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40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
from the inside out, March 27, 2002
Maxwell's stated purpose for a leadership Bible is that everyone is a leader, and that effective leaders must first be able to lead themselves.The first interesting note on the book is his choice of the New King James Version, rather than the more common New International Version, but the translation flows quite nicely, so it does not present a problem. In the book, Maxwell takes insights from the 21 Irrefutable Laws and the 21 Indispensable Qualities to highlight the Biblical passages. For example, he takes Biblical figures and discusses how they embodied a particular law or quality, sometimes more than one. Also worthy of note is that he uses both positive and negative examples of leadership: in Matthew chapter 2, he uses Herod to illustrate the "indispensable quality" of security, and the "irrefutable law" of empowerment. Maxwell asserts that Herod was not secure in his leadership, because he viewed Jesus as a threat, and tried to have him killed. In terms of empowerment, Maxwell offers Herod's abuse of power, as opposed to attempting to share it. A nice feature of this is that Maxwell provides chapter and verse references for each of his insights, and the profiles and notes are placed logically with the accounts to which they correlate. In short, the book amounts to a study Bible on leadership. Some other features of note: -A two page spread at the end of the Gospels explaining how Jesus embodied each of the 21 irrefutable laws -Half page "profiles in leadership" on everyone from the seventy elders in Numbers to well known names like Abraham, Peter, and John -Full and two-page elaborations on a particular law of leadership or a particular quality as embodied by a Biblical leader -Summaries at the beginning of each book which not only give the plot line of the account in the book, but also speak to the leadership components therein by listing leaders in the book, other people of influence, lessons in leadership, and leadership highlights with chapter, verse, and page references -Other insights such as "women who made a difference" in which he lists 25+ women who exhibited difference-making leadership, referenced by book, chapter, and verse, or "Zechariah learns motivation comes before mobilization" -An index of each leadership law, followed by several examples and where to find them in the Bible (main example of each in boldface type) -An index of each leadership quality, followed by several examples and where to find them in the Bible (positive and negative examples labeled and in boldface type) -An index of leadership issues, including calling, adaptability, delegation, etc. -An index of profiles in leadership Overall, this is a well-indexed and thorough study Bible on the topic of leadership, and I recommend it highly to anyone who is interested in the integration of faith and leadership, or wants to learn more about the origins of leadership.
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