Add This To Your TBR List
Over the summer months it try to keep things a bit lighter - I will share a book, podcast, a short note on something… just to stay in touch… but nothing too heavy as we begin what I hope will be some hotter weather. To kick things off… I’m talking about a spicy “brisket”! It looks like I’ve failed before I’ve even got out of the gate.
I'll be honest with you. I came to Brené Brown's new book Strong Ground: The Lessons of Daring Leadership, the Tenacity of Paradox, and the Wisdom of the Human Spirit with wide eyed interest and left with a full belly of admiration.
But the journey between those two places had a few bumps worth naming, because I suspect some of you might feel them too.
First, the bumps
Brown is, apparently, a fan of every sport. Every team. Every game. From F1 to Arsenal to San Antonio. If you are someone who, like many of us in ministry, struggles to carve out time to follow even one thing you might actually enjoy… the casual dropping of sports loyalty after sports loyalty can land less like connection and more like a quiet reminder of a life you don't quite have. Also, she has a coach, a therapist, a personal trainer... and who knows who else... how does this human have space for all of this and write books and talk all over the world.
Now maybe it was because I listened to the book with Brené reading with her signature Texas drawl... and at 1.5 speed... I’m telling you, it was like a firehose. I noticed something reactive rising in me, and I sat with it for a while. I was taught long ago that when you sense resentment percolating sometimes it is linked to a deep longing within your own being.
And then there's the architecture of the book itself. Strong Ground is, in many ways, a beautifully curated collection… it has references to podcasts, researchers, thinkers, writers, interviews. At times I found myself wondering: is this a book, or is it a very long, (don’t get me wrong) very good set of footnotes? It's like a massive brisket, generously assembled, with Brené's signature Texas dry rub. There's a lot of meat here. But the seasoning is hers, and the sourcing sometimes raises the question of what counts as writing a book in 2025.
But here’s where I landed: that tension is actually the point.
Because Strong Ground is, at its core, a book about leading in a world of overwhelming input, paradox, and complexity and Brown has written it from inside that world rather than above it. Her central argument is that real leadership isn't built on control, ego, or the performance of certainty but instead it’s built on being rooted in your values, poised in complexity, and willing to hold paradox without flinching.
For those of us in ministry, that's not a business principle. That's a spiritual practice.
Brown challenges the idea that confidence built on over-compensation or control has any real staying power, arguing instead that genuine strength comes from the harder, quieter work of connection, reflection, and humility. Sound familiar? It is the source of what we seek to be “grounded” in found in the stories of God and God’s people.
Perhaps the most quietly powerful line in the book is this: “when people feel truly seen and that they belong, they don't simply conform to the culture around them they help it grow into something fuller.” (which is actually from another of her books originally!)
For those of you leading congregations, committees, or communities in the middle of deep uncertainty, that sentence is worth sitting with for a long time.
Strong Ground won't be the last word on courageous leadership. But it is a generous, well-sourced, and genuinely useful gathering of voices around a question our communities desperately need us to be asking.
And sometimes, a good brisket is exactly what the table needs (unless you are vegetarian… in that case, maybe a sizable portobello mushroom would suffice).
We live in an age of overwhelming information, expert voices, and endless reference points. I’m probably contributing to that overwhelm myself! How do you curate what you bring to your community… and what do you leave out? Or keeping on the dining theme: What’s your dry rub?
I’d love to hear from you on this.
And if you end up reading Brené's book this summer… let me know what you thought.