Leading by Story

There is a great deal of interest in churches across the UK, US and Europe about applying ideas from the world of leadership and management to Christian ministry. There are those who wish to apply (sometimes quite uncritically) mechanistic approaches which they hope will enable churches to be run in a more ‘business-like’ manner. There are also those who argue that insights from organizational studies have no place whatsoever in churches. This innovative and original book builds on qualitative thinking about organizational narrative and argues that it can provide significant insights into how churches function, which is much more in keeping with their ethos and history. As well as analysing how stories and storytelling work in churches it also provides practical ideas for how they can be used to improve church leadership. Taking the work of organizational thinkers and researchers and bringing it into conversation with biblical scholars, theologians, and church historians, the authors establish a conversation across these disciplines and explore how story and narrative work through and within churches. Table of Contents: 1. What Is Leadership? 2. Leading the Stories and Storying the Leading 3. Stories and Identities: Story, Character and Becoming 4. Living in Multiple Stories 5. Who Owns the Story? 6. Church Narratives: Interpretive Stories 7. Church Narratives: Identity Stories 8. Church Narratives: Improvised Stories 9. Curating Congregational Stories in a Tick Box Church? Conclusion: Ten Ideas for Leading By Story in Churches

Vaughan S. Roberts is Team Rector of Warwick and Vicar of the historic Collegiate Church of St Mary. He has served a variety of local churches in the dioceses of Guildford, Bath & Wells and Coventry whilst also being a hospice and university chaplain, vocations adviser and director of ordinands. As well as degrees in biblical studies and theology he has a PhD in organisational behaviour and management from the University of Bath. David Sims is Emeritus Professor of Organizational Behaviour, Cass Business School, City, University of London. He worked for 20 years as Research Fellow, Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at the University of Bath. He has been a visiting professor at the Stockholm School of Economics, and has also worked for the National University of Singapore, Brunel University, where he was the founding Head of the School of Business and Management, and more recently City, University of London, where he has been Associate Dean for MBA Programmes at Cass Business School and then the Head of the Faculty of Management