Ancona, Deborah, and Henrik Bresman. X-Teams: How to Build Teams That Lead, Innovate, and Succeed. Updated Edition. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2023. Find online.
The authors argue that, in contrast to traditional teams that focus on internal processes (such as team building), externally-oriented teams (“x-teams”) often do better in environments of uncertainty. The book uses examples primarily from the business world, but the recommendations like scanning the environment both inside and outside the organization apply to congregations as well.
These articles discuss the congregational projects at Soundings Project churches. They testify to the range of different ways that congregations can reflect theologically and practically on vocation.
Benac, Dustin D. Adaptive Church: Collaboration and Community in a Changing World. Waco: Baylor University Press, 2022. Find in the Baylor library. Find online.
Drawing on case studies from the Northwest United States, Benac explores how churches can respond faithfully to environments of change and uncertainty. The book highlights the possibility of new forms of collaboration and community between and among churches.
Blanchard, Ken, Phil Hodges, and Phyllis Hendry. Lead Like Jesus Revisited: Lessons from the Greatest Leadership Role Model of All Time. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2016. Find online.
Practical description of Jesus's leadership qualities and ways to emulate them. The book in both editions has been very influential for people in a variety of contexts.
Burkeman, Oliver. Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021. Find online.
Although written from a secular perspective, the book has many insights related to meaning and purpose, counseling readers to embrace their limitations, focus on the most important things, and avoid anxiety-driven overwork.
This book discusses innovation in the business world, but several insights are relevant for churches, including the fact that congregations can innovate by focusing on groups of people that other churches are missing and that simple measures of success (such as profit in businesses or membership growth in churches) can sometimes conceal longer-term problems.
Christensen, Clayton M., and Michael E. Raynor. The Innovator’s Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2003. Find in the Baylor library. Find online.
Further deepens Christensen’s theories of disruptive innovation, by introducing—among other elements—the idea of a new market disruption. The book includes more details on how firms can respond to potential disruptive competitors and potentially engage in disruptive innovation themselves. As with Christensen’s original earlier book, Innovator’s Dilemma, the insights are aimed at the business world but have broader applicability.
Drucker, Peter F., Jim Collins, Philip Kotler, James Kouzes, Judith Rodin, V. Kasturi Rangan, and Frances Hesselbein. The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization. Leader to Leader Institute Series. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2008. Find online.
This book draws from Peter Drucker's decades of experience working with both for-profit and non-profit companies. The book can serve as a self-assessment or an outline for a conversation at a leadership retreat.
Drucker, Peter F. Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Practice and Principles. New York: HarperBusiness, 2006. Find in the Baylor library. Find online.
Although this book is designed for the business world, it presents a helpful framework for approaching innovation as a systematic discipline—a framework that churches can use to identify new ways of serving their neighbors.
Dyer, Jeffrey H., Hal Gregersen, and Clayton M. Christensen. The Innovator’s DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2019. Find online.
This book examines the skillset of the most innovative leaders in the world, finding that they display significant questioning, observation, networking, experimenting, and associational thinking skills. Various suggestions on how to cultivate these skills appear throughout the book. Although the examples draw from the business world, they are relevant to any leaders wanting to encourage innovation.
Emerson, Michael O., and Christian Smith. Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Find in the Baylor library. Find online.
Addresses the ways in which the evangelical movement’s emphases on individualism, free will, and personal relationships conceal racial inequality. Also describes the dilemma that evangelical leaders face in confronting racial reconciliation.
Sociological analysis of why clergy are alienated from calling, congregation, and career, as well as practical steps to overcome this feeling of being stuck.
Garvin, David A., Amy C. Edmondson, and Francesca Gino. “Is Yours a Learning Organization?” Harvard Business Review 86, no. 3 (2008): 109–34. Find in the Baylor library. Find online.
A congregation, like any organization, must learn from and adapt to changing conditions, which means that it must become a learning organization with an environment conducive to learning and sharing, as well as practices and leaders that foster this environment.
Grenny, Joseph, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Kerry Patterson, and Al Switzler. Crucial Influence. 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2023. Find online.
Given the fact that the Soundings Project aims to influence peoples’ understanding of vocation, this resource provides a valuable framework for designing projects that influence others.
Herrington, Jim, Trisha Taylor, and R. Robert Creech. The Leader’s Journey: Accepting the Call to Personal and Congregational Transformation. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020. Find in the Baylor library. Find online.
Guide to leadership within emotionally complex landscapes, drawing on Bowen Family Systems Theory. Although aimed at leaders, the insights of the book can be helpful for a range of congregants.
Jones, L. Gregory, and Andrew P. Hogue. Navigating the Future: Traditioned Innovation for Wilder Seas. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2021. Find in the Baylor library. Find online.
Discusses traditioned innovation and inspiring stories of traditioned innovation in practice. One of the stories is of Talitha Koum Institute, an important institution in Waco.
Jones, L. Gregory. Christian Social Innovation: Renewing Wesleyan Witness. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2016. Find in the Baylor library. Find online.
Appeal to Christians to embrace "traditioned innovation" that characterized the early Wesleyan movement and resulted in innovative social approaches and institutions.
Modern Elder Academy is "the world's first midlife wisdom school" and includes workshops, other events, content (such as a blog), and a wider community. Although not necessarily a religious movement, Modern Elder Academy taps into the feelings of purposelessness that people can feel as they near the end of their careers.
Pathak, Jay, and Dave Runyon. The Art of Neighboring: Building Genuine Relationships Right Outside Your Door. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2012. Find in the Baylor library. Find online.
Explores the call to be good neighbors to those around us, imagining a scenario when every follower of Jesus took the Great Commandment literally.
Although this book does not take a religious approach, it has valuable insights on the innate human desire for purpose.
Rainer, Thom S. Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 12 Ways to Keep Yours Alive. Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2014. Find online.
Brief readable discussion of common problems in congregations and possible responses.
Ridley, Matt. How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom. New York: Harper, 2020. Find online.
Through a number of engaging stories, Ridley makes the case that innovation is positive even as it is often misunderstood or even treated with suspicion. He argues that it is organic, bottom-up, and unpredictable, but that freedom is a crucial element to encouraging it.
Ries, Eric. The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. New York: Crown Business, 2011. Find in the Baylor library. Find online.
Ries provides a model for how to innovate successfully through cycles of build-measure-learn while staying true to a guiding vision. This startup framework is relevant to a range of organizations, including churches, in a rapidly changing world.
Essay describing the biblical roots of traditioned innovation.
Sande, Ken. The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2004. Find in the Baylor library.
Given the fundamental Christian calling to be peacemakers, this book is a practical guide for conflict resolution and reconciliation in family, church, and workplace.
Although many of the examples from this book involve the business context, congregations can certainly benefit from the different disciplines, including personal mastery, attending to mental models, building shared vision, enhancing team (or committee or congregational) learning, and systems thinking.
Setiya, Kieran. Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way. New York: Riverhead Books, 2022. Find online.
A readable philosophical meditation on life’s meaning within adversity. Although not a Christian work, there are points of connection with the Christian tradition.
Smith, C. Christopher. Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2014. Find in the Baylor library. Find online.
As society moves at an increasingly high-speed pace, God’s people need to be aware of how the rest of the world is affecting the pace of the church. Invites readers out of franchise faith and back into the kingdom of God.
Smith, James Bryan. The Good and Beautiful You: Discovering the Person Jesus Created You to Be. The Good and Beautiful Series. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2022. Find online.
Call away from toxic self narratives toward a full embrace of our God-given identities.
As congregations think about their communities data from the Census Bureau can give helpful information about these communities, including poverty rates, education rates, percentage of children and youth, etc.
University of Kansas Center for Community Health and Development. Community Tool Box.
This website provides a number of resources for those serving communities. Especially helpful for congregations would be resources on community assessment, including windshield surveys, strategic planning, and evaluation.
Utley, Jeremy, and Perry Klebahn. Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters. New York: Portfolio, 2022. Find online.
The authors emphasize the need to flood problems with ideas and provide many helpful strategies for generating ideas both on the personal and organizational levels.
Vinsel, Lee, and Andrew L. Russell. The Innovation Delusion: How Our Obsession with the New Has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most. New York: Crown Currency, 2020. Find in the Baylor library. Find online.
Argues against the "innovation delusion," or the idea that innovation will solve all problems and instead argues for valuing a "maintenance mindset" that preserves what already exists and cares for the people dedicated to maintenance.
