{"id":29059,"date":"2022-10-12T20:58:58","date_gmt":"2022-10-13T03:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29059"},"modified":"2022-10-12T20:58:58","modified_gmt":"2022-10-13T03:58:58","slug":"beauty-out-of-ashes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/beauty-out-of-ashes\/","title":{"rendered":"Beauty out of Ashes"},"content":{"rendered":"

What time is it? Paul and others would argue that these are the last days<\/em>, characterized by great change as seen in the decline in Christian convictions and practice, globalization, commodification, pandemics, bias, hybrid work and education, technological innovations. One popular word used to describe these days is disruptive! Yet it is not all bleak. There is also this beautiful potential for widespread spiritual awakening. Against this background, leadership professor and award-winning author Tod Bolsinger lends his voice to the campaign for Christian leadership. Yet this is a leadership, Bolsinger argues, that must be tempered<\/em>. Drawing from the world of blacksmithing, Bolsinger describes tempering as a multi-layered process of<\/p>\n

heating, holding, hammering, cooling, and reheating that adds stress to raw iron until it becomes a glistening knife blade or chisel tip \u2026 [ultimately resulting in] something greater than the sum of its parts[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

This resembles the stuff leaders of the Reformation, civil-rights movement, anti-apartheid movement, and other important movements in history experienced. It is what the persecuted church and any worthwhile contemporary leader must experience in some shape or form to be all God desires of them. In view of the common mode of transport in many rural areas, Mandela would simply, yet profoundly, describe this process of tempering as a long<\/em> walk. This shows that there are no shortcuts. Instead, every leader is required to experience level after level of training in God\u2019s leadership formation program. Bolsinger\u2019s analogy of \u201cheating, holding, hammering\u201d suggests an element of transformation\/adulting through pain.<\/p>\n

Two days ago, I was alerted to the sudden departure of one of my staff members to another city. This is impactful at several levels, the most important being that it implies leaving behind his wife after eight years of marriage. As we work though getting the full story behind this development, it has been an emotionally challenging season of prayer, counselling, and reflecting on the circumstances that lead to this. I am also exploring what I might have done to prevent this from happening, and thinking about the need for an in-depth de-briefing with other staff members. As I critically examine the quality of discipleship I offered this individual, I keep wondering if this would not be one of those incidences that might be used by God in \u201cheating, holding, hammering\u201d my leadership as I seek tempered resilience.<\/p>\n

Bolsinger admits that \u201cleading change is difficult. It requires us to hew hope out of despair[2]<\/a>.\u201d Sometimes this hope seems out of reach, but history is filled with example after example of individuals who were defined by their hope. Abraham\u2019s hope against hope at a time when he and Sarah were beyond child-bearing age, and the positive results they ultimately experienced, give me hope that some good will come out of this challenging situation. Further, my recent visit to Robben Island and the reality that South Africa is now enjoying democracy, inspires great hope in me that God is able to intervene in this situation and any leadership challenge I may face going forward. Tough as the journey to tempered resilience may be, it is my hope that all of us as Christian leaders will gain beauty out of the ashes of the refiner\u2019s fire.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Bolsinger, Tod. Tempered Resilience: How Leaders are Formed in the Crucible of Change<\/em>. (Downers Grove, Illinois. Intervarsity Press, 2020), 5.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Bolsinger, Tempered Resilience, 209.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What time is it? Paul and others would argue that these are the last days, characterized by great change as seen in the decline in Christian convictions and practice, globalization, commodification, pandemics, bias, hybrid work and education, technological innovations. One popular word used to describe these days is disruptive! Yet it is not all bleak. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"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":[2386,2388],"class_list":["post-29059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bolsinger","tag-tempered-resilience","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29059","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\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29059"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29061,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29059\/revisions\/29061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}