Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk, The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World. Jossey-Bass/Leadership Network, 2006.
Companion volumes:
Referenced in: Missional Strategies by Alan Roxburgh
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
Alan Roxburgh is one of most significant leaders in the missional conversation through his books, consultation models, and Allelon. This book functions quite well as a supplement to a later volume co-authored by Roxburgh and Scott Boren, Introducing the Missional Church (2009). See the Ministry Resource Guide on Missional Strategies by Alan Roxburgh to understand the contribution of each volume.
Section One, The Context and Challenge of Missional Leadership – Chapters 1 and 2 discuss the six critical issues for missional leadership and how to cultivate the imagination of a missional leader. The authors point out “this book is written out of the conviction that we need a new approach to leadership for missional communities.” (3) But most missional-minded leaders are frustrated with “how” to do it. Most models simply repackage old programs, resulting in harder effort doing the same things with little results. In the current environment where discontinuous change is the new norm, both new capacities and new frameworks are needed. Yet the authors insist the context is still congregational, affirming their conviction that “a congregation can become a center of missional life.” (9) [Roxburgh’s strong advocacy of congregations in this section is expanded significantly in Introducing the Missional Church (2009)] However, leaders must focus on changing the congregational culture into a place in which the Spirit helps them discern God’s surprising movements in and among them and then engage their communities incarnationally. (17)
Chapter 3 explains the complex process of change and transition congregations must navigate in transforming into a missional culture. Here they propose a “Three-Zone Model of Missional Leadership” (adaptation of Hurst, Crisis and Renewal, 2002).
Chapter 4 describes the context of the missional congregation, proposing a narrative approach over against the typical “alignment” models of strategic planning (see section) which “negate the messy reality that God’s future emerges from God’s people nonlinearly and unpredictably.” (64)
Chapter 5 introduces the Missional Change Model (MCM, this process is updated and expanded in a section of Introducing the Missional Church). It is not a linear, lock-step process, but aims at empowering change that emerges from the people themselves. It gives people a way to practice change in a way that catches the movement of the Spirit. It consists of five elements that represent the stages a local church moves through to enter upon the missional journey:
- Awareness
- Understanding
- Evaluate
- Experiment
- Commitment
Again, while these may look like a linear strategic planning process, the stages should be seen as more of a set of spirals continually turning back on and interacting with one another rather than a straight-line process in which one moves from A to B to C and so on. The function of MCM is
“to cultivate an environment in which the missional imagination can thrive. …The leader moves back and forth across these stages as people raise their questions, make new discoveries, and shift in their biblical imagination. This is the wonderful work of leadership that creates the space for people to dialogue, evaluate, and experiment within a field of rich biblical and theological dialogue.” (104)
Those familiar with whole systems approaches to congregational development will see considerably similarity between the Missional Change Model and Appreciative Inquiry (AI). In Roxburgh’s companion volume, Introducting the Missional Church, the authors cite Peter Block’s Community: The Structure of Belonging, which is a standard AI text.
Section Two, The Missional Leader– Much of Section One is found in other Roxburgh works, but this section is unique to Missional Leader. It is the meat of the book. In chapter six he lays out his general philosophy of missional leadership in a rubric of “four interconnected areas in which leadership must function to innovate a missional congregation.” (114). The first of the four operates on a personal level. One must cultivate foundational attributes that make up the leader’s “self-identity” – personal maturity, conflict management, personal courage, and the ability to develop trust. “These attributes are placed first because they are the ticket to missional leadership.” (115) Chapter 7 is devoted entirely to the leader’s personal maturity. The next three of the four areas play out on the congregational level where the leader must facilitate three missional readiness factors:
- Cultivating people – Missional leaders must have “the capacity to form a community in which peole are able to hold listening conversation with one another at the level of awareness and understanding.” This is more important “than skill in organizational or strategic planning processes.” The missional model assumes “God’s imagination for a congregation is among the people,” and a leader must create a “conversation of imagination and hope rooted in the biblical narratives, but without manipulating people into a prearranged plan or prepackaged program.” (115) Doing so cultivates growth, enables change, and creates positive coalitions. Chapter 8 describes this factor in detail.
- Forming a missional environment – A missional leader must have “the ability to mentor and coach people into some of the critical practices and habits that form the character and identity of a Christian community: dwelling regularly in the Scriptures; cultivating the habit of listening with the desire to hear the other; regular practice of keeping a daily office of prayer, Scripture, and silence; and regularly giving hospitality to the stranger. The missional life of the people develops through these habits and practices.” (115) Chapter 9 expands on this aspect of missional readiness.
- Engaging the context – “Missional leadership is also about the capacity to develop a continuing awareness and understanding with the people, neighborhood, community, social reality, and changing issues in which they are located. This is what we mean by context.” (115) Chapter 10 discusses this feature at length.
Chapter 11, the final chapter, addresses one of the most crucial and difficult realities of missional congregational development, putting together a team for leadership development. This is a very detailed, step-by-step, calendarized system for identifying and training the right team who will guide the missional process.
From the Publisher
Missional churches are not about a particular program or isolated projects (such as mission trips or youth ministry). At the very heart of a missional church is a gathering of people who are concerned with the bigger purpose of bringing God’s word into the larger community outside their walls.
In The Missional Leader, consultants Alan J. Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk give church and denominational leaders, pastors, and clergy a clear model for leading the change necessary to create and foster a missional church focused outward to spread the message of the Gospel into the surrounding community. The Missional Leader emphasizes principles rather than institutional forms, shows readers how to move away from “church as usual,” and demonstrates what capacities, environments, and mindsets are required to lead a missional church.
Experts in the field of missional leadership, Roxburgh and Romanuk outline a strategic change model that can be implemented to help transform a congregation and its leaders. They also present the factors that define the character of an effective missional leader and show how a pastor and other clergy can lead their congregation to best serve their church and larger community.
Ultimately, this book helps to guide church leaders to cultivate a local church environment where God is the center of conversation and God shapes the focus and work of the people.
About the Authors
Alan J. Roxburgh is a pastor, teacher, writer, and consultant with more than thirty years’ experience in church leadership, consulting, and seminary education. He works with the Allelon Missional Leadership Network in the formation of leaders for the missional church.
Fred Romanuk is an organizational psychologist who has led strategic planning initiatives for many large organizations in Canada and the United States. He has also worked with senior executives in assessing and developing the capabilities of people in leadership roles.
***For additional information on this resource, including reviews, click the bookstore links. Check the reference at page top or the links below for resource guides on related topics.***
See Resources on Over 100 Areas of Ministry Leadership: