Leadership is within the range of a lot more people than we realise. For someone taking their first steps into leadership I’d urge the following “first eleven” to be read – in this order…
#1 Nehemiah
The secret of this book is the way every characteristic of Nehemiah’s leadership (and there are so many!) can be placed within a divine frame. This is the first basic lesson of leadership: we are only ever sub-contractors to God, the Leader. God is at work through a disciplined and focused and consecrated leader. No pyrotechnics like in Exodus. Nothing miraculous. Just a lot of hard work under the ‘gracious hand of my God.’
#2 Ajith Fernando, Jesus Driven Ministry (Crossway, 2002)
Just what the doctor ordered! A gospels-centered reflection on leadership (and discipleship) from a Sri Lankan who stands aside from the North American adrenalin rush (but is also immersed in it from time to time) – quietly and clearly calling us back to Jesus. And typical Ajith – he does it with such a vulnerability.
#3 Henri Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus (Crossroad, 1993)
Like #2, here is an antidote for the purely managerial/corporate approach to leadership with which we can so easily be seduced today. Based on the temptations of Jesus, this takes two hours to read and needs to be read every year by every leader.
#4 JO Sanders, Spiritual Leadership (Marshall Morgan, 1978)
Sure – it is a bit dated now … but it has been viewed as the classic all around the world for more than a generation. Arguably (and I’d argue for it pretty hard!), the most widely read book ever written by a Kiwi Christian.
#5 Henry & Richard Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership (Broadman & Holman, 2001)
I keep being drawn back to the way this book seamlessly weaves biblical insight with ‘secular’ wisdom to create a pretty comprehensive book on leadership. Still my pick for a basic ‘textbook’ if I ever get to the stage of teaching in this area…
#6 James Kouzes & Barry Posner, The Leadership Challenge (Jossey-Bass, 2002)
I will be forever indebted to this author combo. A decade ago, as I journeyed towards a job that was well beyond my skill-set and experience-base, a friend suggested the first edition to me. It strengthened my arm. It whispered in my ear that it could be done. The book is now in its third edition … I rest my case!
#7 Peter Cammock, The Dance of Leadership (Prentice Hall, 2001)
I just find this interplay between ‘skill’ and ‘soul’ as the key to effective leadership so compelling. Leadership is not just about filling a tool box, it is about refining a character! He is a professor at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch.
#8 David Dotlich & Peter Cairo Unnatural Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2002)
A hobby horse I have been riding for a long time is the way a ‘spiritual gifts’ culture so often provides little incentive to work away at weaknesses – or to hear God’s call to do something that we are not good at. Here is a book that identifies ten leadership instincts that are “unnatural”, ‘going against initution and experience’, and which can develop us further as leaders. Its gotta be good for you…
#9 Max De Pree, Leading Without Power (Jossey-Bass, 1997)
Just the title will do fine! In a world where ‘power’ has replaced ‘truth’ as the currency of concern, the art of providing influence and direction without displays of power must be where it is at.
#10 Robert Banks & Bernice Ledbetter, Reviewing Leadership (Baker, 2004)
The authors stand back, consider the glut of books on leadership over the past twenty years, and provide a book-length review of what has happened from within a refreshingly biblical framework. It just has to be compulsory reading for every established Christian leader.
#11 Manfred Kets de Vries, The Leadership Mystique (Prentice Hall, 2001)
Established Christian leaders have been around long enough to discover the ‘dark side’ of leadership and just how sin and evil seeps into people (starting with us!) and systems. Not since #6 in 1997 have I found a book on leadership so helpful to my own journey…
Gee?! Am I already up to eleven?! There are so many more…
Oh dear – let’s pretend that we have a ’12th man’ and a substitute fielder as well, OK?
#12th man?
Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell, Shackleton’s Way (Penguin, 2002)
Just make sure you read it in during a ‘drinks break’ … I started it in the heat of battle and the unattainably ‘heroic’ in Shackleton pretty much sunk me in cold and iceberg-ridden waters. But it is just loaded with insight and ideas to which I have returned for real benefit. The fact that it is a real story helps a lot.
a substitute fielder?
Walter Wright, Relational Leadership (Paternoster, 2000)
Here is a phrase that is as far from being oxymoronic as it is possible to go. They go together – but it is not always easy to put them together from day to day. A bit like #5, I like the way he moves from the biblical material (a heavy reliance on the letter of Jude) into the accumulated wisdom – from wherever – on what it means to be relational.
Well – that’s where I am at just at this moment. I’d be interested in hearing what books others have found to be helpful, if you are so inclined! That will ensure that next year’s ‘first eleven’ will be different…
nice chatting
Paul
About Me
the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
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Thanks Paul. I’m printing out your blog and heading to a library. If only we heard more stuff like this – about leadership, about mission, about… you name it. Any antidote to a “success” self-sufficient way of living, particularly where we hear that within the church, has to be good. Look forward to your 2nd eleven!
Hi Paul,
I am very slowly working my way through your list thanks for sharing it. This is a very predictable comment from me but I just have to ask – Where are the women writing on Christian/biblical leadership?
It does say something, doesn’t it Christina?!
Ironically, in two critical areas for leadership in the 21st century(team-building and emotional intelligence), I have heard it argued by people who know their stuff that women may have a stronger inclination to do these things better than men…
Of the books in my list, only the Shackleton one is written by women, while Bernice Ledbetter co-authored the one with Rob Banks.
I did almost add Barbara Kellerman’s Bad Leadership (Harvard Business School, 2004). She works her way through various dark sides to leadership: incompetent, rigid, intemperate, callous, corrupt, insular, and evil … It is full of real life examples (at a quick count, 25 men and 3 women!)
Hi again
I think this is an issue that also relates to your post on inspiration and aspiration. My current student leaders are currently being well inspired by some great biblical teachers (both local and international). But just last night I was disucssing with a student leader that although these male scholars are inspriational it is hard for them to be aspirational figures for my current crop of female student leaders.
Yes, Christina – that is a stand-out example of the value of the ‘aspiration’ that lies beyond ‘inspiration’. I keep a mental note of aspirational women and draw on them repeatedly in the training context at Carey.
Another equally troubling area is the one of ethnicity – particularly as it relates to Maori and Pacific peoples.
There is a lot of work to be done!
Maybe a key reason there are more male authors on the list is that there are more male leaders! Just a simple fact of numbers?
Hi Paul,
Like your list. Can I add “Empowered Church Leadership: Ministry in the Spirit According to Paul” by Brian J Dodd (IVP). (After all I’m a rugby man.) Main title not great (as the author notes) but this gives a clear biblical call in contrast to the culturally mandated corporate models of leadership. And sorry, Brian is not a woman either.
Yes, John … actually I have that one and have read it as well. It is worthy of mention as an astute engagement with biblical material with an eye on today. Thanx