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  • Facing Leviathan: Leadership, Influence, and Creating in a Cultural Storm

Facing Leviathan: Leadership, Influence, and Creating in a Cultural Storm

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Format: Paperback
Your Price: $14.99

Product Description

There are two styles of leadership at war in the world.

On one side the mechanical leader casts a vision of heroic action aided by pragmatism, reason, technology, and power.

On the other side the organic leader strives to bring forth creativity, defying convention, and relishing life in culture's margins.

This leadership battle is at the heart of our contemporary culture, but it is also an ancient battle. It is the reinvocation of two great heresies, one rooted in an attempt to reach for godlikeness, the other bowing before the sea monster of the chaotic deep.

Today's leader must answer many challenging questions including:

  • What does it mean to lead in a cultural storm?
  • How do I battle the darkness in my own heart?
  • Is there such a thing as a perfect leader?

Weaving a history of leadership through the Enlightenment, Romanticism, tumultuous 19th-century Paris, and eventually World War II, cultural commentator Mark Sayers brings history and theology together to warn of the dangers yet to come, calling us to choose a better way. 


About the Author

Mark Sayers

MARK SAYERS is the Lead Pastor of Red Church in Melbourne, Australia. He is passionate about spiritual renewal and the future of the church. Mark is the author of several books including A Non-Anxious Presence and Reappearing Church. Mark lives in Melbourne with his wife, Trudi, his daughter, Grace, and twin boys, Hudson and Billy.

Endorsements

I cannot express how much I needed this book—nor how much our church and our culture needs it. From the first page (or more precisely, the second) to the last it is full of surprise, insight, honesty, clarity, and hope. It is prophetic in the deepest sense of the word. No one who aspires to lead in the way of Christ should miss the chance to read Facing Leviathan.
Andy Crouch, executive editor, Christianity Today, author of Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power 

Facing Leviathan is a beautifully written book that weaves history and the Word of God together in a spectacular and challenging tapestry.  I was moved, encouraged and provoked.
Matt Chandler, lead pastor of The Village Church in Dallas, Texas, president of Acts 29 Church Planting Network

With a sharp historical analysis, Mark Sayers shows how we are shaped by a culture where image and performance is everything. This book is a must-read for brave leaders who want lead and live in a way that is shaped by the life of Jesus.
Thomas Willer, sociologist, author, pastor of Regen, Copenhagen, Denmark 

Mark has written a beautifully engaging and well researched book on culture that drips with the prophetic. His insights into cultural history and how we got here are breathtaking, and how he turns them into lessons on leadership is just brilliant. This book is fun, insightful, engaging...I could go on and on. If you are a leader in any capacity, read this book.
Dave Lomas, pastor of Reality San Francisco, author of The Truest Thing About You

Mark Sayers understands leadership far beyond the bite-sized axioms frequently used. By teaching with his own failures in leadership as a prime example, he has the experience necessary to show the danger of following the movement of the culturally-mandated leadership. Take up the challenge of having your own preconceived notions of leadership questioned by reading Facing Leviathan, and walk away a leader who first follows the example of Christ, rather than the latest management tool.
Tyler Braun, author of Why Holiness Matters: We've Lost Our Way—But We Can Find It Again

Unlike any leadership book I have ever read, Facing Leviathan traverses the waves of Western history and exposes dangerous cultural currents in order to land us safely ashore a leadership that is neither pragmatic nor pietistic. Sayers charts a course right through the storms of vocational pride, ministry travails, and personal suffering by keeping a bead on God's profound, personal providence. Littered with insights, I couldn't shake the book after I read it. It haunted me, beckoning me into deeper self-reflection, while also inspiring me to lead underneath God. As you read, you'll get to think, repent, and refocus. On top of all that, it's a literary feast with morsels for all to enjoy.
Jonathan K. Dodson, lead pastor of City Life Church Austin, author of Gospel-Centered Discipleship

If you're like me and thought that leadership was reserved for the elite, that you had to be a CEO to be an influencer, there's good news: You don't. And this book will show you how.
Jeff Goins, author of The In-Between

The cultural and personal storms of our day are indeed raging, and few books will help us navigate them like Facing Leviathan. With prophetic insight and personal transparency, Mark Sayers steers leadership the way it should always go in a storm: the way of Christ Himself.
Tim Chaddick, pastor of Reality Los Angeles, author of Better 

No one will challenge your thinking more than Mark! I so appreciate both his insights and his passion to develop authentic disciples of Christ. We are in dire need of new ways to think about the development of disciples and leaders. They need to be the net results of a culture and community, as opposed to a new program or our quick-fix methods.
Terry Walling, president, leader of Breakthru

Product Details

ISBN: 978-0-8024-1096-2
Publish Date: March 2014
Dimensions: 5.25 x 8
Format: Paperback