Designed To Lead
Authors
Eric Geiger and Kevin Peck
Category
Leadership/Pastoral Ministry/Discipleship
Summary
The driving conviction of Designed To Lead is that no organization, institution, or community should ever outpace the church in developing leaders to bless the world through all spheres of life. The Church, and more particularly, the local church, should be the greatest factory for producing leaders. The primary reason for this is because Jesus, the Head of the Church, was the greatest leader to ever walk the earth. If we are engaged in discipleship, and becoming like him, we should be growing as leaders who bless the world.
Talking about leadership development is not uncommon, but actually developing leaders is. There must be a strategy for this to happen or it will live in the land of ideas that never come to fruition. The strategy outlined in Designed To Lead is expressed in Chapter 1, “For leaders to be developed consistently and intentionally, churches must possess conviction, culture, and constructs.” The triad of conviction, culture, and constructs are the mile-markers on the road to leading a church that not only develops some leaders, but creates a culture of leadership development. Chapters 2-8 outline in detail the finer details of these three points.
In Chapter Seven, some very practical helps around constructs are offered to think through how people actually change. They write, “The sweet spot of leadership development is the intersection of knowledge, experiences, and coaching.” If we want to develop leaders, we must teach them both leadership in general and job specific tasks in particular. They must gain experience in doing it. They need coaching and feedback. The knowledge important for developing leaders is discipleship, vision, strategy, collaboration, people development, and stewardship. Chapter 8 closes out the main themes by outlining the leadership pipeline: Lead Yourself – Lead Others – Lead Leaders – Lead Ministries. This process and strategy gives people clear and precise steps for developing as a leader.
Designed To Lead succeeds in supplying both a philosophy of leadership development for the church and practical steps for how to actually do it in your local context.
Benefit for Pastoral Ministry
If you are a pastor, then you likely agree wholeheartedly with the great Charles Spurgeon’s assessment when he says, “The church is the hope of the world.” Because the church carries the only message that can transform the human heart and change an eternal destiny, the church has a significant mission. The local church has a massively important role. For this reason, every local church deserves to be well fed and well led, to the glory of God.
However, good preaching is not enough. Solid theology and pastoral counsel is not enough. If a pastor can parse Greek, but does not know how to lead a meeting, develop people, or move the church toward Great Commission faithfulness, the church will struggle. Pastors must feed and lead to be effective. Neither can be neglected. Significant missions need magnificent leaders. Leaders who feel the gravity of the mission are always learning and striving to grow in their own leadership. Designed To Lead is a substantial contribution to pastors and leaders who take serious the challenge to develop leaders in their churches. Look for it to become a staple on seminary syllabus’ and in pastors’ libraries for years to come.
Rating
Essential — Recommended — Helpful — Pass It By
Recommendation: The world needs God-honoring leaders who provide God-glorifying leadership, and this book gives a blueprint for making your church the epicenter of that vision.
