{"id":22624,"date":"2019-04-09T19:17:02","date_gmt":"2019-04-10T02:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=22624"},"modified":"2019-04-09T19:17:02","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T02:17:02","slug":"a-great-book-to-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-great-book-to-read\/","title":{"rendered":"A great book to read!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first time I encountered Bren\u00e9Brown, a cartoon had been overlaid over her voice, and a moose, a bear and a fox were discussing the differences between sympathy and empathy.\u00a0You can watch it here, and you will be glad that you did: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw<\/a><\/p>\n

Bren\u00e9Brown is a New York Times bestselling author, known for her Ted Talks and her humorous, honest, research-backed approach to talking about courage, vulnerability, shame and empathy.\u00a0 In her newest book, Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.<\/em>, she is back doing what she does best.<\/p>\n

In the introduction, she says that the question that she uses with senior leaders in a variety of organizations and settings is this: \u201cWhat, if anything, about the way people are leading today needs to change in order for leaders to be successful in a complex, rapidly changing environment where we\u2019re faced with seemingly intractable challenges and an insatiable demand for innovation? There was one answer across the interviews: We need braver leaders and more courageous cultures.\u201d<\/a>[1]<\/strong><\/p>\n

This kind of question is exactly what I am interested in in my own research about changing cultural contexts in the suburban landscape of the United States where many churches are located.\u00a0 What, if anything, about the way people are leading today needs to change to address the realities of our time and place.<\/p>\n

My question is not just about how are communities changing and how do our churches match up or compare with that change.\u00a0 But the question is, as we notice this, as we learn about it, as we see cultural shifts happening around us, what are the courageous conversations that we (inside) the church need to have.\u00a0 What are the topics that have been too taboo to touch?\u00a0 What is the journey of self-knowledge that we need to take?\u00a0What are the hard truths that we need to face?<\/p>\n

A Washington Post reviewer writes, \u201cSome of her takeaways seem entirely at odds with our present moment. Truly daring leaders, she explains, are prepared to be vulnerable and listen without interrupting. They have empathy, connecting to emotions that underpin an experience, not just to the experience itself. They have self-awareness and self-love, because who we are is how we lead. It\u2019s easy to see how Brown\u2019s research easily translates to parenthood. And marriages. And government hearings.\u201d<\/a>[2]And I would add \u201cchurches\u201d.<\/p>\n

Vulnerability <\/em>is a key word for Bren\u00e9Brown in a lot of her writing and speaking.\u00a0 She writes, \u201cAdaptability to change, hard conversations, feedback, problem-solving, ethical decision making, recognition, resilience, and all of the other skills that underpin daring leadership are born of vulnerability.\u201d<\/a>[3]<\/p>\n

When thinking about what this would look like, these hard conversations and honest, vulnerable moments within a team, or between people, or at a church, Brown uses the term rumbling with vulnerability<\/em>.\u00a0 The \u201crumble\u201d is the tough topic or feedback or look in the mirror that isn\u2019t so easy.\u00a0 But she says, rather than enter into these rumbles between and among the community, with a sense of defensiveness or wearing armor, she counsels that we must be willing to rumble in a vulnerable way.<\/p>\n

That means listening more than we talk.\u00a0 Accepting that not everyone will agree with everything that is being said.\u00a0 Allowing divergent views to be aired.\u00a0 And modeling for people what it looks like to really lead within a complex and shifting environment.\u00a0 In a way, she is asking for the Christian virtue of mutuality (of love, trust, and sharing) to be on display.<\/p>\n

One of the principles that Brown emphasizes is power with<\/em>, which she says, \u201chas to do with finding common ground among different interests in order to build collective strength.\u201d<\/a>[4]\u00a0From my pastoral leadership perspective, this is the work that leaders do within congregations.\u00a0 Most pastoral leaders do not exercise power over<\/em>, as perhaps some ecclesial leaders do, nor are we simply to be driven by the lowest common denominator, or the desire to avoid conflict.\u00a0 To the contrary.\u00a0 With great love for the people in our care, we actively guide them into conversations that will be important for their own lives, and for the sake of the larger church.<\/p>\n

An example of this in my own context is a series of \u201ccourageous conversations\u201d that we held during Advent this past year, exploring issues around refugees, immigrants, and racial\/ethnic differences in our church and our community.\u00a0 Over the past few weeks of Lent, we held a supper and study program where we read and discussed the Letter from the Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.\u00a0 These were both ways into some hard conversations (especially about race), but they were set up to encourage listening and sharing, rather than debating or blaming.<\/p>\n

My encouragement in reading Dare to Lead<\/em>, is that as my congregation builds the muscles that allow us to have these kinds of talks, there is a lot more room to grow, and to push, and to lead, even into things that I would normally hold back from or keep us away from.\u00a0 The kind of daring leadership that Brown suggests in her book calls on leaders to be ready to take risks for the sake of the future health and growth of the church.\u00a0 Hers is the kind of reasonable, challenging, humorous, and loving book that helps me to grow as a leader, especially around topics that are difficult to take on.<\/p>\n

She writes that \u201cintegrity is choosing courage over comfort; it\u2019s choosing what\u2019s right over what\u2019s fun, fast, or easy; and it\u2019s practicing your values, not just professing them.\u201d<\/a>[5]\u00a0 This is one of my growing edges as a leader, and Bren\u00e9Brown has put her finger right on it.\u00a0 It was a great book to read!<\/p>\n

<\/a>[1]Bren\u00e9 Brown,\u00a0Dare to Lead: Brave work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts<\/em>\u00a0(New York: Random House, 2018), 6.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[2]Mary Beth Albright, review of\u00a0Dare to Lead: Brave work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts<\/em>,\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>, October 6, 2018, Books,\u00a0https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/entertainment\/books\/brene-brown-knows-what-makes-a-great-leader–and-most-politicians-wouldnt-make-the-cut\/2018\/10\/15\/876433ac-c7fa-11e8-b1ed-1d2d65b86d0c_story.html?utm_term=.6e32f3139ce5<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[3]Bren\u00e9 Brown,\u00a0Dare to Lead: Brave work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts<\/em>\u00a0(New York: Random House, 2018), 43.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[4]Bren\u00e9 Brown,\u00a0Dare to Lead: Brave work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts<\/em>\u00a0(New York: Random House, 2018), 97.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[5]Bren\u00e9 Brown,\u00a0Dare to Lead: Brave work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts<\/em>\u00a0(New York: Random House, 2018), 220.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first time I encountered Bren\u00e9Brown, a cartoon had been overlaid over her voice, and a moose, a bear and a fox were discussing the differences between sympathy and empathy.\u00a0You can watch it here, and you will be glad that you did: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw Bren\u00e9Brown is a New York Times bestselling author, known for her Ted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[241],"class_list":["post-22624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brene-brown","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22624"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22625,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22624\/revisions\/22625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}