{"id":37570,"date":"2024-04-17T10:15:55","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T17:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=37570"},"modified":"2024-04-17T10:32:31","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T17:32:31","slug":"welcome-to-the-wounded-healers-doctors-of-the-chruch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/welcome-to-the-wounded-healers-doctors-of-the-chruch\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the Wounded Healers’ Team! (Doctors of the Church)."},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the Wounded Healers, (Resilient) Leaders Club!<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Rethinking Leadership: a Critique of Contemporary Theories<\/em>, the author shares fantastic insights on Leadership: “I believe that Kurt Lewin was right, “there is nothing as practical as a good theory.”[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

For justice’s sake to this book, I will only share a few insights that I found transformational and touch on other leadership practices I have experienced.<\/p>\n

Leadership in Crisis <\/strong><\/p>\n

This book is about Leadership and the leaders we need now. It is a critique of the theories that have been tossed around over the past few decades and the superficial leadership-development programs that have not done a great job at shaping sharp leaders. Sharp leaders who are cognitively savvy and emotionally astute. Leaders who can lead in a crisis and deal with uncertainty. Leaders who understand the systemic nature of problems and who can work in collaboration with others.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. Beerel has written this book from experience, and the author also compares Leadership in crisis and Leadership in different times. In other words, her experience spans different times of leadership experience, exploring what has worked and what has not.<\/p>\n

Leadership requires humility<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2012, I accepted my community’s request to serve as the Commissioner of Government Relations. DC, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) Rwandan Diaspora Association. After a few years in this position, I was promoted to DMV Rwandan Diaspora President, overseeing all the association affairs. I was grateful to serve my community and country in the most minute position.<\/p>\n

Until the end of 2017, when I decided not to run again for another term but to remain serving in different ways,\u00a0 I had been involved in more leadership challenges than I had ever imagined. Serving in these voluntary positions was exhilarating and challenging at the same time. If I can sum up one lesson I learned while serving my community, Leadership is not for the weaklings. Any leadership, whether volunteering or serving as the most influential Fortune 500 CEO, is much more than a positional authority; it requires special abilities to be the center of attention, insults, scrutiny, and many more.<\/p>\n

Who will qualify the leaders?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Beerel asks several stimulating questions as she writes;<\/p>\n

One of those was, what do you think is the most significant inhibiting factor for leaders? Why is it so challenging to be effective?<\/p>\n

The simple answer is that Leadership takes understanding, and some assume that positions are all needed to lead. I recently heard someone say that it is only in Leadership, especially the highest political positions, that candidates are not required to have a certain level of education. They commnented that even High School graduation is not required before one aspires to contest for a high-ranking political position. I have not done any research regarding educational requirements for political aspirants. However, a certain level of education is required if someone will lead others. It may not be a specific kind of education, but at least a way to measure one’s abilities and readiness to help others move from one place to another.<\/p>\n

“Leaders make a difference. They move people to new places \u2013 physically, psychologically, emotionally, spiritually \u2013 that they could not have achieved alone. They provide inspiration, courage, conviction, hope, and comfort. They use their power and influence to get things done (Barling, 2014).”[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Conclusion <\/strong><\/p>\n

Since this is my very last blog here, themes that have inspired me to persue Leadership are evident to all who have heard, seen or connected with me in one way or another. Resilience and posttraumatic growth.<\/p>\n

Men and women who have inspired me seem to be those who were very much afflicted in their ministry and service to the community yet remained transformational through their pain. Viktor E. Frankl inspires, “Seek meaning in life’s challenges. Overcoming obstacles not only builds resilience but also deepens self-understanding and confidence.”[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Unless the Church accepts the true nature of Jesus as Servant Leaders walking in humility and accepting to walk and lead vulnerable, the world will remain in crisis. How can the wounded bounce back and lead their potential as God has intended. “Todd Bolsinger makes the case that this process of becoming a tempered resilient and resilient leader involves six steps: Working, heating, holding, hammering hewing, tempering.”[5]<\/a> While leading through pain requires hard work, knowing that you are not alone will make a difference. This will awareness will differentiate the Leadership of the word and those of us “Doctors of the Church”[6]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the doctors of the Church we are the wounded healers. Henri Nouwen emphasizes, “We cannot truly heal others until we have faced and healed our own wounds.”[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Annabel C. Beerel, Rethinking Leadership: A Critique of Contemporary Theories<\/em> (London New York: Routledge, 2021).<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Beerel.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Beerel.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Frankl, Viktor E, Man\u2019s Search For Meaning<\/em> (Ebury Digital: London, England, n.d.).<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe, \u201cResilience Made in Rwanda,\u201d December 7, 2022, https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/resilience-made-in-rwanda\/.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Dr. Tammy Dunahoo, DLd, \u201cCongratulations from the Dean!,\u201d April 11, 2024, https:\/\/mail.google.com\/mail\/u\/3\/#search\/doctors+of+the+church\/FMfcgzGxSlKtBcHvFJlsHNxxwpTrtZTh.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society<\/em>, 1st Image ed (New York, NY: Image Books, 02).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to the Wounded Healers, (Resilient) Leaders Club! In Rethinking Leadership: a Critique of Contemporary Theories, the author shares fantastic insights on Leadership: “I believe that Kurt Lewin was right, “there is nothing as practical as a good theory.”[1] For justice’s sake to this book, I will only share a few insights that I found […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"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":[2977],"class_list":["post-37570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-beerel","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37570","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\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37570"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37576,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37570\/revisions\/37576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}