Читать книгу Leading Me - Steve A Brown - Страница 5

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Foreword

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 arm’s 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 savour. (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 Your Church is Too Safe

Leading Me

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