Michael Jinkins and Deborah Bradshaw Jinkins, Power and Change in Parish Ministry: Reflections on the Cure of Souls. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1999.
Referenced in: Leading Change and Transition
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
The unique contribution of this volume is helping ministers assess just how much power (ability to influence outcomes) or influence they have within the congregation, and how to interact with other key influencers in change situations. The authors demonstrate the importance of perceived authenticity and how a minister must be intentional about the informal interactions congregants use to judge genuineness. They discuss the levels of power and authority, and which currencies are accentuated at various stages of congregational development. They distinguish between coercive and participative change (Hershey and Blanchard) as well as the stages of the change process. Perhaps the most helpful feature is the set of reflection instruments in the appendix that help leaders gain a realistic picture of their currencies of influence within the congregation.
From the Publisher
As clergy, you are called to be curate (“a caretaker of souls”), charged both to heal and lead your congregation as its members seek wholeness. It is this role, perhaps more than any other, that plunges you into the complex issues of authority, power, and change in your ministerial leadership. How do you heal yet still lead and guide? How well do you use the power that comes with this role to effect change? Can you alone, in fact, effect change?
Join Michael Jinkins and Deborah Jinkins as they guide you through an examination of this most crucial of your roles. You will draw on theological, sociological, educational, and managerial veiwpoints (some of them never applied to congregations) to examine your ministry. You will learn from others’ experiences and use a set of self-assessment instruments to analyze your ministry and integrate your findings.
About the Author
The Rev. Dr. Michael Jinkins is President of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where he also serves as Professor of Theology. Dr. Jinkins has been ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for 29 years. In addition to teaching as a seminary professor for 17 years, he served 12 years in congregational leadership. Michael is passionate about theological education and preparing men and women for practical, public, and pastoral leadership in a world of cultural and religious difference.
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Related Areas
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- Change and Transition in Churches, Intro
- Change Concepts and Theories
- Overcoming Change Resistance, Creating Change Receptiveness
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