I just finished a short, but very strong book, entitled, “When Leadership and Discipleship Collide”.   It’s written by Bill Hybels, and it gave me some great insight as to what to do when the laws of leadership and demands of discipleship get in the way of each other.  Anyway, here are a few of the comments he made that I’ve been thinking about. 

“Hands down, the single most impressive leader in the history of the world is Jesus of Nazareth.”

“No leader has ever cast a more expansive or breathtaking vision…No leader ever built a higher-impact team with less talent to work with.  No leader ever instilled deeper values or inspired people more than Jesus Christ- in many cases, enough for them to die for the cause…no leader has ever changed the course of human history the way Jesus did…and is still doing, more than two thousand years later.”

“Laws of leadership are really just descriptions of hard-learned lessons that, for hundreds of years, leaders have come to view as valuable guides toward mission achievement.”

“Christian leaders above all others (should) strive to be the most devoted, most faithful, most astute learners of leadership’s laws.” 

“In my opinion, good teaching will never be enough to build the kingdom of God.  But combine good teaching with great leadership, and watch what God will do!” 

“In those rare cases when the human laws of leadership and the scriptural demands of discipleship do collide, decide on the side of discipleship every time”

“From time to time, leadership lessons from the secular world do not translate well into the arena of kingdom building, and, as ministry leaders , we must remember that our operating values and our ultimate marching orders come from only one book- a book that is God breathed, Spirit inspired, perfect in its content, unchanging in its ability to transform lives”

This is another one of those books that I would probably recommend for pastors and leaders in the church only, but nonetheless, I really enjoyed reading it. 

I just wrapped up another book over the weekend.  I don’t know if you’ve ever read anything by John Ortberg, but his books tend to be very practical and encouraging.  This one was no different.  I enjoyed reading it and I just thought I’d post of few of the things I underlined as I was reading. 

“The problem with spending your life climbing up the ladder is that you will go right past Jesus, for he’s coming down.”

“Trusting God means learning to let go of each moment so I am free to fully inhabit the next one.”

“It is possible to have a barn full of money and a boatload of talent and movie star good looks and still be poor.”

“The world gets pretty tired of people who have Christian bumper stickers on their cars, Christian fish signs on their trunks, Christian books on their shelves, Christian stations on their radios, Christian jewelry around their necks, Christian videos for their kids, and Christian magazines for their coffee tables but don’t actually have the life of Jesus in their bones or the love of Jesus in their hearts.”

“The early church did not explode the way it did because people figured out how to reduce worship, prayer, serving, and community to marble-size mini-commitments that fit in around life as usual. Life as usual had to go. And it had to be replaced with something better.”

“God had given each of us a day with the same amount of time, and it is enough time to do what God wants us to do.”

“You are where and who you are for a reason.”

“If we are not completely satisfied with all this world has to offer, perhaps we were made for another world.”

“One of the great illusions of our day is that we can have Jesus’ life without following Jesus’ way.”

Anyway, those are just a few of the thoughts that stuck with me.  If you love books that are practical and helpful as strive to follow Christ, then I think this one would be right up your ally.