A friend of mine is suddenly rabid about multiplying the church. And he’s having great success. One of his ‘disciples’ is even launching simple churches in a local prison (don’t you dare call them “cell-churches”).

He wrote me to ask which leadership resources I use when discipling rising leaders. That got me to thinking… Trouble is I don’t use most popular resources. In fact, I seldom read a really ‘hot’ book. If it’s still popular in a year or two I know it is worth my time and not a passing fad.

However, I do read a lot. Mostly history and biography. I usually have three books going at a time. With my devotions I’ll read a book on some aspect of church history like Francis McNutt’s book “The Healing Reawakening” (formerly “The Nearly Perfect Crime). Before falling asleep I’ll read history or biography—I went through early American history for a couple of years and have been reading about World War II for the past three years. If I’m not reading history, I get into detective novels and spy stories (some non-fiction here).

Those That have Withstood The Ravages Of Time
I find that many “leadership” books are kind of a rehash of the “self-help” pop psychology stuff that was so popular in the 1990s. Many books on mentoring are much the same. I like those authors that have withstood the ravages of time: Roland Allen, Peter Drucker and Tom Peters are great examples. Another author I read incessantly is Dr. Luke—his biography of Jesus and his other work on the lives of the early church planters are daily fare for me. I read Luke and Acts by the calendar. Today is the third of the month, so I read chapter three in both books. I figure I should keep my head in the root source of what I am trying to do.

We stand on the shoulders of those who’ve gone before. I believe the best leaders are those who rose to face whatever challenge tried to crush them. John Adams, George Washington, George Patton, Dwight Eisenhower and those un-named believers who fled Jerusalem preaching about Jesus all have something to teach me. I want to integrate their life-lessons into my own practice. And I hope to pass those lessons on to “faithful men who are able to teach others also…”