Leadership Formation in the African Context: Missional Leadership Revisited
Ebook
Overview
The teachings of Christian leadership have been dominated by a focus on the influence of a leader on its followers. Samuel Deressa's new book, Leadership Formation in the African Context, highlights how an African concept of community and holistic approach to ministry provides a biblically sound approach to understanding leadership formation and practice in this new age. This book links the issue of missional leadership with the life of the congregation. It provides theological and practical insights into how we can understand leadership formation in contexts where churches are engaged in the Missio Dei as a community of believers.
“Samuel Deressa’s studies in North America have prepared him
well to provide bridges back to his native Ethiopia and other lands
throughout the majority world. His appropriation of insights from
contemporary Western thinking . . . will provoke fruitful
thinking in all parts of the world as we search for ways to bring
the gospel of Jesus Christ to those outside the faith and to edify
and encourage those of the faith.”
—Robert Kolb, Concordia Seminary, emeritus
“One of the best ways to understand the missional-church
conversation is to perceive it through a deeply rooted and clearly
situated set of lenses. This book does that beautifully
. . . . Highly recommended for both undergraduate
and graduate students, as well as pastoral leaders seeking to move
beyond highly individualistic notions of leadership, this book will
draw you into the heart of such formation with depth and
clarity.”
—Mary E. Hess, Luther Seminary
Samuel Deressa is Assistant Professor of Theology at Concordia
University, St. Paul. His published books include A Church for
the World: A Church’s Role in Fostering Democracy and Sustainable
Development (2020), which he co-edited with Josh de Keijzer,
and The Life, Works, and Witness of Tsehay Tolessa and Gudina
Tumsa, the Ethiopian Bonhoeffer (2017), which he co-edited with
Sarah Wilson. He has written numerous articles for books and
journals on Christianity in the Global South.