Next Generation Leader: 5 Essentials for Those Who Will Shape the Future

This review, by Dr. Nicholson, has been provided courtesy of Desert Bible Institute (www.desertbibleinstitute.com) and christianaudio (www.christianaudio.com). While christianaudio did provide a free review copy of this book, this is not a paid review or advertisement.

Based on the title, I though Andy Stanley's book, Next Generation Leader, was going to be focused on young leaders and the challenges that they will face in the future of ministry. I was considering the book for one of you core audio textbooks for a mentorship class we recently started at Desert Bible Institute. Instead, what Stanley provides is a clear and comprehensive guide on how to be a better leader regardless of (or perhaps despite) your experience. Unlike some books that I have read on the subject, Stanley does not take on the role of a cheerleader, but neither does he take on the role of negative pragmatist. What Stanley does instead is to challenge ministry leaders to use time-tested methods to be both affective and innovative. He encourages leaders to play to their strengths and build strong teams. If this was all he did however this would be yet another book destined to collect digital dust in my electronic archive.
Stanley moves on to show leaders how to restructure, move forward boldly, and develop the most effective leadership team that they can. While he does this by citing well-known books in some places, his most effective approach is by showing how leadership was handled in Scripture. I do not mean that he cites verses (although he does that): I mean that he takes scenarios in the Bible and shows how great leaders were created and developed. He biblically shows (not tells) what made leaders in the Bible great. This alone would make the book useful, but Stanley goes further.
By citing examples, both personal and theoretical, Stanley show how leaders can apply the strategies he is suggesting. He makes the reader think "Hey I know how I could use that idea." He then anticipates the critics of his ideas and carefully explains how the most common objections to his ideas are understandable but nevertheless invalid. This is all done with a pleasant, respectful approach that makes this book very approachable.
The narrator, Lloyd James, likewise does an excellent job. He reads the book in a natural, unaffected manner. Additionally, he captures the easy, conversational tone that is usually unique to the author being the narrator. I had to keep remaining myself that James was not Stanley. Too often, readers of non-fiction can be overly dramatic and sound like an announcer. James however seems to have a knack for finding the subtleties in a work that helps the text come alive.
In all, I highly recommend this book. I review all the lectures and audio textbooks that come through Desert Bible Institute, and this is by far one of the best. It will soon be one of the audio textbook choices for our students and without question the core reading at our next staff retreat.

Trent Nicholson, Ph.D., D.Min.
Desert Bible Institute, President

Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley is an informative resource for leaders in today's churches of what is required and how to avoid the pitfalls that commonly trip up young leaders. It focuses on some of the more important aspects of modern leadership, which are courage and wisdom from godly mentors.

One of the more interesting points was to make sure you are focused solely on one role and not multi tasking as it never works long term. It is better to have a team of leaders each playing their part that one leader doing everything. Also one of the other points that I found interesting was that even someone as wise as Solomon consulted the wise people around him to assist him in his leadership.

The narration was quite good as it flowed freely and listening to it was enjoyable.

This would be a good book for anyone involved in church leadership or leadership in general as the principles contained within are very Biblical and sound advise that would help with any type of leadership.

This audio book was gifted as a part of the christianaudio Reviewers Program in exchange for my unbiased review of this work. More information can be found about this and other Christian audio books at christianaudio.com.

Anything thing I have listened to from Andy Stanley is good and this is no different. This is one approach to leadership that is clear and concise.

I once served on a pulpit committee charged with finding a new pastor for the church I attended. My first su ggestion was to write out a job description for the pastor. The pastor emeritus, also serving on the committee, protested saying, "If a man is called he will know what a pastor does". My reply was, "You just fired the last pastor because he wasn't doing his job. Maybe we better get more specific". If that conversation were to happen again I might reply "Let's use Andy Stanley's book as a guide." Though not just for pastors Andy's book certainly does deal with the work of the pastor in this generation.

The writer lists 5 essentials for leadership: Competence, courage, clarity, coaching and character. Mr. Stanley illustrates each of these essentials with stories from the military, sports and his own life. When dealing with his own life he not only talks about lessons learned but is honest in saying he learned many of the lessons by failing the first time.

Two areas were especially helpful. Leaders need courage and leaders need coaching. Many in leadership positions fail because they are afraid to make a move without all the details. That is not how it works. God often just tells us the next step and we get more details when we move.

There are pastors who fail because they think they need to have all the answers and are afraid to ask for help but most leaders need coaching.

The author has presented us with good food for thought and I recommend this book. The audio edition was read well with good nuance in the reader's voice. I received a copy of the audio book for review from christianaudio with no expectation but that I review the book.