{"id":29054,"date":"2022-10-12T19:43:26","date_gmt":"2022-10-13T02:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29054"},"modified":"2022-10-12T19:43:37","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T02:43:37","slug":"forged-in-resistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/forged-in-resistance\/","title":{"rendered":"Forged in Resistance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tod Bolsinger is a professor of Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary with a focus on congregational and leadership formation. Relying heavily on the teachings of Friedman and Heifetz, <em>Tempered Resilience<\/em> is a leadership book that primarily targets Christian leaders undergoing organizational change. He writes,<em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>They had become so focused on the aches and pains in the system that they had been thrown off course by the complaints. They had stopped supplying vision, or had burned out fighting the resistance; they had ceased to be the strength in the system. In short, they had forgotten to lead.<\/em> (italics authors)<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>According to Bolsinger, leadership is about adapting to change in the face of resistance. Using the analogy of tempered steel, Bolsinger believes leaders are forged through a process. This process involves:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Working: <\/strong>Leaders are formed in leading.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Heating: <\/strong>Strength is forged in self-rejection.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Holding: <\/strong>Vulnerable leadership requires relational security.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Hammering: <\/strong>Stress makes a leader.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Hewing: <\/strong>Resilience takes practice.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tempering: <\/strong>Resilience comes through a rhythm of leading and not leading.<a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I found the following principles to be particularly helpful in thinking about leadership in any capacity:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Leadership is about diagnosing the problem. <\/strong>Leaning heavily on Heifetz and Linksy, Bolsinger asks,<strong> \u201c<\/strong><em>Is this problem something that an expert can solve or not? <\/em>Is this something that requires us to apply a solution that already exists, or does it fall outside of our current knowledge and expertise and therefore will require learning (and usually result in loss)?\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn3\" name=\"_ftnref3\">[3]<\/a> A leader must be able to assess the problem before envisioning a solution.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>We need leaders who demonstrate vulnerability.<\/strong> In part, this means leaders who know their limits. If something is beyond the expertise of a leader, good leadership requires a vulnerability to know when their leadership will not provide the needed solutions. Just the same, vulnerability requires risk and leaders willing to step into the gap, provide direction, and lead the people to a solution.<a href=\"#_ftn4\" name=\"_ftnref4\">[4]<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Leadership is not meant to be done in isolation. It is best conducted as a communal affair. <\/strong>Bolsinger sites Stack\u2019s commentary on Moses, who states,<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p>Leaders need three kinds of support: (1) allies who will fight alongside them, (2) troops or teams to whom they can delegate, and (3) a soulmate or soulmates to whom they can confide their doubts and fears, who will listen without an agenda other than being a supportive presence, and who will give them the courage, confidence, and sheer resilience to carry on.<a href=\"#_ftn5\" name=\"_ftnref5\">[5]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A key practice of leadership is the art of Change is inevitable, but the solution is not necessarily casting a new vision \u201cbut<\/strong> <em>reframing<\/em> an original or enduring vision of the organization that allows everyone to see a new, compelling future for their beloved organization that is worth sacrifice and commitment.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn6\" name=\"_ftnref6\">[6]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Leadership is not a one-time accomplishment. Rather, it is a life-long rhythm of leading. <\/strong>Bolsinger writes, \u201cTempering again, is not a one-time plunge into a cold pool or a once-a-year vacation or retreat. It is a regular, repetitive process.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn7\" name=\"_ftnref7\">[7]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Leaders need to learn to submit. <\/strong>As Christian leaders, we first must learn to submit to God. Not only so, but also learning to submit to one another helps maintain a necessary humility essential to effective leadership. A pastor friend once asked me, \u201cEric, for the past number of years, you have been predominately in places of leadership. <em>Where in your life are you learning to submit?<\/em>\u201d An excellent question that will remain with me throughout my leadership development.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On the heels of our Advance in Cape town, I cannot help but contemplate the demonstrated practices of learning, listening, looking, and lamenting by leaders such as Mandela, Tutu, Dr. Zondi, and many others we encountered. I am challenged to consider how I can continue to learn, remain curious, and deepen my understanding of the world around me. Rather than be quick to speak or offer an opinion, I see how I can grow in the art of listening \u2013 ask more questions and hear what is being said between the lines. May I have the eyes to see how God is at work in our community and world. Even when all seems lost, to not bow to the resistance, but continue to believe in a sovereign God who is actively at work to establish His kingdom. And finally, as I allow myself to hear and see the hardships endured, to lament. To feel the pain and suffering of those around me while knowing and believing that in the pathway of lament is an abundance of hope and joy in Him.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> Tod E. Bolsinger, <em>Tempered Resilience: How Leaders Are Formed in the Crucible of Change<\/em> (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2020), 1.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\">[2]<\/a> Ibid., 6.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref3\" name=\"_ftn3\">[3]<\/a> Ibid., 18.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref4\" name=\"_ftn4\">[4]<\/a> Ibid., 83.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref5\" name=\"_ftn5\">[5]<\/a> Ibid., 110.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref6\" name=\"_ftn6\">[6]<\/a> Ibid., 174.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref7\" name=\"_ftn7\">[7]<\/a> Ibid., 196.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tod Bolsinger is a professor of Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary with a focus on congregational and leadership formation. Relying heavily on the teachings of Friedman and Heifetz, Tempered Resilience is a leadership book that primarily targets Christian leaders undergoing organizational change. He writes,\u00a0 They had become so focused on the aches and pains in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"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":[2386,2387],"class_list":["post-29054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bolsinger","tag-tempered-resistance","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29054","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\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29054"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29055,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29054\/revisions\/29055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}