft lapses into building personality cults-the principalities and powers of Pauline theology, the spirits behind institutions, the ""structuring structures,"" to use psychospiritual language. REV. ESTHER ACOLATSE, PhD, professor, Pastoral Theology and World Christianity, Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary; author, Powers, Principalities, and the Spirit JR Woodward not only presents a necessary postmortem of this dysfunctional leadership, but he also shines a possible way forward that releases the church from cultural captivity. Through the possibility of positive imitation of previously unexplored models and examples, Woodward offers a hope beyond the scandal of leadership. SOONG-CHAN RAH, Robert Munger Professor of Evangelism, Fuller Theological Seminary; author, Prophetic Lament This book is a leadership-paradigm-shifter! The Scandal of Leadership brings together theology and multiple sciences to expose ""the Powers"" at war. DAN WHITE JR., author, Love Over Fear; cofounder, The Kineo Center, Puerto Rico This book is a sensation! Instead of allowing the raft of recent high-profile leadership scandals to be put down to a ""few bad apples,"" JR Woodward unmasks the subtle ways the Powers try to misdirect church leaders' affections and manipulate them to mimic their patterns of domination. The answer, he reveals, is nothing less than a fresh call to ""the kenotic journey""-the giving up of oneself to the cause of Christ. Every Christian leader should read this. MICHAEL FROST, Morling College, Sydney Finally! An academically robust and comprehensive missiological study into why so many pastors and church leaders have fallen to scandal. This is a deep analysis of how we've come to the place we're at and what role the powers have played and continue to play in our lives. DANIEL IM, lead pastor, Beulah Alliance Church; podcaster; author, You Are What You Do If unseen Powers are most powerful when we don't talk about them, then this book will seriously unsettle those Powers. In this timely and rigorous examination of why leadership so often corrupts good leaders, JR Woodward invites us to discern who we're imitating. Such a deep, spiritual investigation will disrupt the forces of domineering leadership and help us name our temptations, transforming us from the inside out and restoring integrity to individuals and systems and to our mission. MANDY SMITH, pastor; author, The Vulnerable Pastor and Unfettered"

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