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Made to Flourish: Beyond Quick Fixes to a Thriving Organization
Every organization is made to flourish. But when problems arise, quick fixes and poor leadership training can drag it down. The key to a thriving team is to look below the surface at the hidden dynamics that can cause it to lose focus, turn inward or even cease to exist. Budget problems, personality conflicts, mission drift, government regulations all these and more can tempt us to respond rapidly and superficially. Shelley Trebesch offers leaders the tools needed to develop practical solutions that actually work. She provides a model for getting a firm hold on the complexities inherent in any team. Diagrams help readers visualize key dynamics while vivid case studies illustrate how to put the book into practice. Here is the book that gives churches, NGOs, mission agencies, parachurch groups, other nonprofits, businesses and teams within these groups what they need. Trebesch charts the path to the life-giving, holistic, fruitful abundance that God intended for organizations and everyone in them."
- GenresLeadership
208 pages, Paperback
First published December 6, 2015
25 people are currently reading
35 people want to read
About the author
Shelley G. Trebesch
2 books4 followersco-cultivating flourishing people and organizations...
Shelley G. Trebesch (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) has served as vice president for capacity development for Prison Fellowship International, as well as assistant professor of leadership and organization development at Fuller Theological Seminary and in Singapore as global director for Membership Development for OMF International. An active consultant, trainer and seminar leader, Trebesch has facilitated complex change processes and developed leadership curricula for churches and organizations around the world.
An avid outdoors person, Shelley skis, sails, and hikes in her free time. When she's not traveling, she divides her time between California and Montana.
Current Project: creating a leader development process for International Care Ministries, an organization that works amongst the ultra poor of the Philippines.
Shelley G. Trebesch (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) has served as vice president for capacity development for Prison Fellowship International, as well as assistant professor of leadership and organization development at Fuller Theological Seminary and in Singapore as global director for Membership Development for OMF International. An active consultant, trainer and seminar leader, Trebesch has facilitated complex change processes and developed leadership curricula for churches and organizations around the world.
An avid outdoors person, Shelley skis, sails, and hikes in her free time. When she's not traveling, she divides her time between California and Montana.
Current Project: creating a leader development process for International Care Ministries, an organization that works amongst the ultra poor of the Philippines.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 7 reviews
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February 9, 2023Read with co-workers.
February 27, 2026
Shelley G. Trebesch draws on her experience in global ministry leadership and organizational development to explore what it really means for Christian leaders and institutions to flourish. This isn’t a hype-driven leadership book. It’s thoughtful, measured, and shaped by years of working with complex organizations navigating change.
Trebesch’s central contribution is her integration of spiritual formation and organizational health. She argues that flourishing isn’t just growth or effectiveness; it’s alignment—mission, culture, systems, and people all pulling in the same direction under God’s purposes. I appreciated the depth and steadiness of her approach. This is a wise and substantive resource for pastors and nonprofit leaders who care about long-term, faithful impact—not just short-term wins.
Trebesch’s central contribution is her integration of spiritual formation and organizational health. She argues that flourishing isn’t just growth or effectiveness; it’s alignment—mission, culture, systems, and people all pulling in the same direction under God’s purposes. I appreciated the depth and steadiness of her approach. This is a wise and substantive resource for pastors and nonprofit leaders who care about long-term, faithful impact—not just short-term wins.
July 18, 2017
Basic primer. Therefore broad at the cost of depth.
September 18, 2024
Some helpful tips of gauging your culture, and setting goals to lead your organization. I focused mainly on these two areas, and skimmed the rest of the book as part of researching for my D.Min.
May 2, 2017
“Made to Flourish” provides helpful and practical filter for cultivating an organizational community where people flourish in productivity and job satisfaction. Trebesch identifies 5 “loops” that can influence the organizational culture, and leaders do well to identify which loops are contributing positively to helping the organization achieve it’s goals, and likewise identifying those loops that create resistance.
Spheres of organizational dynamics are:
• Vision and mission: The reason for existence and what the organization does to achieve it’s goals.
• Faith Assumptions and Values: Controlling mindsets
• Organizational structures and experiences: Policies and procedures
• Individuals and leaders: Relationships and personalities
• Context: Outside influences
To this I would add the Holy Spirit, who intervenes, leads, and acts sovereignly over the above.
Each one of these factors contributes a gravitational pull to the overall culture of the organization. Often the dynamics that shape the culture are hidden, and change only happens as the organization drifts or must respond to crisis. Trebesch provides a framework for a healthier, proactive approach to organizational flourishing.
When the organization is healthy, it brings out the best in people. It’s especially important for the leaders to create and protect space for entrepreneurs – those who are often on the fringes, but who empower movements by challenging the status quo and thinking creatively. Organizations are in trouble when the entrepreneurs no longer want to work within them.
In addition to the loops, various types of organizational structure are discussed with guidelines in how to develop the most appropriate in regard to vision, age, size and health of an organization.
Each loop is unpacked in greater detail with questions to evaluate one’s organization and generate new ideas. The study questions would be helpful for organizational departments and leaders to discuss.
Trebesch summarizes the book this way:
• “The life force of a flourishing organization—its vision, mission, values and faith assumptions—its DNA—is centered
• in a called, committed community shaped by the organization’s faith assumptions and values that
• accomplishes its vision and mission in the reality of each context, which requires constant research and analysis, and leads to
• effective strategies and
• subsequent operations, appropriate for the organization’s values and which form the vision/mission and that support the strategies to produce
• growth and sustainability.
Spheres of organizational dynamics are:
• Vision and mission: The reason for existence and what the organization does to achieve it’s goals.
• Faith Assumptions and Values: Controlling mindsets
• Organizational structures and experiences: Policies and procedures
• Individuals and leaders: Relationships and personalities
• Context: Outside influences
To this I would add the Holy Spirit, who intervenes, leads, and acts sovereignly over the above.
Each one of these factors contributes a gravitational pull to the overall culture of the organization. Often the dynamics that shape the culture are hidden, and change only happens as the organization drifts or must respond to crisis. Trebesch provides a framework for a healthier, proactive approach to organizational flourishing.
When the organization is healthy, it brings out the best in people. It’s especially important for the leaders to create and protect space for entrepreneurs – those who are often on the fringes, but who empower movements by challenging the status quo and thinking creatively. Organizations are in trouble when the entrepreneurs no longer want to work within them.
In addition to the loops, various types of organizational structure are discussed with guidelines in how to develop the most appropriate in regard to vision, age, size and health of an organization.
Each loop is unpacked in greater detail with questions to evaluate one’s organization and generate new ideas. The study questions would be helpful for organizational departments and leaders to discuss.
Trebesch summarizes the book this way:
• “The life force of a flourishing organization—its vision, mission, values and faith assumptions—its DNA—is centered
• in a called, committed community shaped by the organization’s faith assumptions and values that
• accomplishes its vision and mission in the reality of each context, which requires constant research and analysis, and leads to
• effective strategies and
• subsequent operations, appropriate for the organization’s values and which form the vision/mission and that support the strategies to produce
• growth and sustainability.
January 5, 2016
Why do good organizations go off track, lose their focus, become dysfunctional? There are many possible reasons. Shelley Trebesch identifies two common culprits--the quick fix and promoting competent, good-hearted people who are never trained for leadership. The two are too often connected. People who aren’t trained will do their best, but will often try to do it in a hurry.
When something goes wrong, the temptation can be overwhelming for such managers to fix it and fix it now. Too rarely do leaders take the time to see if something more systemic is wrong. As a result, the root problem may never dealt with unintended consequences cascading from the quick fix.
Shelley Trebesch slowly, carefully unpacks the key dynamics of how organizations work so they and the people in them can flourish. Because organizations are living, dynamic organisms and not machines, it’s never simple. But by focusing on key pairs of key ingredients--vision and mission, faith assumptions and values, organizational dynamics and experiences, individuals and leaders--Trebesch helps us get our bearings. (Disclosure: I work for the publisher.)
Full of case studies, charts and helpful sidebars, the beauty of the book is that it is not just for executives but for anyone who leads a team or a department. The principles hold not just for the larger organization but for smaller groups as well.
When something goes wrong, the temptation can be overwhelming for such managers to fix it and fix it now. Too rarely do leaders take the time to see if something more systemic is wrong. As a result, the root problem may never dealt with unintended consequences cascading from the quick fix.
Shelley Trebesch slowly, carefully unpacks the key dynamics of how organizations work so they and the people in them can flourish. Because organizations are living, dynamic organisms and not machines, it’s never simple. But by focusing on key pairs of key ingredients--vision and mission, faith assumptions and values, organizational dynamics and experiences, individuals and leaders--Trebesch helps us get our bearings. (Disclosure: I work for the publisher.)
Full of case studies, charts and helpful sidebars, the beauty of the book is that it is not just for executives but for anyone who leads a team or a department. The principles hold not just for the larger organization but for smaller groups as well.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 7 reviews