Quietly Courageous: Leading the Church in a Changing World

Gil Rendle is on a very short list of our wisest guides in the practice of leadership in the United Methodist Church. And for those of us tempted toward a nostalgia that is avoidance, an empathy that is unhelpful, and a weariness that is escapist, he urges us to engage with courage and conviction. Quietly Courageous is the summation of decades of persistent attention and deep learning about how we have come to this place, and who God calls us to be in service to the mission. -- Kenneth H. Carter Jr., president of the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church; author of Embracing the Wideness

Quietly Courageous reveals that we ‘are not the product of things gone wrong but rather of the world grown different.’Rendle brings his prophetic powers of observation to bear on the assumptions and temptations standing between us and more effective leadership. The reader emerges from this book with a fresh framing of where we stand, how we got here, and what needs to happen next. -- Susan Beaumont, author of Inside the Large Congregation

Gil Rendle has more than a bit of quiet courage as he engages the challenges facing pastors and congregations in this new mission age. He pulls apart the norms and practices that have become our shackles. Seeing the wilderness as an opportunity, Rendle then leads the reader into a reflection that allows humble movement toward God’s imagined mission. -- C. Andrew Doyle, Episcopal bishop; author of Vocãtiõ: Imaging a Visible Church

Gil Rendle compassionately turns us away from our preoccupation with feeding old anxieties about how to lead our organizations. He walks with us toward a newfound courage to be discovered within the deep waters of yet unimagined possibilities -- Thomas V. Wolfe, President and CEO, Iliff School of Theology