Mark Sayers, A Non-Anxious Presence: How a Changing and Complex World Will Create a Remnant of Renewed Christian Leaders (affiliate link) (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2022). 205 pages.
I have recently read several books on anxiety. Jonathan Haidt released one on the anxiety the younger generation is experiencing called The Anxious Generation (affiliate link). I also read Alan Fadling’s book A Non-Anxious Life (affiliate link). (Read my review of A Non-Anxious Life here.) The message is clear. With the advent of a digitally connected world and the Covid pandemic, people are experiencing a much more aggravated sense of anxiety than ever before. As a result, leaders— and churches—must discern how to respond.
Sayers is from Australia, and he includes quotes from numerous non-North American authors. I sometimes find that non-North American writers make statements about America that suggest their opinion is based on information they learned from biased news sources. But Sayers seems to have made an effort to be accurate, balanced, and objective in his analysis.
Sayers begins by referencing the catastrophic event in Krakatoa, Indonesia, on August 27, 1883, when a massive volcano erupted. More than 36,000 people were killed, and the island was physically changed. The entire world experienced changes in the atmosphere as a result (19). Although the island was devastated, the tragedy provided an unusual opportunity for new vegetation and growth to appear.
Sayers uses this analogy to describe what is happening in society today. He refers to the shifting eras as the gray zone. He explains that “We are moving into our in-between moment, in which the usual rules do not apply. They are the moments over which the Spirit of God hovers, waiting to bring new creation” (21). He explains that “A gray zone is confusing and contradictory, filled with change and conflict” (22). Further, “gray zones exist in the overlap of two eras. They contain the influence of both the passing and forming era” (23).
Sayers claims that the industrial age is passing. In that age, people thought in linear fashion. They set goals, developed processes, and expected that certain efforts would produce expected results. This system relied on a top-down hierarchy in which leaders were good organizers of people, processes, and resources. But due to the coming of the digital age, the world has become decentralized. There have been many unforeseen events, such as Covid. Systems people used for years are becoming outdated. This shift is stoking anxiety. He suggests that “. . . just as the modern world brings technological breakthroughs and advancements in science, and greater individual freedoms, it also creates anxiety” (36). Sayers argues that today’s leader must learn how to lead in an anxiety-filled world in order to be successful.
Sayers suggests that “. . . God has seeded the world with His dream of renewal. The pattern of Scripture is that this dream is planted within leaders” (33). Sayers suggests that in the gray zone, seeds germinate when enough pressure is applied to them. He cautions that “Our understanding of leadership rests on a set of cultural assumptions. These cultural assumptions are shifting as the world moves into a gray zone” (49). What worked before cannot be expected to be effective in the future.
Sayers points out that we are living in an increasingly secular age. He observes, “The modern world promises progress and perfection without God. Leaders formed by the contemporary world can therefore presume that depending on God is optional” (53). This belief is also evident in the church. Sayers notes that “We are living through a hardware change” (55).
Sayers discusses strongholds. He claims that “Strongholds are humanity’s oldest antidote to anxiety” (59). Sayers outlines several characteristics of strongholds, including formation of a hierarchy, a defining narrative, command of communication, a way of life, and institutions (61). But in the gray zone we have entered, once-trusted strongholds no longer appear adequate, and anxiety is the result.
Sayers suggests that “Once the legitimacy of a stronghold is questioned, it no longer absorbs our anxiety. Instead, it becomes the source of our anxiety” (66). Sayers notes that today’s “world is a system—a complex, connected network” (71, 129). He explores the difference between something that is complicated and something that is complex. Today’s world is complex! It is also decentralized, which makes it far more challenging to organize, lead, or predict.
Sayers notes that gray zones drive tribalism (83). Before the rise of cities, people lived in tribes for their safety. With the dismantling of much that used to bring people security, people are returning to tribes to quell their anxiety. Sayers claims that “Tribes were very mobile, tightly connected, and united in a joint mission to survive without protective walls of a stronghold. They found meaning in the protective stories, shared interests, and tight relational ties of the tribe” (83). With the rise of social media, online tribes are forming in which people can band together against an evil, hostile world. Sayers notes that “For discontents, social media offers a chance to find a lever of protest, to forge new online tribes of the disaffected” (85).
Sayers forecasts that “The future is a decentralized world” (87). He also suggests that “Cancel culture is less a top-down affair as it is a horizontal tactic of networked, informational war. It’s a privatized form of censorship” (94).
Sayers cites Edwin Friedman as someone who foresaw much of what was coming (96). Friedman suggested that “Humans tend toward anxiety” (96). But “Those wishing to chart a healthier direction will face tremendous pressure to adapt to the low emotional health that has captured the system” (97). Sayers suggests that “Life-saving surgery can never occur because all the focus is on immediate pain management” (99).
Sayers notes that “Our digitalized network acts like a super-spreading agent of anxiety with the already existing relational and social networks” (99). Interestingly, Sayers suggests that “the leader’s chief tool of influence is their presence” (100). He adds, “In anxious environments, leaders leverage influence through being a non-anxious presence” (100).
Sayers also addresses what he calls the “comfort zone.” He argues that “Our culture has created the idea of comfort zones, the idea we can be both successful while avoiding discomfort” (103). He points out that “. . . comfort zones are dependent on strongholds and their ability to deliver us comfort and ease” (108). Sayers suggests that “The choice to prioritize comfort, ease, and good feelings above growth is the choice to embrace and accept personal, spiritual, and emotional immaturity” (111).
Today’s world is increasingly complex. Sayers notes that “Covid was a complex event occurring in a complex world” (131). Many churches were operating with systems they assumed were predictable and manageable. When Covid did not follow the usual rules, many church leaders didn’t know how to respond. Sayers shares an interesting observation from Alan Hirsh, who noted that when chess players are trying to develop their skill in using all of their pieces, they try playing without their queen, their most powerful piece (141). Hirsch suggests that when Covid shut down traditional worship services, churches could no longer rely on their most powerful chess piece. They had to use previously underutilized tools. Sayers suggests that “Growth, however, can only occur when there is the right amount of stress” (142). Just as there must be a certain degree of stress on a seed for it to germinate, growth—both personal and organizational—also requires a certain degree of stress.
Sayers’ discussion of kings Saul and David is insightful. He notes that “David cannot win this battle (against Goliath) with someone else’s mantle and with yesterday’s tools” (171). He suggests that “David won the battle by applying the lessons he learned in the wilderness” (172). He adds, “David was a non-anxious presence because he had the presence of God” (175). Sayers quotes Alan Redpath, who observed, “. . . the public anointing was the outcome of what had taken place in private between David and God long before” (177). Sayers has much to say about the usefulness of the wilderness in a Christian leader’s life. The gray zone is a wilderness time. But “Without God’s presence, the wilderness only offers isolation” (178).
In contrast to David, Sayers notes that “the story of Saul is a cautionary tale. It shows us that one of the worst things that can happen to a leader is for them to have success before they have been humbled, broken, prepared by the Lord” (182). He adds of Saul, “Later on, the man who humbly wondered why God had chosen him to be king erected monuments to himself” (183).
I found this book to be interesting and insightful. Sayers’ gray zone seems to explain much of what is happening today. The church has never handled change well, and we are in the midst of change at an unprecedented rate and scale. The strongholds concept certainly can explain much of the anxiety people are currently experiencing.
I like the idea of having a non-anxious life as a major leadership tool in an anxious world. I think Sayers could have spent more time unpacking how to gain a non-anxious life. Alan Fadling’s book A Non-Anxious Life might be helpful at this point. I also would have liked Sayers to elaborate on what a non-anxious congregation might do as it engages with its community. I feel that the church largely missed a wonderful opportunity during the Covid pandemic because it was just as anxious as secular society.
This book offers a fresh perspective on leadership that I will revisit in the years to come. Leaders have always had to keep cool in stressful situations, but this skill will be especially important for future leaders, as the anxiety-inducing aspects of society do not appear to be subsiding.
Rating: 3
