Product Description

When the spiritual gift of leadership comes alive in churches everywhere, the church will become the hope of the world and a most influential force for good.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9421 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-01
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Synopsis
Are you a 360-degree leader? Three-hundred-sixty-degree leaders don't just direct their gift of leadership south, to the people under their care. They also learn to lead north by influencing those with authority over them, and to lead east and west by impacting their peers. But, most importantly, they learn how to keep the compass needle centered by leading themselves - by keeping their own lives in tune so they can provide maximum direction for others. In the most important book he has ever written, Bill Hybels shares what he has learned about Christian leadership in the nearly thirty years he has pastored Willow Creek. "Courageous Leadership" offers leadership strategies that have been proven and refined in the trenches. Best of all, it gives you the very essence of one of today's foremost Christian leaders - his fervent commitment to evangelism and discipleship and his zeal to inspire fellow church leaders even as he seeks to keep growing as a leader himself. "The local church is the hope of the world, and its future rests primarily in the hands of its leaders," Hybels insists. If unchurched people matter to you...if you love seeing believers serve passionately with their spiritual gifts.

..if God's heartbeat for the church is your heartbeat as well...then this book is a must. "Courageous Leadership" will convince you to lead with all your might, all your skill, and all your faith. And, it will give you the tools to do just that.

From the Back Cover
Ten days after the attacks on the World Trade Center Towers, I stood at Ground Zero and tried to take in the aftermath of one horrific day.

The thoughts of that made me cry out to God, No way! There's just no way evil can be that deep and that dark!
But strangely, while the ashes smoldered around me, and the grief of it overwhelmed me, a profound hope rose in my heart--the local church is the hope of the world.

There were many people and organizations helping out after the disaster. But a work of a deeper kind was happening behind the scenes in downtown Manhattan. The most important work of all was being done by pastors and church members, volunteers of churches, ordinary Christ followers. They were in the middle of all the misery, addressing the concerns of the soul.

It was happening 24 hours a day. That was the untold media story. So many other organizations met the external needs of people, but it was the church that reached out to care for the inner needs of their fellow human beings. The church became the physicians for the souls of people. That experience underscored, yet again, the convictions that have been forming in Bill Hybels for the past 30 years--that the church has an unique mission to fulfill on planet Earth. And that the future of our society depends on whether or not church leaders understand that and focus the vision of local churches accordingly.

Where Bill's heart beats the fastest is with leaders in local churches. He believes to the core of his being that local church leaders have the potential to be the most influential force in the world. If they "get it," churches will be the redemption centers for change that Jesus imagined them being.

So that's Bill's hope--that the spiritual gift of leadership will come alive in churches everywhere and, as a result, the church will become the force in the world against which the gates of hell cannot prevail.

About the Author
Bill Hybels serves as senior pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois. Willow Creek's outreach to spiritual seekers in the Chicago area has made it one of the most attended churches in North America. Hybels has authored many books, including the award-winning Descending into Greatness, with Rob Wilkins; Fit to Be Tied and Rediscovering Church, both with his wife, Lynne; and Honest to God?

Customer Reviews

Pushes all the right buttons but not sure how useful in UK
This book pushed all the right buttons for me, straight talking as only an American can do. I liked it so much I bought 6 copies and gave them to various people for their response.

However once the euphoria has died away you realise that this was written by the leader of one of the largest churches in the western world who can pick and choose his team members from far and wide. The reality of most of us is that we have to work with our existing resources. However if you look beyond this issue and take Hybels' view that "the local church is the hope of the world" then you can glean quite a lot from this book on the principles of the gift of leadership. One comment I have received from a senior churchman is that it is a secular management book with a bit of Christianity bolted on to it - probably a fair comment but it certainly helps churches to be shaken out of their complacency.