Leading Me

Steve A Brown

Description

You are your most important and most difficult leadership assignment.

 

Leading Me will help you get traction on living a Christ-centered, holistic, sustainable and fruitful life of impact. Grounded in biblical truth, utilizing the latest research and drawing on the proven process of the Arrow Leadership Program, Leading Me provides practical next steps for your most important leadership assignment...you.

 

"Imagine a treasure box for leaders with everything you could possibly need in it …”

From the foreword by Mark Buchanan, author of Your Church is Too Safe

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Pastoral Resources
• Christian Ministry
• Professional Growth
• Christian Living
• Philosophie et théologie
• Minister (Christianity)
• Steve Brown

Informations

• Publié par: Castle Quay Books
• Date de parution: 15 février 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 5
• EAN13: 9781927355695
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

LEADING ME: EIGHT PRACTICES FOR A CHRISTIAN LEADER’S MOST IMPORTANT ASSIGNMENT
Copyright © 2015 Steve A. Brown
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-927355-68-8 Soft Cover
ISBN 978-1-927355-69-5 E-book
Second printing: May 2016
Third printing: September 2016
Fourth printing: July 2017
Fifth printing: January 2019
Sixth printing, revised: January 2023
American spelling used throughout.
Published by Castle Quay Books
Burlington, Ontario, Canada and Jupiter, Florida, U.S.A.
416-573-3249 | [e-mail] | www.castlequaybooks.com
Edited by Marina Hofman Willard and Lori MacKay
Cover design by Burst Impressions
All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form without prior written permission of the publishers.
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. • Scripture quotations marked (NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible. Copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved. • Scripture quotations marked (NASB) are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Brown, Steve A., 1970-, author
Leading me : eight key practices for your most important assignment--
you / Dr. Steve A. Brown.
Issued in print.
ISBN 978-1-927355-68-8 (pbk.).--ISBN978-1-927355-69-5 (epub)
1. Leadership--Religious aspects--Christianity. 2. Self-actualization
(Psychology)--Religious aspects--Christianity. I. Title.
BV4597.53.L43B76 2015 248.8’8 C2015-900008-4 C2015-900009-2

“Absorb the vital wisdom of this book and you’ll find yourself leading more like Jesus: less frazzled, more fruitful, less frantic and more fulfilled in the Father’s love. You’ll experience leading as grace rather than as a rat race.”
Ken Shigematsu, Pastor of Tenth Church Vancouver and best-selling author of Survival Guide for the Soul
“Written from the heart, Leading Me cuts right to the heart of leadership—the leader. Leading Me not only challenges but also inspires and provides practical wisdom for the leader committed to ongoing growth and development in being the person others will choose to follow. Out of his own experience of Christian faith, ministry and partnership with leaders around the globe, Steve has captured a resonant and required message for leaders as true today as it has ever been in the history of the Church.”
Commissioner Floyd J. Tidd, The Salvation Army
“Steve Brown has written a timely and practical book about one of the greatest needs in leadership today—how to lead oneself. By reminding us that we cannot offer what we have yet to receive or ask others to do what we have not done ourselves, Leading Me provides eight essential practices for leading well—by leading oneself first. A great book for young leaders and a welcome reminder to those who want to lead and finish well.”
Jim Van Yperen, Founder and President of Metanoia Ministries
“In Leading Me , Steve Brown has shared a simple but profound learning: to become a truly effective leader, you need to start by focusing on your own heart, character and soul. What makes Steve’s message even more compelling is that it’s deeply grounded in his faith, his ministry experience and his years of close engagement with hundreds of Christian leaders. The result is a book that inspired me afresh to lead—and live—better.”
Michael Messenger, President, World Vision Canada
“At YFC we have recognized that only healthy leaders build healthy and sustainable chapters and ministries. So we encourage all of our developing leaders to go through the Arrow Leadership Program. In Leading Me , Steve has now allowed us all in. Read it slowly. Every other leadership book will only help us in the long run if we lead ourselves first.”
Dave Brereton, Director of Youth for Christ International
“Faithfulness: a leader who has lived a Christ-honoring life and finished well. Leading Me is a guide toward this goal. By drawing on the experiences of hundreds of developed leaders and offering tangible, workable life practices, Steve Brown gives us a superlative handbook for the greatest of all leadership challenges—leading ourselves!”
Dr. Paul Borthwick, Author, Senior Consultant for Development Associates International
“At the very heart of leadership is the ability to lead oneself. The important contribution my friend Steve Brown is making in Leading Me is that he shares what you can do, with God’s help, if you actually want to get better at leading yourself. From his life and his experience mentoring hundred of leaders, Steve shares an inventory of actionable key practices every leader should take stock of. Leading Me can help us all, from veteran to newbie leaders, improve in how to better lead ourselves.”
Rev. Dr. Carson Pue, Author of Mentoring Leaders: Wisdom for Developing Calling, Character, and Competency
Dedication
To Arrow leaders across North America and around the world who seek to be led more by, to lead more like, and to lead more to Jesus each and every day.
F oreword
My father kept on a shelf in the garage a wood crate filled with wonders. It was his catch-all for everything: antique door knobs, spools of every size, springs and coils and latches and hinges and ball bearings and sink traps and all manner of electrical paraphernalia. It was my favorite thing. I couldn’t have been happier if I’d been handed a casket of rare jewels. Indeed, what would I do with rare jewels? But this—anything and everything I could ever need was here. Anything I was building or fixing—a bike, go-cart, rocket ship, time machine, bow and arrow, walkie-talkie set—that box had the part.
Only it took some sifting. All those treasures were piled arms deep and all mixed together. Sometimes, even knowing that the microscopic screw I needed to fix my sunglasses was in there somewhere, I gave up trying.
That’s a long and strange way to introduce Dr. Steve Brown’s book, Leading Me . Except this: imagine a treasure box for leaders, with everything you could possibly need in it and the whole thing beautifully organized ! That’s this book.
It has several features that make it outstanding.
For one, it’s all here. Virtually everything you need to figure out how to flourish in your calling—from good health to a deep soul to rich relationships to loving well and ending well and much else besides—is clearly, logically and winsomely laid out in these pages, bolstered with the latest research and illustrated with vivid story-telling.
For another, it’s unfailingly practical. Dr. Brown cites a wealth of studies and statistics, but not a bit of it is pedantic or academic. Every chapter, every paragraph, every sentence, every word drives toward a single goal: to help you see yourself clearly and lead yourself effectively.
And for yet another, it’s so well told. Dr. Brown is funny, candid, insightful and above all, clear. There is not one phrase in this book that you’ll need to read again to try to decipher, though hundreds of phrases you’ll want to read again and again, just to savor. (And his stories will make great sermon illustrations and are left right there on the table as though he wants you to steal them.)
And lastly (though I could go on), it’s so very honest. The whole thing has the effect of a seasoned combat veteran gathering his troops before a big battle to tell them, lovingly but frankly, the unvarnished truth about what lies ahead and what it’s going to take to survive. Dr. Brown pulls no punches and blows no smoke. The man has been there—he’s a great leader and he leads leaders—and now he has distilled all his hard-won wisdom into these pages.
Simply put, anyone who reads Leading Me and puts its wisdom into practice will go the distance.
I wish I had this book 25 years ago. I’m grateful I have it now.
And I’m grateful that you have it, too. Well, go on. Open the box. See what wonders are inside. It’s better than a casket of rare jewels. Indeed, it might just save your life.
Mark Buchanan
Author of God Walk: Moving at the Speed of Your Soul
Introduction
Harold “Bus” Brown was my grandfather. He loved to tell stories. He and my grandmother lived in the same home for more than sixty-five years. Over that time, my grandfather collected a lot of stories and shared them with anyone who would listen. My favorite is about the tree in their backyard.
Each summer during my visit to their home my grandpa would take me to the backyard and tell the story. He would point to a hulking poplar tree that towered over the entire backyard and ask, “You see that tree?” The tree was impossible to miss. I’m not sure how tall it was, but from my perspective as a young boy it was beyond huge. I think that was Grandpa’s point.
Then the story began. “When your grandmother and I first moved in, we could have pulled that tree out with just two fingers. Back then it was just a sapling.” It was almost impossible for me to imagine that not too long before, this great tree had been so small and fragile.
Grandpa would then point out the lumps and bumps that bulged under the grass across the back lawn. Whatever was growing underneath the lawn had even split the pavement across the road from their home. Grandpa would share that these lumps and bumps were actually the tree’s roots spreading out, seeking nutrients and providing stability for the tree. Then he’d point to a big gash about two-thirds of the way up the trunk. At this p