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To Walk in Integrity

To Walk in Integrity

Spiritual Leadership in Times of Crisis  

by Stephen V. Doughty
Paperback
Discipleship Generosity

"Naming where we see crisis can upset us," writes Doughty. "It probably ought to. Distress, at its best, creates awareness. It awakens us to where we are."

The Chinese symbol for crisis reflects its dual reality: danger yet opportunity. Even as a crisis threatens, it can bring wholly unanticipated chances for personal and communal growth. At such critical junctures, you want to know you can count on the sound, discerning counsel of genuine leaders—who seem so short in supply right now.

Our troubled world needs spiritual leadership now more than ever. Doughty's To Walk in Integrity provides a model for spiritual leadership in times of crisis. Examining the biblical understanding of integrity, he identifies 9 key qualities. He tells powerful stories of people who acted with integrity in difficult situations despite great personal cost.

Each chapter includes guidance for personal meditation and group reflection. Clergy and lay leaders will find inspiration and challenge in this timely book.

By examining patterns of daily living and choices, readers not necessarily involved in leadership roles also will be encouraged to follow the practical ingredients for a life of integrity.

Each chapter ends with two sets of questions: one for personal reflection and one for group reflection.

Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-8358-9885-0
Publisher: The Upper Room
Imprint: Upper Room Books
Publication Date: 09/01/2004
Pages: 144
Dimensions: 9.0000 x 6.0000

Stephen V. Doughty served for over two decades in parish ministry and for ten years as the executive presbyter for the seventy-one congregations of Lake Michigan Presbytery. A regular contributor to Weavings, he is currently engaged in a full-time ministry of retreat leadership and writing. He and his wife, Jean, live in Otsego, Michigan.


Reviews

"This book is God-sent. Its journey into faithfulness will transform, strengthen, and energize your faith and life."

— Dennis C. Benson
Radio and television producer
Former senior professor of communication
United Theological Seminary
Dayton, Ohio

"Steve Doughty issues an inspiring and challenging summons to recover the foundations of spiritual leadership based upon sustained wholeness and holiness of life. Instead of offering us more management gimmicks and instant expertise, Doughty calls us to reclaim the ancient and life-giving practices of living with honesty, compassion, simplicity, and humility; to cultivate the capacity for genuine lament as well as deep joy; and to live as prophetic witnesses in an age of crisis.

In an age such as ours, with its profound disillusionment and untethered confusion, leaders of genuine integrity are precisely what we need to call us back toward that which is holy, life-sustaining, and worth of our lives' energies."

— The Reverend Kristine Haig
Office of Spiritual Formation
Presbyterian Church (USA)

"A lovely meditation, brimming with wisdom and practical advice, on a skill in desperately short supply: authentic spiritual leadership. Steve Doughty eschews easy answers, instead offering graceful insights into time-honored virtues like simplicity, humility, compassion, and integrity. This book sets one afire with hope."

— Philip Zaleski
Editor of The Best American Spiritual Writing

"This helpful book acknowledges that contemporary culture is no friend of integrity. Doughty wisely recognizes there are no easy answers to this challenge and gently walks with his readers, raising insightful questions to create openings for maturing in integrity. His book contains practical leadership principles and inspires compassion and justice for a broken world."

— Tom Schwanda
Associate Professor of Spiritual Formation
Reformed Bible College
Grand Rapids, Michigan

"Doughty writes with commendable clarity. His insights into the nature of integrity grow out of a biblical grounding and a theological perspective. Throughout the book he demonstrates what he is talking about by embodying his ideas in the lives and experiences of people."

— Harry B. Adams
Horace Bushnell Professor Emeritus of Christian Nurture
Yale University Divinity School

"In a meditative and practical way, using powerful illustrations, Doughty pursues the elusive meaning and understanding of integrity. Taking leadership far beyond issues of style, skill, and capability, he helps the reader identify and describe areas of truly integrated leadership behavior."

— The Rev. Dr. John D. Sharick
Consultant to Congregations and Regional Church Bodies
Retired Presbytery Executive, Presbyterian Church (USA)

To Walk in Integrity is a heartfelt and moving testimony and guide to leadership with integrity. Doughty gently invites us into the company of those who have demonstrated such leadership. His book is a gift of love and a sign of hope for the church.

— John Biersdorf
Former President
Ecumenical Theological Seminary
Detroit, Michigan


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