A number of things were helpful in Leading with a Limp, and I suspect it will be a book to return to after more experiences of disappointment and failure in ministry. But even being only a year into it was honest and raw. Many insights about the willingness to walk into conflict and confusion give a healthy picture for what we ought to be looking for in elders.
I'll make just a few comments on one quote: "Leaders are primarily storytellers and story makers; and troubled people are called to be leaders because they create and tell compelling stories. Sane, reasonable, play-it-safe people are not sufficiently engaged in life to generate great stories. Instead, they sit back and wait for a leader-storyteller to come along and get them caught up in a life worth living," (page 54).
"Storytelling" seems to be a more helpful term than "Casting Vision" in terms of the visionary aspect of leadership. Essentially good vision casting in a church is telling a compelling story about what God will do with a church in the future. Especially how he says "troubled people are called to be leaders because they create and tell compelling stories." Casting vision convinces people that though redeemed, finite, fragile, and sinful, they make God's story among us compelling. And we only believe that as we see it in our own lives.
