by Eddie Gibbs

InterVarsity Press

Downers Grove, Illinois

2005 US $14.00

Reviewed by Jean-Luc Lézeau, Associate Director, General Conference Stewardship Ministries

This volume on leadership is one of the best I have read recently. In it, Eddie Gibbs addresses the leadership challenges that we face in today’s church. The old, traditional way of leading the church, which followed the acronym PLOC (Plan, Lead, Organize, and Control), no longer works.

Leadership today is not about controlling but about connecting people to one another. Gibbs also argues that church leaders should be shaped by God’s mission rather than by a self-serving agenda of numerical growth or defensive isolation. Growth should be a by-product, not a primary focus. Gibbs then mentions the acid test of church leaders: the number of disciples they have mentored on the path to spiritual maturity—and we all have serious problems qualifying here. A great book for pastors concerned with their influence in their churches.