My friend Forrest Inslee recently introduced me to the important work of Dr. Petra Kuenkel. Petra has amassed a very impressive CV investing her life as a leading strategic advisor to pioneering international multi-stakeholder initiatives tackling themes of local and global sustainability. The Art of Leading Collectively: Co-Creating a Sustainable, Socially Just Future, was the first book I’ve read of hers and have gone back and read her Leading Transformative Change Collectively, which as its subtitle suggest is a practitioner’s guide to realizing the sustainable development goals developed by everyday people from all around the globe participating in gathering convened by the United Nations.
It is my opinion that a significant aspect of the future of Christian mission and prophetic work will be participation and collaboration with other faith traditions in reframing of religious narratives unto global sustainability. Surely one way of loving God and loving neighbor as one loves themselves involves living in such a way that promotes life for people and the planet. And since the majority of people on our planet make sense of the world through a religious cosmology, mobilizing people to enact real and sustainable change within the narrative frames, values, and practices of their respective faith traditions will be key to realizing the changes God’s earth is inviting. Engaging in this work in collaboration with our world’s religious traditions has never been so vital.
Western Christianity has a responsibility to own and repent of its role in narrating and condoning the mistreatment of God’s creation. The Western church has an opportunity to rediscover its indigenous roots through its sacred texts. In many ways aboriginal spiritualities hold traditions and practices that can aid followers of the Jesus Way in its rediscovery and enactment within today’s contexts. Even to look at Hebrew bible’s creation stories, considering afresh possible implications of God creating the first people in God’s image and placing them in a garden to live reciprocally with the rest of creation.
The Art of Leading Collectively is a timely redefinition of leadership, and this book furthers the conversation in some very important ways. I commend it to you.
peace, dwight
