By Tod Bolsinger
Canoeing The Mountains is graduate-level leadership instruction sandwiched between the two covers of this timely book. Kudos to Tod Bolsinger for clarity of purpose and instruction:
Bolsinger's purpose in writing:
1. To reframe this moment in Western Christendom as an opportunity for adventure, hope and discovery.
2. To recover the church's call to be a missional movement.
3. To discover that our capacity for leadership exceeds the uncharted territory around us.
To me, part of what makes this book stand out is how Tod Bolsinger communicates his message:
Using the story of Lewis and Clark's expedition and applying the best insights from organizational leadership and missional theology, we will learn together what it means for Christians to lead when the journey goes "off the map" (13)... Ultimately, this book is about the kind of leadership necessary for the local church to take the Christian mission into the uncharted territory of a post-Christendom world" (34-35).
Not only does Bolsinger spell out his purpose, he gives us his key lessons from the get-go.
Bolsinger's Five Vital Lessons:
1. Understanding uncharted territory: The world in front of you is nothing like the world behind you.
2. The on-the-map skill set: No one is going to follow you off the map unless they trust you on the map.
3. Leading off the map: In uncharted territory, adaption is everything.
4. Relationships and resistance: You can't go alone, but you haven't succeeded until you 've survived the sabotage.
5. Transformation: Everybody will be changed (especially the leader).
My recommendation:
While reading and growing is not about "what I enjoyed," I did enjoy reading Tod's book. I appreciated the way he utilized common-grace insights as easily as missional theologians. As we canoe the mountains with Bolsinger, he gleans lessons as easily from Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky ( Leadership On The Line ) and Edwin Friedman ( A Failure of Nerve ) as he does from Christopher Wright ( The Mission of God: Unlocking The Bible's Grand Narrative ) or Lesslie Newbigin ( Unfinished Agenda ). That was excellent. My copy is full of highlights and underlines, and also chock full of notes I saved at the back of the book.
My only disappointment had to do with what I perceived as a lack of clarity regarding the Christian leader's evangelistic call. Tod emphasized "kingdom," and "mission of God," he cited Newbigin and Ed Stetzer. All good! But I sensed a lack (or absence of) the necessity of the atoning work of Christ and our call to share it. On page 216, Bolsinger writes, "This also goes to the very center of the Christian faith:
Christianity is about the Creator God's mission to transform his world and all his creatures. That transformation is accomplished not through signs of power, shows of force or unavoidable miracles that force us to our knees, but through the transformed lives of people who transform communities who transform their sphere of influence (Romans 12:2).
Well, not exactly!
Paul writes in reference to the gospel, "I delivered to you of first importance " (1 Corinthians 15:1-3) and Peter unapologetically (and lovingly) calls people to the only hope for this transformation -- repentance and faith in Jesus (Acts 4:12). Bolsinger writes of the leader's calling to further the mission of the kingdom, "to expand the proclamation and demonstration of the gospel" (219-220), but I felt he failed to define the essence of the gospel. I sensed the same, when on page 215, he asks his seminal question: "What can we do to keep our churches from dying?" In my opinion his three suggestions miss the mark because they omit Jesus.
Gospel transformation is Jesus transformation, which precedes and brings about community transformation which ultimately makes for communities who transform their spheres of influence. I felt that message was missing. That said, I learned and gleaned A LOT . I also appreciate the practicality (Study Guide included) and careful research and scholarship (check out his "Notes" -- thorough!!).
I have this work on my shelf and (thanks to Audible) on my phone! Canoeing The Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory is an essential leadership text for today!
Here are a few of my gleanings:
Worth pondering:
1. Post-Christianity: "If western societies have become post-Christian mission fields, how can traditional churches become then missionary churches?" Gunder, "The Missiological Context" (14, 251).
2. You've got to grow!: "Christians offering leadership in the marketplace, higher education, nonprofits or other sectors have to keep growing in our faith as much as we need to grow professionally. We can't lead a Christian business and organization to further the mission of Jesus (seven days a week!) unless the Christian servant-leaders become more like Jesus (every day) (21)!
3. Missional education: "Education for maintenance is not the same thing as education for mission" (31).
4. Leadership defined: Leadership is energizing a community of people toward their own transformation in order to accomplish a shared mission in the face of a changing world (42).
5. Transformational Leadership Model: click here to see it.
6. Culture trumps strategy: "After working on strategy for 20 years, I can say this: culture will trump strategy, every time. The best strategic idea means nothing in isolation. If the strategy conflicts with how a group of people already believer, behave or make decisions it will fail." From Nilofer Merchant, "Culture Trumps Strategy Every Time," Harvard Business Review, July 15, 2013.
7. Change: "You don't change by looking in the mirror; you change by encountering differences." Ronald A. Heifetz, "Leadership, Adaptability, Thriving," Faith & Leadership, November 18, 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSZId1VIYxc. "Leadership is disappointing your own people at a rate they can absorb" (Ronald Heifetz, 172). So "start with conviction, stay connected, stay calm and stay the course," then while your focused on "staying the course," expect that is "your own people" who are going to try to throw you off course. And the key to staying the course is wisely and calmly responding to sabotage. (173, c.f. 175).
8. Adaptability: "If there's one quality that matters most to the fate of the church in the twenty-first century, it's adaptability." Dave Gibbons, The Monkey And The Fish. Adaptive leadership is about "letting go, learning as we go, and keeping going." Heifetz, Leadership Without Easy Answers (22), And "When what you are doing isn't working, there are two things you cannot do: (1) Do what you have already done, (2) Do nothing" (Kirk Kirlin, 108).
9. Statements of conviction: A statement of eight words in this format: verb, target, outcome. We collaborate for biblical higher education.
10. Leadership: "But the real challenge of leadership is not tactical or strategic but emotional" (136).
11. Leadership presence: The leader's own presence is the most powerful tool for furthering the transformation process. Nowhere is that more evident than when the resistance in the system begins to create heat for the [leader]" (137, cf Jesus). ( Matthew 14:27
12. Leaders identify reality and frame opportunity (142-43).
13. Pure wisdom: "The colossal misunderstanding of our time is the assumption that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to change." Edwin Friedman, A Failure of Nerve
14. Courage: French citizens singing La Marseillaise (the French National anthem) in the movie Casablanca. Click here to see the clip.
