Next Generation Leader: 5 Essentials for Those Who Will Shape the Future (Hardcover)

by Andy Stanley (Author) "It is both natural and necessary for young leaders to try to prove themselves by doing everything themselves..." (more)
Key Phrases: good leadership coach, leader worth following, next generation leader, Andy Stanley, Stone's Throw Away, King Nebuchadnezzar (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Stanley, pastor of the North Point Community Church ("median age of 30") and author of Like A Rock, has made a ministry out of giving advice to people slightly younger than himself, and in this tepid leadership sermon he distills his wisdom into five core principles. Competence, Courage, Clarity, Coaching and Character, he says, are the keys to influencing future leaders. Stanley's advice-focus on what you do best and delegate the rest, seek out the counsel of coaches, don't let success blind you to what's right and wrong-is very sound, if not much of a departure from any other brand of leadership advice. His precepts are often illustrated with Bible stories about leaders like David (courage), Joshua (clarity) and King Rehoboam (paying heed to elders). Less stirring are Stanley's first-hand leadership anecdotes, too many of which involve the travails of boosting seating capacity in the worship center, unsnarling traffic flows in the church campus or shipping inspirational books and tapes during the Christmas rush. (Such examples impart an unintended lesson, which is that the size and complexity of today's mega-churches and multi-media ministries force Christian leaders to view them through the lens of business administration.) And, while studiously cultivating one's leadership abilities is good for the character, reading about such growth can be a dull task.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description
Follow Your Own Lead!

The Next Generation Leader has been challenging young Christians eager to learn, grow, and lead in ministry or in the marketplace since its original release in 2003. Now with an all-new look, this repackaged version continues to advance the mission of the first release. Mentoring young leaders as they face the unique issues of a changing world has been pastor and bestselling author Andy Stanley’s passion for more than a decade. Here he shares material from his leadership training sessions, developed to address essential leadership qualities such as character, clarity, courage, and competency. This is the perfect guide for any new leader—or for the mentor of a future leader!

Straight Talk

to Tomorrow’s Leaders

Five characteristics mark the man or woman who will shape the future.

Courage

Clarity

Competence

Coachability

Character

Drawing on two decades of experience mentoring a rising generation, seasoned visionary Andy Stanley shows how to:

Discover and play to your strengths

Harness your fears

Leverage uncertainty

Enlist a leadership coach

Maintain moral authority

“Capable men and women will eventually catch, pass, and replace the current generation of leaders,” says Stanley . “Embracing these essentials, you will not only excel in your personal leadership, but also ensure a no-regrets experience for those who choose to follow you.”

“ Andy Stanley ’s The Next Generation Leader will equip the messengers to stand a little taller with a vision of hope and promise as they engraft these timeless principles into their daily lives.”

—Dan T. Cathy, president and CEO, Chick-Fil-A Corporation

“It’s obvious that what Andy Stanley has to say in The Next Generation Leader comes straight from the gut of someone who is in the leadership game and is winning at it.”

—Bill Hybels, senior pastor, Willow Creek Community Church

“ Andy Stanley offers a fresh perspective on ageless truths that will be of enormous benefit to today’s leaders and to future generations.”

—Patrick S. Flood, chairman and CEO, HomeBanc Mortgage Corporation



INSIDE LEFT FLAP

Ready or not,

you’re NEXT!

It’s time to shape the future,

and those who will do so are in training

today. Learn what it takes to lead with courage,

then follow with character.

Embrace the basics, and you’ll master the

challenges of generations to come.

“My passion is to equip you to take your place among the ranks of those who are positioned to shape the future.”

— Andy Stanley



Story Behind the Book

Andy Stanley, the senior pastor of the North Point Ministries campuses with a cumulative congregation of more than twenty thousand, admits he has one single, core passion. He lives to train and mentor young leaders to be the best they can be! He sees the “next gen” need for quality Christian resources on leadership and wrote this book entrenched in leadership himself, desiring to guide the up-and-coming young men and women who will shape our future.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Multnomah Books (January 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590525396
• ISBN-13: 978-1590525395
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #15,523 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Next Generation (Christian) Leader?, February 8, 2005

By	John S. Bayon (Detroit, MI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Next Generation Leader: Five Essentials for Those Who Will Shape the Future (Hardcover)

Andy Stanley's The Next Generation Leader is another in a long line of recent Christian authors attempting to propose a leadership model to influence the world around them. The book essentially is attempting to accomplish two simultaneous goals: First, to establish a model of leadership for Christians in whatever sphere they may find themselves and second, to layout a leadership paradigm accessible for any leader. Therein lies the book's greatest strength and Achilles heal.

Stanley, who pastors a large, suburban Atlanta church, struggles to distinguish between two important biblical concepts, the biblically encouraged goal of Christian integration on the one hand and the frowned-upon practice of syncretism on the other. He walks a fine line between the two with some considerable deftness, but ultimately has significant problems in distinguishing between concepts of biblical leadership and popularized business practices. Instead of rigorously demanding that his business leadership model submit itself to Scripture, Stanley seems content to weave his ideas into a self-professed biblical model with less than fulfilling results.

I did however find several of his conceptual ideas encouraging to me as a gospel minister within the university context. Stanley encourages leaders to drop or delegate peripheral responsibilities in order to focus upon the 20% of their tasks that they are truly enabled and gifted to accomplish. His encouragement to leaders to seek out mature mentors is wise. It resonates strongly with a commitment I made six years ago to consistently ask older men in my ministry arena to give me advice and help care for the pastoral and decision-making needs of my life. Stanley also offers useful suggestions for risk-taking and courageously leading in order to jettison being tied down to either staid tradition that lacks vibrancy or fearfulness absent of joyfully trying new ventures.

Looking more closely at these suggestions, however, one can spot theologically questionable assumptions, made frequently for the sake of rhetorical affect. He claims, for instance, that followers end up exactly where the leader brings them. Powerful symbolism, but lacking in a very deep appreciation of the complexities of human responses to leaders and the sovereign grace of God in developing a younger generation of influencers. Stanley's composite picture of a next generation leader is one that offers an image of a very sharp, capable, ethically sound CEO. No wonder, when Stanley himself leads a mid-size organization that biblical ideas like prayerful dependence, God's sovereignty over ministry development, and working hard to submit ministry vision to Scriptural truth taught in context suffers under Stanley's analysis.

Stanley's work ultimately wavers at the brink of syncretism, wedding biblical images with a wider cultural picture of CEO. As God warned Israel, such accommodation meant grave loss for those wandering down or seeking such pathways. Stanley's view of leadership would be enriched by regaining a submission to Scriptural themes, biblical theology and authority for ministry.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful Punch, August 11, 2006

By	R. Kirkham "jrkirkham" (Rushville, Illinois USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Next Generation Leader: Five Essentials for Those Who Will Shape the Future (Hardcover)

The last section is worth the price of the book. Actually, the first four sections were good, but not outstanding or unusual. They dealt with competence, courage, clarity, and coaching. I've read many leadership books and after awhile they begin to sound similar. The last chapter of this book makes a pointed statement, "Character determines the leader's legacy." Something about these last three chapters struck a chord with me. Andy writes from experience and with authority.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!, March 5, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Next Generation Leader: Five Essentials for Those Who Will Shape the Future (Hardcover)

I've read a number of these leadership/personal growth books and the first thing I noticed about this books was how slim it was. Other books of similar topic are usually weighty volumes with lots of 50 cent words.

I appreciated the author's down-to-earth style and while some of these concepts are covered in other leadership books, Andy Stanley's approach has a fresh conversational style I immediately enjoyed.

Stanley covers 5 basic principles of leadership (he's the first to tell you there are many more, but these 5 seem to be the most essential). The two I most enjoyed were clarity and character. Clarity doesn't mean we'll have all the answers, but we should always be clear in our purpose. The character portion was well reasoned and made me wonder if corporate leadership in the US wouldn't benefit by reading this?!?

Loved it! Easy to read and reread. I find myself thinking about the principles on a regular basis.