EMQ » April–June 2022 » Volume 58 Issue 2
2020s Foresight: Three Vital Practices for Thriving in a Decade of Accelerating Change
By Tom Sine and Dwight J. Friesen
Fortress Press, 2020
246 pages
US$19.99
Reviewed by Susan L. Maros, affiliate assistant professor of Christian leadership, Fuller Theological Seminary.
The decade of the 2020s has begun with accelerating change that leaves many leaders and Christian communities feeling overwhelmed. Futurist consultant, Tom Sine, and pastor and professor of practical theology, Dwight Friesen, offer a resource for Christian leaders seeking to help their communities navigate these turbulent waters of rapid change. Sine and Friesen focus on fostering three key practices as part of strategic planning: anticipation, reflection, and innovation.
They encourage leaders to anticipate the likely impact of new issues before they occur, reflect on their core aspirations and values to foster a biblically-informed response and to identify innovative responses based on research and study of best practices (40). In the second half of the book, Sine and Friesen further delineate innovation, reflecting on four contexts of engagement: an individual’s personal life, the community (particularly around challenges related to housing), the neighborhood, and the church. Throughout the text, Sine and Friesen offer multiple stories and examples to illustrate the three key principles, to offer inspiration, and to prompt the reader’s ideas for innovation.
Both overtly and through the nature of their stories, Sine and Friesen model a perspective of leaders as the identifiers of change and those who deliver the strategies to answer the community’s challenges. The focus in chapter 6, “Innovating in Place,” offers the best examples of listening to the community and to history, expanding research to the community experts often overlooked. One might desire for the authors to give greater attention to the impact of power as further guarding against the ways that well-intentioned Christian leaders cause harm through lack of listening to the community. Nevertheless, Sine and Friesen’s work invites Christian leaders into strategies for leading their communities into engaging change rather than simply reacting to change.
This book offers an excellent starting point for a community of church leaders in the United States seeking to respond proactively to the challenges of their community. Sine and Friesen provide a resource for Bible college or seminary courses exploring practical ways of addressing the changing realities of Christendom and the implications for ministry. The authors include questions for group discussion and resources for further reading.
For Further Reading
Bolsinger, Tod E. Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory. IVP Books, 2016.
Branson, Mark Lau, and Alan J Roxburgh. Leadership, God’s Agency, and Disruptions: Confronting Modernity’s Wager. Cascade Books, 2021.
EMQ, Volume 58, Issue 2. Copyright © 2022 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: EMQ@MissioNexus.org.
