Book Reviews from Around the World

By Andy Stanley

Getting ready to move to Boise and take on the immense task of starting a youth group from scratch; everything that Andy hit on in this book spoke directly to me. It was like those sermons where you swear that the Preacher has singled you out from everyone else in the crowd to preach to. I loved it!

This isn’t a very big book, so it was easy reading. I really liked that it was not a 12 step plan but rather principles by which to develop your own unique vision within the Body of Christ. The book is divided into 5 principles that while simple are gems of wisdom that we need to be reminded of over and over again.

Andy’s transparency about his own experiences makes you feel like you know him somehow even though you have never met him. I came away from the book feeling as though I had just had coffee with a person that I truly respected and received his most important life lessons of wisdom about ministry. It is refreshing to finish a book and feel as though that author is human rather than some fictional hero in a story book.

If you are an analogy person, as I am, this book is a gold mine. I loved Andy’s use of stories and analogies to drive home his points and have already filed most of them away for personal use in the future.

This book goes on the list of those that needs to be reread on a consistent basis for me, perhaps every other year. The principles are true for every stage of leadership and life. The lessons that I take away from the book are simple but those are usually the ones that make or break you in decision making. While most of the experiences are drawn from the ministry it is as much for the marketplace leader as it is for the person heading in to full time ministry. If you haven’t had the chance to read this book, I highly recommend it. Grab a good cup of coffee and sit down to glean from the wisdom of the generation ahead of us in the Body of Christ.

# posted by jjschulz @ 3:51 PM