The Book on Leadership

The Book on Leadership – John MacArthur
For the last decade the Christian community has seen a plethora of books dealing with aspects of Leadership. Most of the principles in them are gleaned from the business world. The net effect has been that we now have CEO’s leading our churches rather than pastors shepherding them. There are visionaries designing programs to help our churches be culturally relevant and marketing strategists presenting new ideas to grow churches.

The question must be raised: “Is this what Jesus had in mind when he said, ‘I will build my Church’”? Probably not. This becomes abundantly clear when we take a look at the man whom He chose to build the church. The Apostle Paul, by his own admission, was no man of great stature, eloquent speech or pleasant appearance. Yet, it was he who worked so hard to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Dr. MacArthur examines two very significant periods in the life of the Apostle to the Gentiles to develop 26 characteristics of a leader. The first one is Paul’s leadership abilities during his captivity – particularly on the ill-fated voyage to Rome. Though a prisoner under Roman guard, by the time the ship finally wrecked and sank off the coast of Malta, Paul had commanded the attention of the entire crew, including his guards.

The second episode examines his relationship to the Corinthians and how he dealt with the defense of himself against the false teachers. Many false teachers had said some extremely ugly things about Paul, and said them in such a way that almost any way Paul defended himself, it would appear that they were right. However, he crafted a letter to the Corinthians which brilliantly defended himself and expressed his intense love for them. We know that letter as II Corinthians.

The final section of the book takes a close look at the Biblical standard for leadership as well as the measure of a leader’s success. Paul gives us a list of the people who were affected by his leadership style and abilities. Dr. MacArthur examines each of them briefly in that light.

The world’s style of leadership doesn’t have much to do with what a pastor is called to do, but ironically, even the highest executive in the largest corporation will benefit from biblical principles of leadership. Read em & Reap!

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