A Leadership Network Publication Spiritual leaders must become experts in matters of the heart. They must learn to discern God at work in their own lives, shaping their hearts to embrace the particular ministries to which they are called. A Work of Heart shows how God prepares leaders today just as he did in biblical times-and how God creates these leaders in order to share his heart with his people.
Book Details:
- Author: Reggie McNeal
- ISBN: 9780470617120
- Year Published: 2000
- Pages: 224
- BISAC: BUS071000, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS/Leadership
About the Book and Topic:
A Leadership Network Publication Spiritual leaders must become experts in matters of the heart. They must learn to discern God at work in their own lives, shaping their hearts to embrace the particular ministries to which they are called. A Work of Heart shows how God prepares leaders today just as he did in biblical times-and how God creates these leaders in order to share his heart with his people.
Leadership is not a matter of attending a leadership seminar or following the latest Leadership Guru’s 10-step plan. Leadership is a matter of listening for the still, small voice of God. Leadership is really a matter of the heart—of God shaping the heart from the inside out. No Christian leader can thrive without having “heart” for the job, the calling, the vocation – and few complete their ministries without moments of hopelessness and confusion as to whether they are up to the task. Maintaining heart for the demanding work of ministry, rather in a secular or religious setting, requires that all leaders be able to discern God at work in their lives, shaping their hearts to encompass the particular ministries to which they are called. In “A Work of Heart,” Reggie McNeal helps leaders reflect on the ways in which God is shaping them by letting us see God at work in the lives of four quintessential biblical leaders: Moses, David, Jesus, and Paul. McNeal identifies the formative influences upon these leaders, which he sees as God’s ways of working in their lives – the same influences at work today forming leaders for ministry in our times. He explores the shaping influence of: 1) culture: the times and the environment in which a leader is raised; 2) call: the leader’s sense of personal, God-given mission; 3) community: the people whose comradeship shapes and sustains the leader; 4) communion: the leader’s personal relationship with God; 5) conflict: the leader’s engagement of destructive forces in life and ministry; and 6) the commonplace: the daily choices of living. Using illustrative stories of contemporary leaders opening their hearts to God’s guidance, McNeal show how — just as God used these influences to shape Moses, David, Jesus, and Paul — God is using the same influences to shape the hearts of Christian leaders today. A Leadership Network publication.
Pastors and other spiritual leaders will become acquainted with the most important information they will need as leaders: self-understanding. Leaders will be more attuned to the ways in which God is shaping their unique lives for their unique spiritual calling. Leaders will be able to more closely align their leadership tasks with the heart of God.
About the Author
REGGIE MCNEAL (Columbia, South Carolina) is the Missional Leadership Specialist for Leadership Network and was formerly director of leadership development for South Carolina Baptist Convention. Drawing on twenty years of leadership roles in local congregations and his work over the last decade his work over the last decade with thousands of church leaders, McNeal counsels local churches, denominational groups, seminaries and colleges, and para-church organizations in their leadership development needs. He lives in Columbia, South Carolina, with his wife and two daughters.