Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels

I wish I could read for pleasure more often. My grad work keeps me reading for requirement so much! Since I just finished a class and decided not to take one this spring, I have a stack of books I plan to move through. Been reading "Courageous Leadership" by Bill Hybels. (Bill Hybels is the Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church.) Got drawn in tonight and read 90 more pages. Great book so far. Hybels wanted to write a book on leadership for a long time, but waited 30 years to do it. As you can imagine, this thing is rich! Here are a few highlights so far:

• What is the key to the vitality of thriving churches? In Hybels' endeavor to answer this question, he explains that he has been around the entire world over the last 30 years observing more churches than you could ever imagine. He concluded that:
• It is not location. "Affluent or ghetto, serene or war-torn, tropical or alpine, congested urban or sleepy rural, American or otherwise, location impacts the vitality of the church far less than any of us think."
• It is not denomination. "Baptist, Methodist, Evangelical Free, Quaker, Non-Denoms, Inter-Denoms-- It doesn't matter."
• It is not facility. "In barns and theaters, hotels and double wide trailers---in every imaginable kind of facility I have discovered thriving churches."
• It is not teaching. "Although many preaching centered churches attract large crowds, there impact on the community is often negligible."
• He concluded..."What flourishing churches have in common is that they are led by people who possess and deploy the spiritual gift of leadership."
  

• "Vision is the most potent weapon in a leader's arsenal."
  
• There are many definitions of vision. Hybels defines vision as "a picture of the future that produces passion."
• He has found after many years of hiring and firing at Willow that you should always hire for:
• Character
• Competency
• Chemistry
  
• (in this order intentionally)

There was more stuff I liked, But I will type it somewhere else...you are sick of reading, right?

--Noah