Review of “Leadership Baton”
One would believe that anti-institutional churches of Christ would love this book, but probably not. But the sentiment of the book is that the church should be the primary organization for the training of leaders. The book goes into great detail rejecting, or maybe one should say, adding to the seminary model of developing church leadership. The book of course makes a ton of strong points, and one must agree the local congregations need to be doing a better job of leadership development. Regardless of the debate over the place of training, the book is excellent in helping a congregation to infuse a leadership culture. The book provides a strong methodology for accomplishing this task. It looks at developing the head, heart, and hands of Christians. The book provides some great insight into church culture, and how to work within it. It is excellent for elders and lead ministers in working with staff or interns. It has a wonderful discussion of committees which is sometimes the great excuse to accomplish nothing. You might not incorporate all of the programming that the book promotes, but you will certain add some of the concepts and processes to your congregation. It is a wonderful text in helping leaders in the church develop.
Related posts:
- Review of “Leveraging Your Leadership Style”
- Review of “A Short History of Leadership Theory”
- Review of “Tribal Leadership”
- Leadership Survey
- Read “Ultimate Leadership”
About The Author
I’ve not read the book so I don’t know how the authors see this but I hear other sentiments at times that bemoan the seminary as a training place for preachers/pastors, believing that the church should be the place where such training takes place. While I understand some of that frustration, I also wonder how it has come about where it seems that the seminary (in some cases) is separate from the church rather than an extension. One of the things I love about our tribe is that our seminaries (can we call them that?) do not seem so removed from the church but seem to understand well that they are training leaders of church(s) whether those leaders serve as a preacher or go on to obtain a PhD and teach somewhere.
Grace and Peace,
Rex