Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor, and Chaos (emersion: Emergent Village resources for communities of faith) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

As our culture shifts from modern to postmodern, pastors and church leaders are finding that old, rigid church leadership systems and structures no longer seem to work. Church leaders are searching for and discovering new, creative ways of leading--emphasizing intuition, creativity, narrative, and an embrace of the chaos and tension of our time. Tim Keel, pastor of a thriving emergent church and a rising leader in the emergent church movement, offers a thought-provoking yet practical exploration of this new style he calls Intuitive Leadership. His fresh approach will be welcomed by pastors and lay leaders interested in the emergent conversation and how Christian mission should look in our rapidly changing culture.

From the Inside Flap

EXCERPT FROM CATALOG We live in the midst of an emerging postmodern milieu. This is a new world that seeks to bring the heart and soul and body back into contact and balance with a modern mind that is not just dangerously enlarged but nearly detached. Out of this environment a different imagination is starting to emerge. As it does, a new language set is developing that is artistic, intuitive, prophetic, and poetic. This language set and the new kinds of competencies that are beginning to assert themselves in response to this environment are doing so not in terms defined by the categories and structures of the former world (modernity) but in ways that are new--and, in many cases, ancient. When the time comes for God to do something new within a culture that has grown stagnant or unresponsive to his movement, God often moves from the margins of that culture. We see this kind of shift illustrated in the narratives of Scripture where more often than not the margins are symbolized by the woman and the child: Moses and his mother, Ruth and Obed, Hannah and Samuel, Mary and Jesus. Because systems and structures rarely surrender their power, the woman and the child are often vulnerable and endangered. They seem insignificant, even bothersome or contemptible, and yet wiser men than I sensed a change in their world two thousand years ago. Rather than sit ensconced within their controlled worlds, they set off to find the source of this change: a babe lying in a manger, on the margins of society. New wineskins emerge to make space for what is happening as the old often burst, unable to contain what is fresh and new. New systems and structures must emerge to release the kind of imagination and creative thinking I have been describing.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Baker Books (October 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801068134
• ISBN-13: 978-0801068133
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #92,567 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What we have been waiting for, February 2, 2008

By	T. E. Morehart "hanginon" (pennsylvania) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you have been going around in the Postmodern conversation for any amount of time, or are at all curious about the "Emergent Church", or are feeling like you keep stubbing the big toe of your faith, here is some real help. And do not let the title keep any one from reading. This is not just one more dry book on leadership. It is for you. Tim Keel brilliantly (please accept the praise Mr. Keel) weaves history, scripture, experience, and culture into something truly inspiring and useful to those with an eye on things to come. Or even on things that have been. I cheered out loud more than a few times as my heart was being reclaimed by Jesus. So many connections were made with the loose ends of my faith. And not in the form of easy answers, but with the asking of better questions. Did I mention that this is a brilliant work? The bottom line is that this is most likely the most important and engaging book i have read to date. And if in fact you are in a position of leadership, ( as I am ) this is a catalyst for honest growth that you will look a long time to better, or even equal for that matter. I could go on but instead will plead with you to trust your intuition..... it is as good as you would hope.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth your time, even if you're not a leader..., December 13, 2007

By	T. Samoff "http://tim.samoff.com" (Kansas City, MO) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's been a long time since I read a book that I couldn't put down... And the book was most likely a work of fiction. But this one is most certainly real stuff, as non-fiction as you can get. And even though I'm not a church leader, per se, something about Intuitive Leadership - Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor & Chaos, the latest literary endeavor by Jacob's Well Church pastor and Emergent Village co-founder, Tim Keel drew me in, bound my imagination, and wouldn't let me go until I turned the last page. Keel's experience, not only as a pastor and teacher, but as an artist, allowed him to effortlessly create a dialog that is as flowing and natural as it is compelling. This is a narrative that was forged as much by limber fingers dancing lightly (and sometimes very heavily) on the keyboard of a laptop computer as it was by dipping brush after brush into a multitude of jars of pigment. Keel's words leapt off of each page as if he were sitting right in front of me, narrating the very text that I was reading.

Read the entire review here:

http://sense-datum.org/tim/archive/2007/11/28/book_review_intuitive_leadersh/tim_samoff__weblog

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Effective Ministry in a Broken World, November 15, 2007

By	Dr. David Frisbie (Rancho Santa Fe, CA) - See all my reviews

How do we serve each other in such a broken world?
How do we "live Jesus" in the midst of so much suffering, uncertainty, and confusion?

Like a good friend who's spent some time further up the trail, Tim Keel shows us what intuitive leadership looks like, helping pastors and other leaders (and the rest of us) understand how to grow communities of faith.

There's a lot of insight here about our own heritage and how it sometimes prevents the very ministry we're trying to achieve. Well worth reading!

Meanwhile, in a world increasingly shaped by story-telling and metaphor, Keel shows us how to embrace meaning, deploy justice, and live faith.

Dr. David Frisbie
The Center for Marriage & Family Studies
Author of Raising Great Kids on Your Own: A Guide and Companion for Every Single Parent