Be A People Person - my review

As a pastor, I am a leader by job description and by calling.  And while John Maxwell has his fair share of critics (mostly because of other pastors who put too much emphasis on leadership and not enough emphasis on servant-ship), his writings are helpful.  I think John was blessed with the personality and spiritual gifting of leadership and therefore, does intuitively what many of us do not.  Thankfully, he has given decades to helping the rest of us!

I purchased this book at the recommendation of a colleague, as I was looking for a book written from a Christian perspective, in order to study with someone else who was looking to develop their own people skills. At about 150 pages, this short read seemed like an introduction to everything else that Maxwell has written.  His popular themes of maintaining a positive attitude, encouraging others, living with integrity, motivating others, etc. are all present.  As I read, I wondered if this was one of Maxwell's first books, and indeed it was.

I was greatly helped by some of his suggestions and ideas. In the chapter about the characteristics of people with charisma, he teaches that charismatic people regularly show others that they care.  And then he adds this:  "Be more concerned about making others feel good about themselves than you are i making them feel good about you.  In other words, don't try to sell other people on you, try to sell them on themselves."  This line of reasoning is so very helpful, and is really theme of the book - that  to be a people person is to put the emphasis on others.

The chapter of loving difficult people was especially helpful.  Maxwell suggests that we treat others in relation to how we see ourselves.  He writes, "show me a person who sees him or herself in a negative light and I will show you a person who sees others in a negative way."  The implication for getting along?  "When you realize that people treat you according to how they see themselves rather than how you really are, you are less likely to be affected by their behavior."  So true.  So helpful.

In the end, this book serves as a helpful introduction to leadership.  For those who have read a few leadership titles, it will no doubt serve as an inspiring remind of what they already know.

Apprentice Field Guide - good stuff for learning how to mentor a ministry apprentice

After reading Jon Ferguson's book Exponential, I knew that I wanted to learn more.  The Ferguson brothers richly blend  personal discipleship with systemic discipleship.  That is, they are not just engaging in one-on-one discipleship, which always creates bottlenecks and is difficult to do on a larger scale. At the same time, they are not just church systems thinkers who attempt to disciple by program (which also doesn't work).  It seems that the key to maintaining this balance between personal and systemic ministry is their process of leadership development.  They develop leaders of programs by personal contact - and to which they give the term, apprenticing. 

Christian Community Church is by no means the first to use the term apprentice.  They know that.  But they have interestingly appropriated it to Christian discipleship and leadership development.  And I think this is a  key theory.  In the church world we have typically used the term "discipleship" to describe a process/plan of spiritual growth.  We also use the phrase, "spiritual formation."  In many circles, though, both of those terms describe a process that is all about "me and Jesus" and rarely results in reaching out to others or purposely developing as a leader.  With this in mind, the Fergusons and the folks at Community Christian refer to Peter, James and John as apprentices of Jesus - the guys who were bound to Jesus for the purpose of carrying on his work.  We then are called to become apprentices as well - carrying on the work of Jesus in our culture. 

This is genius!  It is action-oriented.  It expects reproduction and multiplication!  It acknowledges a need for the classic spiritual disciplines taught in spiritual formation- but not for merely personal reasons!  It is also highly relational!  To be honest, I have struggled to know how to develop leaders.  This is giving me some hope - and so I am giving a lot of energy this year to learning and practicing the development of ministry leaders.

Okay, enough for the philosophy of it all - the real help of this book is the practical help of how to identify, ask, mentor and release an apprentice.  Their list of must-have traits of a possible apprentice leader are great and very helpful.  I love the "parking lot test" for relational intelligence - when I see their car pull into the parking lot, am I excited to see them or do I hope to avoid them?"  Very interesting....

For me, the most helpful chapter discussed how to "make the ask," - that is, how to get someone on board to become an apprentice.  The authors remind us to "never say no for someone.  We must allow God to work in their lives.  We cannot have an apprentice if we do not ask.  It's up to us to present the opportunity, and up to God to work in them from there."  I need constant reminder of that.  I am too quick to say, "they are already so busy..."  Who knows how God has already been moving in their hearts?  Further, though, was their teaching to ask the person to pray about it, think about it, and get back to you, and then to pursue them.  Their approach of using ICNU, or "I see in you....the qualities of leadership....a love for kids....a heart for prayer....."  Genius!

This book has been very helpful for me as I explore this concept of developing leaders through apprenticeships - I will keep it on hand!

If you want to order a copy of this book, you can buy it here from Lulu.

I also just found an electronic copy available for free here:  http://242community.com/apprentice-field-guide