Leading from Below

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Leading from Below

Lessons from the Crucible of Global Mission

William D. Taylor

Now Available for Pre-order!

Publication Date: March 18, 2025

Follow the downward path of the cross

What does it mean to lead from a position of humility, calling, and service? In Leading from Below, Bill Taylor shares insights learned from six decades of cross-cultural ministry. This narrative theology combines elements of autobiography, theological insight, and practical guidance where leadership lessons emerge more from the crucible of life rather than books, podcasts, or seminars.

Bill’s honest stories reflect vulnerability but also the strength to live into the sometimes-painful, often-inscrutable promises of God. He reflects on his Third Culture Kid life, grapples with the slippery slogans of missions, encounters the Holy Spirit in new dimensions of presence and power, and seeks to make sense of the many mistakes he made. He concludes with a series of reflections on leadership and finishing well.

Leading from Below is both inspirational and instructive. It is designed to encourage and equip leaders with a framework of leading with integrity and a Christ-centered perspective.

Endorsements

Leading from Below opens a window into the person who taught me so much about true leadership, igniting a transformative shift in my own leadership style. With captivating storytelling and remarkable wisdom, this book uncovers a beacon of inspiration for potential, emerging leaders, and seasoned visionaries alike. Taylor’s vulnerable narrative and stories contradict conventional leadership paradigms. It courageously adopts a unique perspective, “leading from below,” demonstrating the profound impact of leading from a position of service, humility, empathy, and collegiality that results in flourishing from within the ranks. All leaders will be challenged by its central message to embrace servant leadership, challenge the status quo, unlock their own leadership potential, make a positive impact that transcends titles and positions, and, finally, finish well. 

Adriaan Adams, South Africa Focus Team Leadership Training WEA-Mission Commission
Good leaders are gold. Many leaders are mediocre, and all are imperfect, but leadership skills can be learned. Some of those lessons pop up in this book. Leaders do have a job to do.  It is not enough to be mellow, sitting around with a default smile. Yet even when leaders chase good goals, they can run roughshod over people and charge down blind alleys. Humility and radical listening must balance determination and persistence. This book shows how Bill Taylor honed skills and character in order to learn to lead. 

Miriam Adeney, PhDAssociate Professor Emerita of World Christian Studies, Seattle Pacific University Author, Kingdom Without Borders: The Untold Story of Global Christianity
Bill, that pioneer reflective practitioner who transcends generational gaps to mentor across cultures, has taught me so much about global leadership. His candid and vulnerable writing illustrates authentic leadership at its best, a reality our generation longs to see. Skillfully blending leadership theory and practice, he shows how we can learn intercultural competencies on the go. He exemplifies how a global leader can remain accountable to one’s family and receive corrections. I have witnessed his refusal to sacrifice his family by sacrificing his own desires and ambitions and thus embrace the crucible. Without hesitation I endorse this book, a study of global missional leadership enlivened with case studies, sound theology, practical lessons, and reflective questions.

John Amalraj, PhD Candidate Former National Director, Interserve India Reflective Practitioner, WEA-Mission Commission
If you want to be a Christian leader, beware of reading this book! William Taylor has crafted a masterpiece on the dangers of leadership in the modern world, providing practical principles out of his life experience to serve as the Lord Jesus calls you. The Lord will prick your conscience, and you will be challenged to correct your course.

Foley Beach Former Archbishop and Primate, Anglican Church in North America
In the end, Bill Taylor argues leadership is about two things we normally do not tie to discussions of this theme: empowering others and leading from below (as you encourage others to do the same). This book takes a rich lifetime of experience on a global level and shows how God took a third culture kid and empowered him through hard lessons learned to teach others these values. You also get a glimpse at the complexities, tapestry, and tensions that is the global church God has formed. This book will make you pause and think, to reflect on how God works in a myriad of ways and an array of spaces. Bill, you have followed him well and showed us a better way. 

Darrell L. Bock, PhD Executive Director for Cultural Engagement, Howard G. Hendricks Center for Christian Leadership and Cultural Engagement Senior Research Professor of New Testament, Dallas Theological Seminary
One of the quintessential acts of a leader is to steward, and this book is both the story of a life-long steward, and an act of stewardship itself: Bill gifts us with the story of his leadership journey, deeply reflected upon, and told with exceptional authenticity and transparency. He invites the next generation of leaders to gather with him—not on some majestic outcropping of rock jutting from the summit of his life—but far below where the path of suffering and the cross has led him to the green, finishing-well foothills of life. Only from the viewpoint of his 83 years can he write with such insight on finishing well—finishing seasons within life, and the ultimate finishing at the end of life. 

Joshua Bogunjoko, MD, Nigeria Former International Director, SIM
The accounts of biblical characters remind us that the redemptive work of God in our lives can only be fully understood retrospectively. In various moments of our lives, we might be confused or over-confident, vulnerable or victorious, insecure or triumphant. Bill Taylor knows all these feelings. In his retrospective look at almost six decades of Christian of cross-cultural ministry, Bill takes us faithfully, vulnerably, and honestly through lessons he has learned, and mistakes made. He concludes with transparent insights on growing old and finishing well. Leading from Below is an outstanding life summary from a global pilgrim living out the words of John the Baptist: “Jesus must increase but I must decrease.” 

Paul Borthwick Senior Consultant, Development Associates International
Years of leadership lessons Bill learned on his rollercoaster ride through life are encapsulated in this book. You will discover a missiologist who is not afraid to be honest, humble, and vulnerable, providing opportunities for reflection on our own lives so that we may emerge from the furnace better able to lead as Christ led. Bill’s unconventional, relational character has impressed and inspired me each time our paths intersected. A must read for leaders who wish to “Finish well!”  

Rev. Esmé Bowers, South Africa Director for Church in Community, WEA