Leading a Church to Maturity in Love: A Theological and Practical Guide to Church Leadership
Ebook
Churches are intended to be inclusive communities of love, yet the reality is often different, and leaders find themselves needing to resolve conflict and ease tensions within the community, as they are attempting to facilitate change. David Robert Tomlinson draws on systems thinking and conflict resolution techniques originating in the Anabaptist tradition as well as on his extensive experience in ordained ministry and offers practical guidance and a vision for constructive church leadership that can indeed facilitate churches that are rooted and grounded in love and can embrace change with confidence and resilience.
Tomlinson’s book is an excellent resource for those wishing to lead churches with emotional maturity. For those who have participated on Bridge Builders courses it is a refresher on how to deal with conflict in the church and on how to lead in an emotionally intelligent way. The book is full of insightful theological reflections. It has helpful practical suggestions on how to work with congregations and manage your own responses to the challenges of leading congregations. The book balances theory with practice. I would recommend this book to those training for ministry and for those leading churches.
This is an impressively wise and original book on church leadership. Its suggestions arise from the author’s many years’ experience of parish life. The examples he gives of situations in the life of the church left me nodding wryly in recognition – on one occasion, I actually wondered whether he had visited my church! This speaking out of experience lends weight to his recommendations. … I trusted this author from the opening pages, because his advice resonated so closely with my lived experience as a minister. I have learned so much from his distilled wisdom – not just about leading my church, but also about how I function as a leader, and why I react as I do in certain situations. I would recommend this book without hesitation to any minister or ministerial student.
Tomlinson is to be commended for his desire to see deepening discipleship and growing spiritual maturity. His book will repay careful and critical reading.
It is a rare book that I can commend without hesitation or caveat. David Tomlinson’s Leading a Church to Maturity in Love is one of them.
There are two reasons for this. The first is about David himself. I know him to be an outstanding Training Incumbent and Area Dean with wide experience of leading congregations and benefices in very different contexts. This means we are not told stories of quick-fixes or solo heroic leadership. Rather we benefit from the fruit of a highly experienced reflective practitioner who demonstrates his own vulnerability and learning. Many speak about theological reflection, David actually does it.
Secondly, David makes extensive use of insights from family systems theory. He both explains and applies family systems principles in a way that is immediately relevant to UK church leadership. As far as I know, this is the first book from a UK church leader to do this with such skill and clarity. There are other resources available from the United States but they all need ‘translating’ for UK leaders - now we have an immediately usable and understandable text that will enable many others to benefit from these insights.
Everyone with congregational leadership responsibility will benefit from reading, reflecting and applying David’s insights. And if anyone says they have not learned anything, then I suspect they haven’t read it properly!
Applying David’s wisdom for leadership will make a huge difference to the health and vitality of God’s church and his ministers in the years to come. I couldn’t be more grateful.
- Title: Leading a Church to Maturity in Love: A Theological and Practical Guide to Church Leadership
- Authors: David R. Tomlinson, Stephen Cottrell
- Publisher: Sacristy Press
- Print Publication Date: 2019
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781789590258, 9781789590234, 178959023X, 9781789590241, 1789590248, 1789590256
- Resource ID: LLS:9781789590258
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-12-26T08:04:32Z
David Robert Tomlinson is Area Dean of Saffron Walden and Team Rector of the Saffron Walden and Villages Team Ministry in North West Essex. During almost 25 years of ordained ministry he has gained significant experience and expertise in managing change and resolving conflict in church communities.
Stephen Cottrell is Bishop of Chelmsford.