Organizing Life

The subject of “leadership” has been exploding in literature—both academic and popular—for decades. This is in part because leadership (both good and poor) has a significant impact on people’s lives. The explosion of literature on leadership is also because effective leadership is a complex and difficult task that requires understanding the organization one is seeking to lead, understanding its people, understanding its mission and goals, understanding one’s self and others, and understanding the dynamic relationships among all of these as they change over time. Being an effective leader is not easy, and it is easier to fail at it than it is to succeed. No wonder there is such a long list of books designed to help leaders succeed; it makes sense that the challenge to be effective in a role with such significant and important implications for all of us—whether we have a formal leadership position or not—would garner as much attention and sell as many pages as it does. However, though leadership gets a lot of attention, organizations—including religious organizations—continue to fail. A radical shift in how leadership is understood, including its purpose, its contexts, and its practices, is needed.

Author Biography

Barbara J. McClure is associate professor of pastoral theology and practice at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University. She is the author of two books: Moving Beyond Individualism in Pastoral Theology, Care, and Counseling: Reflections on Theory, Theology and Practice (2010) and Emotions: Problems and Promise for Human Flourishing (2019).