There are lots of books about leadership, particularly leadership in churches. The book that won the Award of Merit (2nd place) in the category of Christianity & Culture in the Christianity Today Book Awards, goes much deeper than most. Mark Sayers, in Facing Leviathan: Leadership, Influence, and Creating in a Cultural Storm
, shows how leaders–that is to say, pastors–are often caught up in battling their own inner chaos.
In his discussion, he also shows why so many leaders (pastors) adopt an anti-establishment, neo-bohemian mindset in insisting on changing the institution they are trying to lead. But the book is not a critique, as such, but a very personal treatment of its author’s own experience as a pastor, one that will be of great help to other pastors and leaders, burnt-out or otherwise, trying to do their best for the people following them.
After the jump, see the mini-review I wrote about the book as one of the Christianity Today judges.2. Mark Sayers, Facing Leviathan: Leadership, Influence, and Creating in a Cultural Storm (Moody).
Most books about leadership—particularly, leadership in churches—draw on pop psychology, inspirational stories, and exemplary models. This book goes far deeper, delving into ancient legends, cultural analysis, and Biblical exegesis to disclose the personal struggles that leaders are heir to.
The author, Mark Sayers, known as an innovative pastor in Australia, tells about his own travails as a leader and about the renewal of his ministry. As he does so, he talks about the mythic hero who defeats Leviathan, the monster of chaos, while still struggling with the chaos within himself.
Sayers questions both the model of the “mechanical leader,” who thinks success comes from simply applying a quasi-scientific technique, and the “organic leader,” who tries to apply personal charisma and creative departures from convention. Sayers unpacks both mindsets through a study of modernity, both in its Enlightenment scientism and in counter-Enlightenment of Romanticism, evident especially in the anti-middle-class bohemianism of turn-of-the-century France.
Against those leadership mentalities, Sayers proposes a Biblical kind of leadership through a study of the Book of Jonah, concluding with a leadership based on that of Jesus Christ, who sacrificed Himself for those He loves.
This book will be a lifeline for burnt-out pastors, frustrated church planters, and leaders who are struggling with their followers and with themselves.
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