As a Leader
The great joy of being a professor to me is the opportunity to plant trees I will not sit under, to equip leaders who will impact the culture. A leader helps those he leads become what they never dreamed they could be. Geothe said: “Treat a man as he appears to be and you make him worse. But treat him as if he were already what he could be, and you will make him what he should be.”Or as Bill Bright put it: “Great men lead others, but greater men equip leaders:
Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church, me, J.D. Greear of Summit Church
Youth Ministry Forum at Southwestern Baptist Seminary
John Avant, Chris Mortenson of ESPN, and me
Danny Akin, me, Bailey Smith
Everything in life—business, sports, the home, the church—rises or falls on leadership. I consider my calling in ministry to be fundamentally a call to raise up leaders who will change the world. Several ways the Lord has allowed this include:
- Academic leadership—as Associate Dean at SEBTS
- National leadership—as a consultant with the North American Mission Board developing a new approach to evangelism through mentoring, and by speaking annually at events like Student Leadership University (www.studentleadershipuniversity.net)
- Across traditions–in addition to working with future leaders at SEBTS and focusing on those in the SBC, I speak at other leadership events including Acts 29 Boot Camp, Vintage21, National Consultation on Spiritual Awakenings, Wheaton College Evangelism Roundtable, and others.
- Local church leadership—as a speaker/teacher in local churches, and by leading staff retreats and conferences for leaders. Also, by leading the ministry to college/young professionals called Epicenter at my home church.
- Through writing, in particular analyzing the culture and the church’s response to it
Jim Collins said it well when he said the enemy of great is good. This is more true of ministry: the great enemy of ministers who have a passion for the Lord is to settle for a “good” ministry.Someone said who you will be in the future is based on the books you read, the people you meet, and the places you go. I would add this is true only as all that builds on your consistent walk and growth in the Lord.Some Books I have Recently ReadOn Leadership:
- The Bible (no kidding, it is the best)
- Jim Collins, Good to Great.
- John Wooden, Wooden on Leadership
- Gordon MacKenzie, Orbiting the Giant Hairball
On Culture:
- Naomi Schaefer Riley. God on the Quad
- Lauren Sandler. Righteous.
- Thomas Friedman. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century
- Also a little unique read: Freakonomics.
- Wikinomics
- The Tipping Point
- We Are Greater Than Thee
On Church Life:
- Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church.
- DA Carson. Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church Movement
- John Hammett. Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches
- Mark Driscoll. Radical Reformission
- Donald Miller. Blue Like Jazz
- Thom Rainer. Simple Church.
- Ed Stetzer. Breaking the Missional Code.
- Alan Hirsch. The Forgotten Ways
- ______. The Shaping of Things to Come.
- Christopher Wright, The Mission of God.
- Rodney Stark. The Rise of Christianity.
- Many more…
On Evangelism
- Michael Simpson, Permission Evangelism
- Randy Newman, Questioning Evangelism
- Thom Rainer, Breakout Churches
- _______, Simple Church
General Literature I have enjoyed lately:
- Simon Winchester. The Crack that Changed the World (on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake)
- __________. Krakatoa.
- John Jakes. Savannah (historical fiction).