Customer Reviews

A Work of Heart : Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders

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Most books for Christian leaders I have read lately deal primarily with skills. I recommend many of these to pastors in my work as a church consultant, because leadership skills are critical to effectiveness.

But McNeal in this book deals with something more foundational than skills--how God shapes the heart of a leader. After four wonderful character sketches, tracing how God shaped the hearts of Moses, David, Paul, and Jesus, preparing them for leadership, McNeal moves into what he calls the six "subplots" of the leader's life: culture, call, community, communion, conflict, and the commonplace.

In the chapter on culture, the author describe two options for how the church can relate to the world--as refuge or mission. Refuge "congregations focus on the past. Fearful of change, these churches create a safe, nostalgic haven for their members." In the missional church, however, "leaders who want to transform the culture seek to build as many bridges as possible to the world outside the faith."

The chapter on communion is probably the best treatment I have seen of the importance of "sabbath time"--regular, protected periods of time alone with God--that I have read. I have been suprised in my work by how few pastors have a discipline of regular, intentional blocks of solitude every week or every other week. I believe that this, far more than learning any set of skills, has the potential to infuse power into the ministry of spiritual leaders. For many pastors and other spiritual leaders, this chapter alone, if heeded, would be worth many times the price of this book.

I sometimes close or follow a consultation by giving the senior pastor the gift of a timely book. This is one I expect to be giving often.

McNeal pulls no punches in this book! He's obviously passionate about helping leaders cooperate with God's sculpting process. His six "subplots" of a leader's life are well explained and challenging. His insights into the lives of Moses, David, Paul, and Jesus were amazing.

I started reading this in a small group. Even though we didn't agree with all of his biographical sketches, we definitely are far better off for having read this book. My biggest problem is that I wanted to underline almost every paragraph!

This book is one of the best Christian leadership books that I have ever read. Reggie offers some phenomenal insights on a neglected aspect of Christian leadership - how God shapes the heart of a leader. A must read for every Christian leader!

I highly recommend the book.

Reggie McNeal, in A Work of Heart, displays a fully developed holistic approach to what shapes the heart of a Spiritual Leader. He believes that everything within the sphere of existence in the leader's past, present, and future is what culminates in who the leader has, or will, or will not become.

McNeal first gives a biographical sketch of four prominent leaders of our faith: Moses, David, Paul, and Jesus. It is through these sketches where he moves into the subplots that create the whole story of a leader's life. He calls these subplots the six C's: Culture, Call, Community, Communion, Conflict, and Commonplace. It is by each of these subplots that experiences of the leader are engrained into the heart and mind and where the "who I am" of the leader is developed.

This is by far one of the best books on spiritual leadership and development that I have recently read. As McNeal emphasizes in the book, there are an abundance of "how-to-do" leadership and "follow-this-model" leadership books out on the market. But, the best approach of leadership understanding and development must come from the heart; and, it must come from the whole encompass of the leader's story.

Every sphere, both past, present, and future, are what has made or is making the leader...both good and bad. All leaders must develop a keen self-awareness and understanding and the ability to apply our experiences to our shepherding; that is, how has his entire life story, each of the six subplots, made him who he/she is today.

And so, by understanding where he/she has come, where he/she is presently at, and where he/she is going, a leader is better able to lead from God and not from the world. We are not an autonomous entity in this world. We "are" what have been influenced by our Culture, our Call, our Community, our Communion with God, our Conflict(s), and our Commonplace (that is, our daily life/routine). This is who we are. Reggie McNeal hits Spiritual Leadership right in the heart because Spiritual Leadership "is" A Work of Heart.

The only negative that I might transcribe about this wonderful work is the lack of connectivity between section one (the biographical sketches) and section two (explanation of six C's). This is not to say that the reader will be left with a multitude of questions. Each section is fully developed in thought. I just feel that as one reads section two, McNeal could have done a better job at showing greater examples from the four leaders' lives at how they more specifically connect/relate to each C. But, in his defense, maybe he thought that this might be left to the reader's creativity and critical thinking opportunity. Other than this slight distraction, my opinion is that this work is the best spiritual leadership development book on the market at this present time!

A leader who leads from their spiritual heart, and not from the current trend of church growth or leadership model, is a better leader that God can use for the advancement of His Kingdom.

Blessings! Lt. Rhoades, US Army

I have had a few WOW moments that have catapulted me to a new level of success in my life...

And this book is one of them...I love books that you can only read a couple of chapters at a time before you have to put it down and think how in the world am I going to apply this to my life

Thanks for the life change

A Work of Heart: Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders (Updated Version) by Reggie McNeal
Spiritual leadership is a work of heart. That is the focus of this book as it takes us on a journey through the spiritual development of four biblical characters, two from the Old Testament (Moses and David) and two from the New Testament (Jesus and Paul) then part two discusses the six areas of a leader's life that are used to develop him spiritually to lead others. These "arenas" are culture, call, community, communion, conflict, and the commonplace. Through the stories of the biblical characters and the "arenas" the writer leads us to marvel at God's design and handiwork in our own life to make us a great person and not just a great leader.
For those of us that have been focusing on the functions of a leader this is a strong reminder to refocus our attention to our own spiritual development so we can properly lead others to develop in their relationship with God. The flip side of that coin is the warning that is given in the book to those to neglect their heart development will reap the rewards of that inattention. He lists the fruit of our neglect as ranging from "spiritual powerlessness to lackluster leadership to spiritual bankruptcy. The lesson is if we pay attention to our spiritual development through our personal relationship with Christ and partner with Him in our own "heart-shaping" we avoid many of the pitfalls and reap many of the blessings. Make certain we intentionally look after our own hearts while dealing with the hearts of others.
The book is well written and challenges the reader page to page and paragraph to paragraph. I believe you will find this volume an added help to your leadership efforts as you serve Christ in an ever changing world.

In theory, this should have been a good book. It had endorsements from a lot of prominent leaders, and it's premise is very interesting. The author breaks the book up into two parts. In the first, he examines the leadership style and qualities of four Biblical leaders: Moses, David, Paul, and Jesus. In the second, he applies what was gleaned from these leaders to our own lives, breaking these qualities down into six alliterative (he is Baptist, after all) categories: Culture, Call, Community, Communion, Conflict, and Commonplace.

Unfortunately, A Work of Heart fails to deliver on its promise. Despite a few practical and pragmatic suggestions that are genuinely good advice for leaders, the theological foundation for most of McNeal's assumptions is terribly weak. I am not entirely sure what his gauge of "success" in ministry is, but it does not appear to be the proclamation of Biblical truth, the genuine conversion of the lost and discipleship of the saved. On the rare occasions when Scripture is used to back up the author's assertions, it is consistently misapplied.

There are plenty of great books on leadership, both sacred and secular. A book which seeks to offer merely pragmatic advice under the guise of a vaguely "Christian" spirituality is ultimately pretty useless. Pass on this one.

This was one of the best books on leadership in a church setting. The book is a revelation of the heart. As you are reading, the insights that are given hit home into the chest because you can relate to the situations. It is a comforting book because of the feelings that are generated. You realize that you are not alone with the feelings that come from leading a congregation. This is one of the best ministerial books I have ever read. It would be best for a minister of course, but also elders within the church would grow from it. The book begins with a character studies of Moses, David, Paul, and Jesus. These character studies connect well with the present leader. The nature of leadership within God's people have not changed much through the centuries. God's process of developing leaders is the same. The book continues with an exploration of a leader's culture, call, community, communion, conflict, and the commonplace. All of these chapters are excellent with the section on conflict being the best. The book is a modern day masterpiece for congregational leadership. It is a book that is intended to refine and train the heart. It accomplishes the desired purpose.

It is said that before one can address a problem - or opportunity - one must understand that problem (or opportunity). McNeal certainly has understood the opportunity offered the Christian Church to reach out to a pre-Christian (not post-Christian) North American culture. This work presents a passionate appeal to transition to a missional, externally focused approach to ministry by gaining insight into how God shapes the hearts of spiritual leaders through six distinct shaping dynamics in the Christian life. These spiritually formed leaders will have drawn closer to the heart of God, thus recognizing their call to serve in Jesus' name and in His way. Excellent book. Highly recommend.

One of the best books on leadership I have ever read. The four brief biographies (on Moses, David, Paul and Jesus) that make up the first part of the book are extremely insightful and practical. McNeal writes with authenticity and clarity. There's not a lot of "fluff" or stuff that's rehashed from one leadership book to another. Every chapter is well worth a slow read. His dry wit also adds some spice to the read. Very good stuff.