For the both of you who got hot under the collar because I interviewed the founder of Leaders Book Summaries last month (you both had an allergic reaction to the word “leaders”), I wish to remind you of three things:
1. I have NEVER been anti-leader or anti-leadership.
2. I have said repeatedly (and ad nausea) that leadership exists. It can be good or bad, helpful or hurtful, but leaders are and leadership is. It’s organic to the DNA of the ekklesia.
3. I’ve also pointed out that EVERY believer is a leader in some sphere. I couldn’t have made that point clearer than in Reimagining Church.
Now that we’ve put that to rest :-), I sampled the Leaders Book Summaries service recently and here are my candid feelings about it.
1. The service gives readers a nice catalog of books to choose from. Most of them will be of help to anyone in ministry or interested in ministry of any type.
2. I chose Why Men Hate Church to be the one I sampled.
3. The summary for this book is a PDF that’s 15 pages long. It only took several minutes to read, and from it, I got the main points of the book.
4. By my estimation, readers who take advantage of the service can get a summary of around 30 books in a week or less, digesting the main ideas for each volume. I love this idea!
5. The service also give you an option to get the PDF in a single column or more. Nifty.
6. The only criticism I have about this is that I want to see more books added to the service. Here are some I would suggest.
The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee
An Army of Ordinary People by Felicity Dale
Of my own:
Those three books are geared for those who influence.
So I hope these get added.
Shocking Beliefs of Jonathan Edwards
Kinda shocking to hear of people being against leaders and leadership. Not having the gift, I’ve learned that those who have it are able to get people not only to do what they don’t want to do, but get them also to want to do it. It’s supernatural. (like all the gifts) As long as Jesus Christ is the acting Chief Shepherd and us, His willing servants – gifts of administration, leadership, communication help enormously in bringing continuity of our common life together, not to mention extending ministry beyond the statis quo. I don’t have any of those gifts, but have seen that when they are missing, we lose our connection with what our Lord is doing beyond our own little lives and ministries.
Why don’t we just do what Jesus told His church to do? “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, and TEACHING THEM TO OBEY ALL HE COMMANDED?” Why do we need so many ‘how to do it’ books when Jesus told us that in baptism we die, and it is now He who lives His life through us. If we simply read what Jesus said and did it, we would see transformation in our nation and world.
Grace, perhaps one reason is that Jesus taught a whole lot more than that one statement that He gave to His original apostles, and (further) that particular statement has been so misunderstood and applied in evangelical circles that it’s damaged many souls. God still speaks through His Body, and He’s placed teachers in the church for her benefit. That’s not changed.
Reading what Jesus said and did doesn’t transform people. Learning to live by His Life as He lived by His Father’s life is what transforms. So yes, we need resources that teach God’s people how to do this. Because most believers have little idea.