Book Review

Written by Alexander Strauch
Reviewed by Walt Brock

While I was on a trip across the country last year, a pastor friend handed me this book and said that he had been using it with his deacons in monthly leadership development meetings. He highly recommended the book as he gave it to me. I usually read such put-in-my-hand books right away: if someone thinks enough of a book to give away copies, it should be a good one. In this case, I must confess to a reading by stages—finishing it a year or so later.

Each time I read, I was struck with the thought that I was more impressed with the contents than I was the last time I spent reading it. My conclusion is that the last four of the eighteen chapters were the best in the book and that the author had finished this book stronger than he had started. I found the book not only personally challenging as a leader but also extremely practical with many adaptable, usable ideas. The author fully explores a leader’s responsibility to lead with love from a biblical standpoint without ignoring the holiness of God and his responsibilities to manage, evaluate, and hold accountable those he leads.

The author presented a good biblical balance in dealing with leadership’s great challenge of leading with love. The last four chapters deal with the conflicting challenges that managers have of biblically rebuking, tolerating within limits, handling conflicts within, obeying God as they expect their followers to obey them, and doing it all within the context of biblical love manifested in truth. I personally found those last four chapters to be worth the price of the book and believe it could very well form the basis of a series of Sunday school classes for at least a quarter, if not longer.