The Nehemiah Factor: 16 Characteristics of a Missional Leader

by Frank Page and Ph.D. Page, Frank S.

Book Overview

Using Scripture, his personal leadership stories, and testimonies of others, Page inspires leaders to personally model missional leadership in their individual situations. In a warm, personal, and yet... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1596692235
• ISBN13: 9781596692237
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: New Hope Publishers (AL)
• Length: 221 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Missional Leadership Explained Biblically

A crushing blow to individualism. The church should move from being a therapy session for individuals and become a peculiar people within society... A "people-group" that does not exist outside of culture, but witness to the grander story of God. The question of the book becomes: How do you move as a church from being therapy to individuals, but translate people's lives into the biblical narrative to portray and live apart of the body of Christ? This book becomes more than a how-to of preaching, it becomes a life-changing calling for preachers to move their congregations into partakers of the biblical narrative. The Eclipse of the Biblical Narrative, a movement looking at the role of narrative, is re-told by Wright to show how North American churches ended up preaching the individualism of Scripture. The church became a place for individuals to get away from the busyness of their week, the stress of the office - basically, the church became a therapeutic centre of individual needs. It was not a community, but a... Help me overcome, help me move past... Help ME. The body of Christ was now individual body parts all moving to their own individual needs. The solution became a new message to the people, a movement of sorts that takes away this individual mentality and moves towards community. After all, in community can we only help each other. The movement starts by moving towards a tragedy, the tragedy of the cross. Tragedy brings enlightenment, understanding, a new narrative. Is that not what the cross accomplished? A brighter hope, a new horizon, and a new narrative to the lives of those partaking in it? In the individual context of Scripture, the narrative becomes skewed. The individual turns to scriptures for assurance that he or she really is living within this spiritual path that leads to individual eternal bliss in heaven. - Wright on Frei If that is what we are turning from, then what are we being turned to? Well, first we must realize that we are apart of an ongoing story - that starts with creation and will end with God's reign - but we are not there yet. Wright provides three turning points that we need to acknowledge in order to join the story: [1] Acknowledge the contemporary horizon (worldview) of a congregation as they have been formed by the culture around them [2] An anchor to move horizontally around the contemporary horizon [3] Head in a new direction These three steps allow for a turn towards the wonderful good news of living amid God's story. I truly appreciate the fact that the author does go beyond providing the typical three-step solution, as he gives a whole chapter's worth of hands-on teaching examples of how to turn your congregation toward a worldview that does not separate them from culture, but allows them to be visible witnesses through their newfound ability to have a worldview that is considered peculiar. In a strange way, this moves the congregation into the status-quo, allo

"Nehemiah Factor" by Frank Paige

Over the past several years, I have grown to appreciate and respect Dr. Frank Page. His election to the office of President of the Southern Baptist Convention was controversial (due to his Arminian theology) yet he managed to serve as President without deepening the divide and estranging the various theological differences within the Convention. Though I might disagree with Page on a number of issues, I have found him most concerned with the gospel and served, and continues to serve, to bring God the glory through the redemption of fallen sinners. I was looking forward to reading his newest book, "The Nehemiah Factor: 16 Characteristics of a Missional Leader," as this was the first book I have read by him. The word missional is becoming a bit of a buzz word these days. It seems like everybody is using it. Page describes the word as involves "a way of looking at Christianity that integrates concern for both evangelism and social ministries. It is a kind of acting out of the faith in daily life. The word encompasses much of what Christian have simply thought of in the past as living out the Christian life." (19) The point of the missional movement is the realization that Christians are not only to believe the right things, but do the right things. Christianity is both a noun and a verb and we have a responsibly to fulfill both. That is the real advantage of reading someone like Paige talk about being missional. Some emphasize the verb aspect and ignore the noun, whereas some emphasize the noun aspect and ignore the verb. Paige seeks to balance both. His book is primarily (as the subtitle suggests) about what a missional leader looks like. There are 16 chapters that lay out 16 characteristics of the missional leader. These characteristics include: godly character, called, Christlike, prayer warrior (my words) a team worker, has integrity, able to manage conflict, courageous, committed, and accountable, just to name a few. The book centers around the Old Testament character of Nehemiah who helps the Jews return to their homeland with the permission of the Persians after spending 70 years in captivity under Babylon. Paige sees Nehemiah as an excellent example of what it means to be a missional leader. The book overall is fairly straightforward. The author offers a number personal stories and experiences mixed with Biblical exegesis from Nehemiah and other biblical texts, and applies them directly to the reader. Each characteristics serve as "must-haves" for the missional leader. If we want to be faithful to Christ, the Great Commission, the church, to the lost, and to each other, we must have these characteristics. As a pastor, I found this book helpful for he is primarily speaking to persons like myself. Am I accountable? Am I courageous? Am I committed? How do I handle conflict? How to I manage my time? Throughout the book I felt as if the author was writing directly to me and kicking me in the gut. Paige reminded me that I have a lot to lear