Saturday, April 14, 2012

LEAD...for God's Sake

If you consider yourself a leader, you need to read this book. 
In LEAD…for God’s Sake!, Todd G. Gongwer weaves a parable for finding the heart of leadership.  Utilizing the setting of a high school basketball coach who is struggling in the midst of his own personal struggles, life lessons are presented that will motivate you like few other leadership books have ever done.

The principles outlined within this book are the keys to being a spiritual leader that honors the Lord and is focused on blessing and serving others – all wrapped up within a sports setting.

While this book delivers universal truth with respect to leadership principles that could be applied to every manager, this book is a MUST READ for anyone invlolved in any level of church leadership.  Here’s just one example of why:

"Leadership always involves influence which in one way or another flows from the character of an individual, we would be much better served were we to begin our own journey of leadership by defining just what leadership should mean, based on the character we believe is best to display. Live an aligned life! We should not expect to ever lead others to a level of true excellence in leadership without being willing to model that same level of excellence in our own lives. Character influences character!"

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through their bloggers review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”


The Founders' Key

If you are a fan of limited government, this is a book for you! 

I have long been a fan of Hillsdale College, and the work they do to promote the accurate historical framing of our country.  Dr. Larry P. Arnn, president of the College, presents a vivid yet clear and compelling understanding of the unity between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

This fantastic work is evenly divided between the study of the two founding documents presented first and then followed by foundational documents, such as selected writings from the Federalist Papers, to support the claims presented in the first section. 

Dr. Arnn starts by discussing the source of our rights, and the apparent disharmony among the two documents, as being from “Laws of Nature and of Nature's God”.  This is the document that locates Sovereignty in the individual and depicts Government as an alien force making rebellion against it a natural act.  Did you know that in the Constitution was a list of charges against the King?  Just one of the charges says, “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.”  Isn’t it a good thing that isn’t going on today?  (My tongue is firmly in my cheek!)

The country that our founders envisioned is vastly different from the country we have today.  The question for us is how do we behave as a strict Constitutionalist, and start ourselves on the road back to their vision.  We may feel that Government is too involved in this or that, without Constitutional authority, but how do we go about rolling back these programs?  How do you end Medicare?  Whatever your thoughts, it is not a delineated power within the Constitution.

Arnn ends his treatise with these words: “Because the principles that our country serves, and the institutions by which it serves them, have a beauty hardly matched in all history, they sound a call that all can answer.  In their attraction and in our response is the hope for a free people.  That is the Founders’ Key.”

Before you vote in November, read this book!!!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through their bloggers review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”