Leadership is changing. Not only are established leaders passing the baton to up-and-coming leaders, the very nature of leadership is being transformed. Veteran leader and cultural observer Jimmy Long has discerned how leadership positions and roles have changed in light of societal shifts. Authority is no longer derived from positional status but is earned from relational credibility. Leaders focus not only on tasks but on community. And leadership is less about directing followers to a particular destination, and more about empowering others on a shared journey. Existing leaders cannot write off emerging leaders because they work differently. Nor can younger leaders dismiss the contributions of those who have gone before. Here is a book that offers a positive vision for intergenerational partnership and leadership transference rather than competition. The practical tools outlined here will help existing and emerging leaders understand each others' leadership styles and collaborate fruitfully for the sake of the kingdom.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jimmy Long (M.Div., D.Min., Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) is a regional director for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA. His resources include Small Group Leaders' Handbook: The Next Generation, Emerging Hope: A Strategy for Reaching Postmodern Generations and the Emerging Culture Curriculum Kit.
REVIEWS:
Long does an excellent job of comparing various areas of "doing leadership" and "leadership roles" for both the modern leader and the emerging. Churches must not only value the current and previous leaders but also quip "new types of leaders" - leaders who "have to both invent the future and the past." Developing a shared vision as leadership must remain at the forefront of our church's efforts.
- Mike Rea, Mennonite Brethren Herald, September 2009
The Leadership Jump challenges readers to face the fact that culture is changing dramatically. Long writes to what he calls "existing" and "emerging" church leaders, hoping for a healthy "leadership jump" in this transitional time of history.
-Adam Griffin, YouthWorker Journal, May/June 2009
"I would love to put The Leadership Jump into the hands of existing leaders of the first-generation congregation and emerging leaders of the English ministry of every ethnic church in the country. In my fifteen years of working closely with both groups in Asian American churches, there's been a need for a resource to get the two sides talking constructively. Jimmy Long's book would fill this void well."
-Paul Tokunaga, author of Invitation to Lead: Guidance for Emerging Asian American Leaders, and former Asian American ministries coordinator, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA
"For decades, Christian leadership has been stuck in retro cartoonland: vision-slinging heroes, lone rangers and clip-art maps of the world. Long shifts us into hyperspeed with this one. No asteroid unturned."
-Sally Morgenthaler, contributor to An Emergent Manifesto of Hope
