Since my days working under John Maxwell, I have heard and believed that “everything rises & falls on leadership.” However, too many times as I’ve served as a Children’s Pastor, I’ve heard or seen it implied that “leadership” is not high on the skill requirements list for children’s ministry. After all, isn’t children’s ministry really just baby-sitting?
Wrong! The more I lead in children’s ministry, the more I believe leadership is as essential in that department as in any other. In fact, I believe that leading in children’s ministry is perhaps the most difficult task in the church, except for the Senior or Executive Pastor. I’ll write about that in another post.
To get to the point of this post…my friend Larry Shallenberger’s book called Lead the Way God Make You: Discovering Your Leadership Style in Children’s Ministry is one of the most important books a Children’s Pastor/Director could read. There are so few books on leadership specifically targeting children’s ministry – not only is this one of the few, it is quite possibly the best. And what I also like is that the concepts, evaluations and applications can be applied to so many other areas.
I couldn’t possibly cover everything I like about the book in detail in a single post. However, three key ingredients that make this book worthwhile are:
- The personal leadership assessment. No assessment, be it for personality, spiritual gifts or leadership, is going to be perfect. But an assessment can give us an idea of where we stand on a particular area. This one not only does that, but it does it in a fun and engaging manner. The six areas of strengths – described through theatrical “job descriptions” – provide a good visual (and “kidmin friendly”) for the type of leader you are.
- The specific leadership style descriptions. As mentioned, Larry uses six different theatrical roles to describe different types of leaders. With each, he provides an easy to understand profile, a Biblical and a contemporary case study of that type of leader, and very practical ideas on how to lead in that manner (whether it’s your area of strength or not).
- The practical application of the last three chapters. Larry provides a summary page for each leadership style, a personal profile worksheet, and an engaging and activity based approach to leading your team through the process of learning the leadership ideas presented in the book.
As I look at my bookshelf, I have dozens of books on leadership – Christian, secular, business and biographical – and I would not hesitate to say that, as a leader in Children’s Ministry, Lead the Way God Made You is as much of a “must-read” as any of them. I highly recommend it for anyone leading or aspiring to lead effectively in the most impactful ministry in the church.
We’ll be giving away a copy of Larry’s book Friday on our Facebook page. Just leave a comment there telling us why you’d like to receive it and you will be automatically entered to win.
Be sure to check out Larry’s blog, and also additional reviews of this book still to come by:
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