Leadership in the Wesleyan Spirit

Publisher Description

The purpose of this book is simple -- to reclaim a vision for church leadershipfrom the great spiritual awakening known as the Wesleyan movement. Yet the way onegoes about this work, contends Lovett H. Weems, Jr., is anything but simple. Itinvolves walking a tightrope between continuity and change. The task is neither torepeat the past, nor to ignore it. Rather the need is to locate the genius behindthe achievements of the past from which we can learn for our day. It is to chooseselectively those themes and emphases of the Wesleyan movement that can best informthe practice of ministry today, and to seek to grow into them. In order to achievethis, Weems identifies such principles of early Wesleyanism as beginning with wherepeople are, focusing on service, and remembering the poor. He then enumeratespractices of Wesleyan leadership, such as leading from the center and the edge, living in tension, and making "connection" happen. Finally, he names the corepassions of the Wesleyan spirit: knowing God, proclaiming Christ, and seekingjustice.