Polycentric Leadership

Collaborative, communal leadership empowering multiple centers of influence

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Possible Interview Topics

1. Polycentric Leadership – a fresh leadership model for today’s modern contexts

  • Why? This is Handley’s signature work articulating a fresh model of decentralized, collaborative leadership suited to global networks.
  • Focus: Framing discussions on global leadership, networks, power dynamics, and post-Western mission. Here are 3 themes a podcaster could shape the conversation around:
    • 1.1 – What Are the Six Traits of a Polycentric Leader?
      Unpack trust-building, collaboration, character, and other defining qualities of this model.
    • 1.2 – Leading Across Cultures Without Dominating: Lessons for the Global Church
      Discuss how polycentric leadership challenges Western-centric models and empowers Majority World voices.
    • Navigating Complexity: Why Polycentric Leadership Works in Times of Crisis and Change
      Explore how this model offers adaptive capacity for mission, business, and church leadership today.
  • Primary Resources:

2. Helping leaders to thrive and lead well during challenges and disruption

  • Why? Handley can highlight the perspective of over 50 global voices reflecting on how Christ-centered leaders can thrive through crisis and transition.
  • Focus: Exploring resilience, spiritual formation, and character in leadership. 3 themes a podcaster could shape the conversation around:
    • 2.1 – Resilient Leadership: How Do You Lead When Everything Shakes?
      Insights from leaders who endured crises—from pandemics to persecution.
    • 2.2 – Rooted Before Ready: Why Spiritual Formation Matters More Than Ever
      The critical role of prayer, Scripture, and soul care in lasting leadership.
    • 2.3 – Leading with Hope in the Fog of Uncertainty
      How Christian leaders can offer presence and peace even when they don’t have all the answers.
  • Primary Resource:

3. Insight, perspective, and vision from kingdom leaders in Asia

  • Why? Handley helped shape this project to spotlight Asian Christian leaders and their unique contributions to theology and mission.
  • Focus: Discussions on contextual theology, Majority World leadership, and decolonizing mission. 3 themes a podcaster could shape the conversation around:
    • 3.1 – Listening to the East: What the Western Church Must Learn
      How humility and mutuality can reshape global mission partnerships.
    • 3.2 – From Honor-Shame to Harmony: How Asian Theology Speaks to Global Realities
      Discuss how Asian cultural paradigms enrich our understanding of the gospel and leadership.
    • 3.3 – Emerging Asian Leaders: A Rising Generation with Global Impact
      Profiles of leaders and their vision for mission in the 21st century.
  • Key Resources:
    • Eastern Voices: Insight, Perspective, and Vision from Kingdom Leaders in Asia, Vol.1, A3 Publications, 2017.
    • website: https://easternvoices.org – short video interviews with several authors of this book

4. Developing leaders of character for the global church – perspective from Lausanne Movement

  • Why? Based on an article written about the 4th Lausanne Congress, emphasizing spiritual formation and Christlike character as foundational to leadership.
  • Focus: Talking about mentorship, integrity, and long-term influence. 3 themes a podcaster could shape the conversation around:
    • 4.1 – What Makes a Leader Truly Christlike?
      From charisma to character: shifting the foundation of leadership.
    • 4.2 – Mentoring for the Long Haul: The Quiet Power of Life-on-Life Leadership
      Handley’s own journey and how mentorship shapes sustainable mission leadership.
    • Beyond Performance: Forming the Inner Life of a Leader
      Practices, habits, and disciplines that cultivate integrity and influence.
  • Primary Resource:
    • “Developing Leaders of Christ-like Character”, Joseph W. Handley, Jr., article in Global Missiology, April 2025.

5. The Essential Call for Collaboration in Mission – Why? A powerful call for unity in disciplemaking across denominational, generational, and global boundaries.

  • Focus: Exploring mission collaboration, unity, and disciplemaking strategies. Here are 3 themes a podcaster could shape the conversation around:
    • The Great Collaboration: Why Unity Is the Key to Global Disciplemaking
      How mission silos hinder progress and what true partnership looks like.
    • 5.2 – From Competition to Cooperation: Building Networks of Trust in the Church
      Practical ways ministries and churches can collaborate without losing identity.
    • 5.3 – The Spirit Leads Us Together: Polycentric Collaboration and the Mission of God
      How the Holy Spirit draws diverse leaders together for global impact.
  • Primary Resource:
    • “The Great Collaboration”, Joseph W. Handley, Jr., Evangelical Review of Theology, Vol. 47 No. 3 (2023).