I love bookstores almost as much as I love coffee shops. I can get quickly lost in a bookstore, relishing in the smell of real paper and the sensory overload of titles and genres calling to me from every direction. Passion and creativity and fresh human ideas set in real ink on real pages that can actually be held and fondled. There is an unparalleled mnemonic value in such a wedding of the intellectual and the sensual. Undigitized.
I found the book I wanted and proceeded to the nearest vacant overstuffed chair. I wasn't about to take it home and find out later that I'd just shelled out $21.95 + tax for something that was little more than crap with good marketing. It took less than ten minutes to scan from cover to cover. It was crap with good marketing. One more rebake of Zig Zigler
As one might expect, the "Leadership" section had hundreds of titles. Hundreds of voices from competing and synthesizing perspectives, all being marketed as noteworthy leaders of one sort or another. And why not? Leadership training is a major industry.
We’ve talked a lot about leadership on our podcast. Real leadership that brings value and influence. We've talked about the need for Christians to bring biblical values and perspectives to bear in their particular spheres of influence, large and small. We know that there are effective and ineffective ways of going about that. And we know that we can influence people in different ways depending on who we are, what we do, and the nature of our relationships.
Any discussion of Godly influence needs to look at biblical examples like Joseph and Daniel. Both were men who had been positioned to speak wisdom into a cultural context that was decidedly at odds with their own faith perspectives, and yet their activities provided sound redemptive solutions and blessing to those in the broader culture. Daniel as a key advisor to the king. Joseph as the architect of a solution to a potential national catastrophe.
God often places us in situations where those around us, even those in high positions of leadership, are dominated and driven by a different set of values and a different view of the world. How do we navigate that environment? What does Christ-honoring influence look like in that sort of context?
These are the jumping-off points for our discussion on Thursday, May 12. Norman Christopher will be our guest. Norman is currently the Executive Director of Sustainability at Grand Valley State University, and an influential advisor to businesses, educators, innovators, and governmental leaders on the local, regional, state and national levels.
He is a gifted network builder and an accomplished servant leader. Anyone who meets him quickly discovers that he has a contagious passion for what he does. He is also a person whose deep Christian faith and practical biblical wisdom form and inform everything about him. He doesn’t hide his faith from those in his spheres of influence, but he doesn’t insist that they understand “Christianeze” either. Norman speaks practical truth in their language and leads with action. And value. And results. Join us for our conversation on “Leading With Wisdom and Servant Influence”.
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