When Mark Connolly – call him an “immovable object” – met Linda Smith – call her an “irresistible force” – a new and dynamic ministry emerged. Smith, an advocate in the battle against human trafficking, is a no-nonsense woman: “I’m interested in talking with anybody who’s serious about doing anything other than talking,” she says. She had already decided that speaking at churches didn’t deserve her time. “Often the American church took a lot of work.And if I went everywhere that everybody wanted me to speak, I couldn’t do the work.”

You have a problem — it’s your senior leader. Not all of us face the problem, but many of us do. The reality of the problem may have taken you by surprise. Perhaps some wise friend forewarned you before you took the job. Either way, you know it now. You have a problem — it’s your boss. Every leader suffers from some degree of personal dysfunction. After all, every one of us struggles with sin. Yet an alarming reality strikes those of us in upper leadership: Many senior leaders bring some major dysfunction into the church’s leadership culture.

Church staffs are typically dominated by men, aside from clerical staff, and author Shaunti Feldhahn, writing in The Male Factor (Multnomah, 2009), says that the church is cheated in the depth of its leadership because women are, for the most part, excluded. “The most important problem involves the impact on the mission of the church. Without at all intending it and with the best of intentions, many churches by lacking female perspective in leadership may be limiting the effectiveness or reach of the work God intends for them to do,” she says. Her book is based on extensive research and she brings years of corporate human development work to this book, and related previous ones.