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This month I’m reading… 

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Metamorph: Transforming your life and leadership By Kate Coleman (978-1955142601, 100 Movements Publishing)    

This book is such a refreshing change to most leadership books I’ve read. Rather than focusing on cultivating more knowledge and outward signs of success, it looks at the heart – a sadly often overlooked yet vital aspect of leadership – as well as how to facilitate ongoing, transformative practices and behaviours. Rev Dr Kate Coleman has got great credentials for writing such a book: the founding director of Next Leadership she has worked in the Church, charity, voluntary and business sectors as well as mentoring and coaching leaders.

There are two subtitles for this book – the second says: “Inspired wisdom from the extraordinary, ordinary people of the Bible.” Broken down into four parts, the book leads us to consider ourselves through the power of stories – after part one introduces the concept of metamorphosis, parts two through to four (transforming identity, transforming community and transforming mission) are centred around biblical characters (such as Moses, Esther and the woman at the well), drawing out principles that are then applied to our context and time so well – with contemporary case study examples from people Kate has worked with. 

At the end of each section are questions to ponder both as individuals but also within teams/peer or mentoring groups as appropriate. There is also a section set aside for prayer.

You start the book by saying you weren’t in the “best of places” when you started writing it.

Just before I started writing, I was easily having one of the most intense years of my life. I faced a deluge of things that seemed to come at me from every angle: spiritual, emotional, physical, mental, material, financial. Although it was an incredibly challenging time it also turned out to be powerfully catalytic for me! The gift of being forced to slow down as a result of being fast-tracked into multiple surgeries allowed God to get my attention in a way that might not have been possible under normal circumstances. In short, I started to reflect on what truly mattered, and everything I’d been thinking, writing, talking and praying about for years began to come together in a whole new way. Metamorph was the result of this ‘moment’ of clarity.

How has the landscape changed for leaders over the last few decades, and why do you think so many seem ill-equipped to deal with the changes?

We are easily living in one of the most rapidly changing landscapes and moments in history. The situations we face are also more complex and more interconnected than ever before. This means leaders can no longer rely on existing paradigms or on our old approaches. Trying to lead out of what worked for us yesterday, rather than from what is needed for the changing world we actually live in, simply will not work anymore. These challenges require leaders to enlarge their hearts and expand their minds rather than cling to what they know. However, thinking and leading in new ways and alongside a far greater diversity of leaders seems to be a stretch too far for many leaders and many simply don’t make the necessary transition. We’re definitely in the midst of a ‘new wine for new wineskins’ moment for leadership.

What do you mean by the term metamorphosis in terms of leadership?

Most people think of caterpillars turning into butterflies when they hear the word metamorphosis, for good reason. In other words, it’s all about transformation. It’s the same idea for us as leaders: we’re also supposed to be one thing changing into something fundamentally different on the inside, metanoia (ie open to new ways of thinking) as well as on the outside, metamorphosis (ie continually adjusting our practices, habits and behaviours) to suit the demands of the day. 

A metamorph understands that true acts of transformation in our world are impossible unless we are experiencing personal transformation too. 

What can we learn from Eastern and Global South thinkers in terms of change and development, and how do you see them reflecting a biblical approach? 

Eastern and Global South thinkers tend to see development as a cycle rather than a straight path toward something ‘better’ and ‘bigger’, which is what lies behind many Western ideas about growth. They value the quality of change and transformation more than just gaining information and knowledge. They also tend to prioritise the wellbeing of the community and collective voices over individual desires and achievements. In Eastern and Global South paradigms, increasing wisdom and experience are the main indicators of growth within individuals, communities and organisations rather than size, wealth and how much power they have over others. 

The people at the centre of most of our Bible stories, the heroes and sheroes of our faith, were drawn not just from the spiritually poor but primarily the socially, politically and economically poor. They knew that things did not necessarily get better or bigger in the way we are often led to aim for. Like many cultures today, the real sign of growth and development lay in their ability to trust God, while accepting and adapting to the positives and negatives of life despite their often-challenging circumstances.

You say: “Whether or not we have truly grasped the full extent of our influence, particularly as women who lead, identifying with Esther’s prophetic significance could profoundly shape our understanding of who we are and what we bring to leadership” – could you describe what you mean by this?

Esther has a prophetic ‘something’ to say to all people of God, women and outsiders because she represents all of these herself. Like Esther, many of us, women in particular, are unaware of our potential and possibilities. Like her, we often discover our purpose and life’s calling in the midst of crises that are much larger than ourselves and are far beyond our personal concerns. We find that God calls us not in spite of but precisely because of who we are! Like Esther, our background, history, story, challenges, difficulties, struggles, joys and breakthroughs are all drawn into God’s plan, purpose and design and God works in and through it all, “for such a time as this”. So, although we don’t always understand the way God works, we should never underestimate what he might choose to work through us.

You believe that as leaders and churches we need to break free from an “upper room mindset” – could you expand on this briefly here?

As I define it, “an upper room mindset” is a comfort zone where leaders and churches can get stuck. It’s a place where they are so invested in the status quo that they become reluctant to change the way they think, believe and behave, including the way they do things and interact with others. In my book I describe it as, “the site of their last success, the last paradigm, the last experience, the last significant encounter, and even the last place that Jesus sent them. We can be trapped in idealized memories of past times, waiting for ‘lightning’ to strike with much the same effect as a previous special moment of brilliance.” Unless leaders and churches break free from their own “upper rooms” they cannot make progress in all God has called them to be or has for them to do.

Which biblical character challenged and perhaps even surprised you the most as you were researching them for the book? 

The woman at the well defies just about everything we’ve been taught to expect our leaders to look like and behave. Many people are unaware of her story beyond the biblical text or that as Photini, one of her titles, is “Great Martyr St Photini, Equal to the Apostles.” She surprises because when people come to her story in John 4, they are typically preoccupied with what Jesus is saying and doing rather than with what Jesus is releasing and empowering her to say, do and become. She teaches us to break out of the limiting mindsets embedded in our surrounding cultures and in our own ways of thinking. She reminds us that we can be powerful agents of change in the world. She’s literally full of surprises!

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Kate Coleman on:

The books that have changed my life

What’s Right with Feminism by Elaine Storkey 

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This was instrumental in changing my mind and invaluable in opening my eyes to the possibilities for women called to leadership. 

Chasing The Dragon by Jackie Pullinger 

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This is a powerful story of what it means to take God seriously, step out and actually do something concrete with our sense of calling even when everything and everybody seems to be against it.

God of the Oppressed by James H. Cone  

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Cone’s book opened my eyes to different ways of understanding what I was reading in the Bible. Reading it freed me to become less of what I’d inherited and more of my consciously black self.

Leading Ladies: Transformative biblical images for women’s leadership by Jeanne Porter King

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Perhaps one of the most important books I have ever read, this was the first book I came across specifically on leadership that was actually written by a black woman (African American). It blew my mind because her vision of what leadership could be was unlike anything I’d ever come across. It taught me how to value my own insights and perspectives.