Childrens Ministry Online

Book Review: Lead the Way God Made You

Posted on 05. Jul, 2010 by Kenny in Inspiration, Leadership, Reviews

I never had any intention of reading this book. Never is such a strong word. Actually, the cover and title of this book is very intriguing. It draws you in. You want to know more. That was the case when I first saw this book in the bookstore almost five years ago. I opened it up and started skimming the chapters. Drama Coach? Director? Production Assistant? Ummmm, that’s okay, I don’t do productions as a part of my weekend experience. I have a lot of books on my list to read and this one wouldn’t be the best use of my time.

That was my first experience with this book.

One time I even discouraged someone from reading this book. I told him that it wasn’t really a book about leadership, but about leading children’s ministry productions. Sorry Larry.

I’ll say it.

I was wrong.

A few months ago Larry Shallenberger asked for people to review this book for his blog tour. I’m not even sure why I agreed because I had already made up my mind that this book wasn’t for me. I think it was the promise of a free book. Well, I’m glad I got to review it because it may end up being one of the most important books I read this year.

This IS a leadership book that happens to tell a story as a narrative that illustrates the lessons being taught. The story happens to be about a Children’s Musical Production. While skimming, I missed the point and made incorrect assumptions.

More importantly, this book spoke to some of they areas where I’ve felt “stuck” as a leader. It spoke to my frustrations as well as some of the frustrations my team has been feeling. There are many different styles to leadership and no one possesses them all. Perhaps part of the reason I feel stuck is becasue I’m not allowing my team to lead the way God made them which in turn isn’t allowing me to lead the way God made me.

I’m not going to get into the details of the book here. All I can say is that as I read this book I often found myself nodding in agreement, “Yes! This makes perfect sense!” I also found myself getting really hopeful about the way things could be if people on a team actually led this way. Plenty of light bulb moments. I’ve already been talking to my staff about the concepts and we’ll be reading the book as a team this month. We’ll experiment with some of these concepts this summer and fall and if we see certain results, me may look into some organizational restructuring. It’s very exciting!

So, order this book right now! You may have a packed out reading list, but do yourself a favor, pop this book at the top of your list.

Oh, I also have an extra copy of this book to give away. I’ll make this really simple. This post went live on Monday morning, July 5th. The last comment on this post today (Monday) gets a copy of the book. So, leave a comment!

Also, spread the word, I’ve got another copy to give away. The last person to tweet a link to this post with the #kidmin tag today (Monday) will get a book. This should be fun, so tweet away.

Tags: Book Review, Children's Ministry, Larry Shallenberger, Lead the Way God Made You, Leadership