Lead by Paul David Tripp–Book Review

According to author and pastor, Paul Tripp this book:

“… is not about the strategic work of the ministry leadership community, but about practicing and preserving its spiritual depth so it may do its work with long-term faithfulness.”

It is divided into twelve chapters, each devoted to one gospel  principle for leadership in the church.  They are

1. Achievement (A ministry community whose time is controlled by doing the business of the church tends to be spiritually unhealthy)
2. Gospel (If your leaders are going to be tools of God’s grace, they need to be committed to nurturing that grace in one another’s lives)
3.  Limits (Recognizing God-ordained limits of gift, time, energy, and maturity is essential to leading a ministry community well)
4. Balance (Teaching your leaders to recognize and balance the various callings in their life is a vital contribution to their success)
5. Character (A spiritually healthy leadership community acknowledges that character is more important than structure or strategies)
6. War (It is essential to understand that leadership in any gospel ministry is spiritual warfare)
7. Servants (A call to leadership in the church is a call to a life of willing sacrifice and service)
8.  Candor (A spiritually healthy leadership community is characterized by the humility of approachability and the courage of loving honesty)
9. Identity (Where your leaders look for identity always determines how they lead)
10.  Restoration (If a leadership community is formed by the gospel, it will always be committed to a lifestyle of fresh starts and new beginnings)
11. Longevity (For church leaders, ministry longevity is always the result of gospel community)
12.  Presence (When you view them through the lens of presence, power, promises and grace of Jesus)

As you can see, the focus is on the leadership community rather than the leader as an individual.  Every leader is in need of being pastored and led.  The need for humility, transparency and a spirit of servanthood was emphasized. Character and spiritual maturity are to be valued about results

If found the chapter on restoration particularly interesting because it dealt with                something that isn’t often addressed — the need to restore rather than discard leaders who  have fallen in some way.

This would be a great book for any church leadership team to read and discuss together.  I would recommend it.

VERDICT:  4 Stars, only because it became a bit repetitive.

If you would like to purchase this book, follow the link below:

https://www.crossway.org/books/lead-hcj/

The Lutheran Ladies received a review copy of this book in return for a fair and honest review. Disclaimer pursuant to FTC 16 CFR part 255.

Who Me?

Maybe you don’t think you’re not good enough to lead.  You have sins in your past (not to mention present);  you don’t have the right skill set;  you aren’t educated enough and so on.  If you feel this way, take a closer look at some of the great leaders of the Bible.

Jacob was a cheater, Peter had a temper, David had an affair, Noah got drunk, Jonah ran from God, Paul was a murderer, Gideon was insecure, Miriam was a gossip, Martha was a worrier, Thomas was a doubter, Sara was impatient, Elijah was moody, Moses stuttered, Abraham was old,… and Lazarus was dead. God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the CALLED!

I’m not sure where this quote originated, but it hits the nail on the head.  Those Biblical heroes we admire had plenty of problems and flaws.  They weren’t perfect.  They didn’t get it right the first time. They often messed up more than once. They did have one big thing in common:  they loved God and they followed Him.  They allowed Him to take their lives, warts and all, and mold them into vessels He could use.  If you have that quality, you, too can be used by God to lead somebody.  Humility and dependence upon God are key qualities of Christian leadership.

I am reminded of a hymn written by Monsenor Cesareo Gabarin,  who was a  well known composer of Spanish liturgical music.  It’s called “Lord You Have Come to the Lakeshore” and expresses Gabrains’ admiration for the humble Christians he encountered during his ministry.  Here it is.  I think you’ll love it like I do:

Good Leaders Accept Help

“O, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and tongue….please send someone else.”  Exodus 4:10 & 13

Moses, probably the greatest leader in the Old Testament recognized his limitations.  He admitted that he was not good at everything.  He asked God to remove the burden of leadership from him.  Instead, God directs him to a helper, someone with the gift he lacks.

“Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite?  I know that he can speak well. … He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth …” Exodus 4:14-15

Later on, Moses encounters a different problem — time management.  As leader, he is dealing with so many small problems, he can’t get to the bigger ones.  This time, it is his father-in-law, Jethro who gives the advice to delegate.

“Look for able men from all he people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe;  and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.  And let them judge the people at all times.  Every great matter they shall decide themselves.  So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you.”  Exodus 18:21-22

Likewise, in the book of Acts, the twelve apostles found they could not meet all the needs of the growing church.  Some widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.

“Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

We can’t expect our leaders to go it alone.  Good leaders recognize the spiritual gifts of others and they learn to delegate and train.  Maybe the greatest talent of good leaders is to recognize and cultivate the skills of the people around them.

I can see this in my own life.  Leadership is not my strongest spiritual gift, but I have found myself in situations when I am called to lead.  When this happens I know that I need someone with the gift of administration as a strong #2 — I see the goal, but not always the steps that need to be taken to get there.  I also need people with the gift of service — the ones who can just see a task that needs doing, and jump it to take care of it.  For me, leadership is all about assembling the right team–a group who can work together and accomplish great things.

What about you?  What can you do well, and what do you need to delegate?  I’ll be writing more about this in an upcoming post on spiritual gifts.

 

A Flawed Leader

This article was originally published in the October 2009 issue of The Lutheran Ambassador.  I believe that David’s story can give all Christians hope and point us to the most important component of Christian leadership. 

When you think about David what comes image comes into your mind first?  The young shepherd whose faith in God empowered him to face the giant Goliath with only a slingshot?  The King who was so unselfconscious he danced with joy before the Lord?  The sensitive poet and musician who composed many of the Psalms still used in our worship services today?  With God’s help, David was a leader who did great things.  He was a saint.

But David also had a dark side.  He lusted after another man’s wife and took her in adultery.  When she became pregnant, he tried to trick her husband into believing the child was his own.  When it became apparent that his deceit wasn’t going to work, David had him killed.  God punished David by taking the life of the son who resulted from his adulterous liaison.  David did some terrible things.  He was a sinner.

David seemed to do everything in a big way.  He was a fierce soldier–“Saul has killed his thousands and David his tens of thousands (1 Samuel 18:7)–and a charismatic king who united the Jewish nation, brought the ark to Jerusalem and built a palace there.  His magnetic personality attracted both men and women.  Brought to King Saul’s service as a young man, David quickly became a favorite who could calm the King’s terrible moods with his music.  Saul’s son Jonathan loved David with a friendship that was “more wonderful than that of women” (II Samuel 1:26), and Saul’s daughter Michal also loved David and became his wife.  In all David had at least eight wives and 14 children, but his family life was far from successful.  The jealousies that arose between these children of different mothers resulted in so much dysfunction that one brother raped his half-sister, was then killed by another brother who subsequently led a rebellion against his father, David, and was killed himself.

How did this man, a liar, fornicator and murderer, a man who could control armies but not his own children, come to be considered by God, “a man after my heart, who will obey my will (Acts 15:22)?  Why was his family chosen to be the human branch of Christ’s family tree?  David’s story reminds me of a nursery rhyme I learned when I was small about the little girl with the curl down the middle of her forehead:  when she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad she was horrid.  Some of David’s sins were truly horrid.  So why does God hold him up as an example, we should follow?

The reason is simple:  God does not keep score.  The most saintly among us are still sinners and we still need a savior.  David’s good works did not earn him special credit with God and his sins did not preclude him from being Gods’ man.  That slate was wiped clean by Christ’s sacrifice.  It wasn’t anything David did that made God call him “a man after my own heart.”  It must have been something else.  I think the something else was his steadfast and life-long relationship with God.

To be continued tomorrow …..