Sometimes waiting is the best thing to do.
So why did I wait so long to write my editor’s column this month?
I waited because I want to highlight for our audience an important package of content related to one of our newest releases, Upside-Down Leadership: Rethinking Influence and Success (available in both print and ebook format).
In Upside-Down Leadership, New York City pastor Taylor Field shares insights into life and ministry gleaned from 25 years of working with the down-and-out and up-and-coming in Manhattan. With chapter titles like “Make No Plans,” “Get Off the Cutting Edge,” “Become a Nobody,” and “Embrace Shame,” you know his take is not the traditional approach to leadership books. He talks about unleadership and antiprinciples, and his bio refers not to a large congregation or speaking before huge crowds but rather to hanging out with underachievers.
To accompany the book, NewHopeDigital.com offers a free small-group study guide (written by Taylor’s wife, Susan) and 3 podcasts with Taylor (look under “Taylor.”) Why not read and study Upside-Down Leadership as a small group, book club, or discipleship class? Why not invite some spiritual seekers to explore with you?
Take a week or 10 weeks to go through the material. Go at your own pace, use the guide, study the Scripture verses presented in the book, listen to the podcasts as a group, and wrestle with concepts of leadership. You may find your thinking turned upside down, or maybe right side up.
I’ve been blessed by getting to know Taylor a little bit. His authenticity is obvious, his concern for others is clear, and he’s proven himself a thoughtful writer with a knack for picking powerful illustrations. Any Christian leader, minister, or servant would be wise to consider what he has to say.
Chapter 1 is available for free download here. Bonus: read “Beginning the Journey to Unleadership.”
Other content from New Hope Digital this month:
- The Story Lives On by Wanda S. Lee, national WMU executive director, releases this month. Look for podcasts and a study guide too.
- Dillon Burroughs writes on real hunger and real thirst in “Hunger Is No Game.”
- Updates from Mary R. Snyder during her Great Girlfriend Adventure, a tour of historic Route 66 (Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona)
Randy Bishop is the editor of NewHopeDigital.com.
He is also on a journey to unleadership. Jesus said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all” (Mark 9:35 NIV1984). This is not easy to apply, but we do have a perfect example from which to learn and a perfect helper at work inside us.
