Book review: The 360 Degree Leader by John Maxwell

The 360 Degree Leader is a book about leadership for people who are firmly in the middle of their organisation chart – supervisors, assistant managers, managers and so on. Looking at the challenges of leadership and management, the lies people believe, and a whole lot of strategies for growth, it’s John Maxwell at his best.

I’ve read quite a bit of Maxwell, and this is typical of him: tonnes of clever acronyms and catchy phrases coupled with a lot of personal illustrations and a heavy dose of empathy (and cheese), but essentially the same message as all his other books: leadership is nothing more or less than influence, so if you’re nice to people, particularly those who already have influence, your leadership skills and opportunities will grow.

It’s not quite a career planning handbook, it’s more about developing the skill of leadership wherever your career has found you, but if you’re looking for something about career planning this is a pretty good start.

If you’ve read Maxwell and you didn’t like the experience, this book definitely isn’t for you. But if you’ve never read any of his stuff, this is a really good one to start with – it sums up a lot of his other books well so you may as well get this one. That said, the content is very much suited to those ‘in the middle’, so if you’re a CEO or a trainee it won’t be as helpful for you as it would be for an assistant manager.

I got this book for free from BookSneeze.com in exchange for an honest review.

How long does it take to prepare for leadership?

English: The healing of the paralytic : wall painting in the baptistry of the domus ecclesiae in Dura Europos. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A brief answer to a question that’s often blown out of proportion.

Jesus created the entire universe. Close to 1AD he entered history as a human. In anyone’s book he was pretty well qualified to tell us all how the whole thing works.

But he spent thirty years growing and preparing for just three years of ministry. That’s a lot of preparation, and not much hands-on leadership. A bit of a difference from today’s world, where one year is considered sufficient to prepare people for decades of leadership.

Today’s post was sponsored by the word: patience.

Why Men Hate Going to Church by David Murrow

Ok, headline first: every church leader should read this book.

Why Men Hate Going to Church is broken into three parts, basically explaining why it’s important that men are stuck into church, why they aren’t, and how to get them. Murrow frequently uses convincing statistics, stories and other facts to demonstrate to his readers that he’s not just some chauvinist sounding his trumpet, and to my mind succeeds – I’m thoroughly convinced but probably wouldn’t have been beforehand!

The truth is that everything about church is heavily ‘feminised’, and we’re caught in a vicious circle of a church made up predominantly of ladies who therefore influence what church looks like, resulting in a church that’s unattractive for men to join or invite their friends to. From children’s work to the way the church building looks to the songs we sing to the way we preach the Gospel, everything is designed with women in mind, and churches are shrinking and failing as a result. Murrow explains clearly and carefully why this is and what the specific problems are, before suggesting (very) practical ways to swing things more in men’s favour. He takes the time to answer critics and address peoples’ concerns.

If I had one criticism of the book it would be with its structure; the problems are listed one at a time before the solutions are presented which means that at the last sentences of most chapters in the first half of the book are something like: ‘What can we do to make things better? We’ll find out in Chapter 25.’ But to be honest, that’s me being picky.

For me, five stars. Every church leader should read this book – if you think you don’t need to, the chances are that if it isn’t already, your church is at the start of a decline.

I got this book for free from BookSneeze.com. I’m not required to give a positive review.

Responding to criticism

Image via Wikipedia

Some readers of this blog may find this completely uninteresting, fair enough. See you after the break.

For the rest of you, you may be aware that a guy I’ve always really respected, CJ Mahaney, was accused of a whole bunch of pretty significant stuff getting on for a year or so ago. Because of the society we live in these accusations were made in a wikileaks style viral document, which was quickly circulated among every church leader within the global ministry he oversees, Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM), and all his critics. For examples of the sort of hatred he received (and I wouldn’t waste your time on them), have a look at this blog post, and this one, both of which were written at around that time.

CJ’s immediate response was to resign from his position as Chair of SGM. He said this was so as not to appear to be influencing any response the Board would want to make, but it obviously looked like an immediate admission of guilt.

Tim Challies is a blogger who I really enjoy reading, and he did a great summary at the time of what happened, and what the plans were going forward.

An independent review panel has completed its work, and has issued this report. The conclusions of the report are complicated and not just related to CJ so if you’re interested do go and read it, but in terms of addressing the accusations made in the wikileaks thing it turns out that the guy who raised the concerns in the first place was seeing sin where there was none.

The report by no means paints CJ as some victim or saint, but does come up with the following, significant conclusions:

1. The panels exonerated CJ from any charge that the things he did wrong are areas of unrepentant sin. With respect to [one of the specific situations raised], CJ repented and apologised to the family; with respect to [another], the panel found that the process was handled appropriately (and did not involve CJ); and with respect to his practice of fellowship, they found that his practice was in keeping with the teaching of Scripture.
2. Months ago, an outside panel representing the perspectives of three denominations reviewed the sins CJ confessed – which includes the most serious allegation against him – and advised that they were not grounds for removal from ministry. And in our own internal review with the three panels (comprised of nine SGM pastors), the same conclusion was reached – not one panel recommended that CJ be disqualified from ministry.

So there you have it. CJ confessed and repented of sin in accordance with biblical teaching, and hasn’t done anything to disqualify himself from a ministry position.

I have to admit I am one of the ‘CJ fanboys’ who hopefully expected that this wasn’t the last we’d seen of a man who I’ve experienced to be a wonderful, humble, grace-filled man (not without his faults, but who is?). I was glad to read last week that CJ’s taken this time away to re-evaluate his role in the global church and will be planting another church in the near future.

Soli deo gloria!

Old and young

Just like everyone else in the world I generally consider myself to be young. This has been fine for the past ten years, but ten years ago I genuinely never even imagined I’d reach my current age – not for any morbid reason, just because I never thought about it…

So I was encouraged the first time I read 1 Timothy 4:12:

 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

This is the apostle Paul writing to Timothy, telling him that he shouldn’t worry about the fact that he’s young, but instead he should demonstrate his maturity through his actions.

That’s fine, until you discover that Timothy would have been in his mid-late thirties when he received this letter. Now I’m not for a moment saying that late thirties isn’t young, but it does mean that anyone under thirty isn’t just young, they’re younger than young! If Timothy was considered young, what must that say for any leader in his/her early twenties?

And just to add something else into the mix, check out Numbers 8:25:

And from the age of fifty years they shall withdraw from the duty of the service and serve no more.

This is specific to the Levites so I don’t think it applies to everyone serving in any capacity, but it would seem that God’s intention is that at around 50 people should start to hand their church responsibilies over to the next generation (of thirty-somethings?).

That seems like quite a quick turnaround – in your twenties you’re basically observing and generally helping out; in your thirties you start to take on leadership until you get into your forties; in your fifties you retire.

Sound right? If it is then do we trust the young too early and the old too late?

Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears (audio)

This book pretty much does what it says on the tin. It beings by defining exactly what the church is (a very useful task), before laying out each aspect of this definition as ‘timeless truths’. The book then moves into the ‘timely methods’ half, attempting to apply the model of the church to today’s world in a way which is relevant and appealing.

Overall I really enjoyed this book – it’s informative, challenging, and communicates its message well. But I do have one minor issue which I’d highlight. Driscoll tends to speak with a weighty, compelling authority on whatever he is speaking about, whether or not he should be the authority on that area or not. At times this means that his opinions and perceptions are presented as fact, for example when writing about the multicampus church model. It’s very interesting to hear how Mars Hill Church does it, but you could read it and think that if you disagreed you were committing a sin, which I don’t think is the intention.

The narration is clear and appropriately passionate – there are a couple of occasions where I could hear that Driscoll would have phrased something slightly differently, but I don’t think it takes anything away from the audiobook at all.

My favourite chapter was around the church’s missional role, but it’s all good stuff to be honest. I’d recommend it to every leader in every church – it will challenge and provoke, and at least make you ask questions about why you do and believe certain things.

I got this audiobook for free from christianaudio.com. I’m not required to give a positive review.

Why I’m stepping back from leading the band

Image via Wikipedia

My most public role at Crown Church is easily that I’ve led the band on Sunday mornings at least once a month for a good few years now. We have four bands, and I’m involved in leadership of two of them.

I approached James Hunting, the Lead Elder, and Dan Smith, who’s responsible for oversight for the entire worship team (including PA and lyrics projection), and got their support in my decision to step back, but I have been asked by a few people why I have – I thought it would be good to sum up here.

Clarification

By stepping back from leading that doesn’t mean I’m leaving the band, or leaving the Crown! I’ll still be just as involved, just not with the lead microphone. I’ve also been told that I may get drafted in, so you may not have seen the last of me yet!

Capacity

Anna and I lead a cell group, lead the student and twenties work, and are involved in organising local outreach events into West Drayton. I’d like to be freed up to do those things well.

Others

There was once a time when the Crown had two band leaders, Dan and me. That’s not the case any more; there are five leaders on the team so I want to make space for them to lead as much as they want to.

The Crown’s future

The Crown is growing, and it’s always better to plan than to suddenly realise that you’re not ready for something! I’m confident that one day the Crown will get to the size that it will need a bigger team of band leaders, so the more people with experience in that role the better. If me stopping for a bit enables others to get that experience, great!

My future

I don’t feel that leading the band is my primary gift. That’s not some sort of false humility, it’s just that I think I’m far more gifted in other areas like strategy and preaching. By stepping back from leading the band I hope I can grow in different gifts.

I won’t stop leading worship

You may notice that I haven’t used the word ‘worship’ at all so far, which is odd because most band leaders title themselves ‘worship leaders’. I don’t think that’s wrong, because band leaders do lead God’s people in worship, but I do think it’s misleading.

Worship doesn’t mean singing, it’s about a lifestyle lived to the glory of God. To my mind, every single Christian is a worship leader in that they live their lives to the glory of God, in order to inspire others to do the same. By the grace of God I will never stop doing that; will you be the best worship leader you can be?

A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards (audio)

This book has been designed to address situations that happen too often in local churches. Maybe the church leader is a bit of an authoritarian. Perhaps a church member thinks he should have more authority than he currently does. Perhaps the church leader is taking the church in the wrong direction. Gene Edwards takes the biblical accounts of Saul, David and Absalom to see how we should react.

The book is written in a dramatic way, which really draws the reader in. It’s not a detailed exposition of Scripture but some quite detailed Bible knowledge is required to understand what’s going on. The language is fluid, dynamic, and personal. It jumps from storytelling to dialogue to direct engagement with the reader. I loved the style.

In terms of content I don’t think I’ve ever read a book quite like it. Edwards is unashamed to directly address local church issues; if you are in a church and your senior pastor  is doing things you disapprove of, how should you react? What if he starts to personally attack you? And what if you are the leader and you have someone in your congregation who is looking to split the church? Gene Edwards is not scared to tackle real issues, and he’s not scared to radically pursue biblical standards.

Audio is a great medium for this book. The narrator is perfect for it, and the style of the book lends itself very well to an audio version.

I’d recommend this book to every church leader, and anyone who’s a Christian and involved in leadership to any extent. This book is excellent and will highlight areas for improvement in your character, together with appropriate responses.

I got this audiobook for free from christianaudio.com. I’m not required to give a positive review.

Real-Life Discipleship by Jim Putman

This book is an excellent encouragement to simply return to a biblical model of discipleship. It takes a strategic and intentional view without making it impersonal and I think that all Christian leaders could benefit from the principles laid out here.

Putman presents a maturity process in a spiritual growth wheel, and I found it challenging to place myself and others I know on this wheel, highlighting specific ways to encourage others while highlighting my own shortcomings. One thing I really liked about this book was how practical it was – thoroughly recommended.

The only care I’d encourage anyone reading this to take would be to take the suggestions with a pinch of salt. Jim Putman is honest about the fact that his practical examples are from a context in which he knows they will work, and it’s easy to get excited about the specific things he talks about. I’ve had to think quite hard into some of his examples to pull out the keys behind success in discipleship.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from NavPress Publishers as part of their Blogger Review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

 

Truth That Sticks by Avery T. Willis Jr. and Mark Snowden

A lot of research has been done around the fact that the best way to get most people to learn something is through storytelling. This book proposes a programme of ‘Bible storying’ to enable effective discipleship.

It’s really convincing, and I am now acutely aware of how little people remember of what they’re taught. It’s also well written when you take into account its dual authorship.

I want to underline that I think this is a good and useful book, but I’m not sure it quite hits the bullseye for me. After reading it I’m really aware that my natural teaching style is ineffective, but I don’t know how to make it better! This is particularly difficult when it comes to studying a Bible text which itself isn’t a story. To my mind the book would have benefited from an example study.

Ironically, my single biggest issue with this book is that it isn’t written in the style that it’s preaching about!

Overall, I think this book is a really, really good first step. If you’re not sure about preaching styles, let this convince you…but don’t expect this to be a ‘how to’ guide to telling stories.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from NavPress Publishers as part of their Blogger Review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”