Ed Stetzer: Why Leadership Matters

We need good leaders. So we need solid leadership development, books and other resources. But it seems to me leadership is an important issue that’s often overlooked. I know, you think I’m crazy. Leadership resources and speakers abound. But there’s a reason the best place to find leadership books is at a Goodwill or some other thrift store.

Secondhand stores are like leadership book archive vaults. Why? Well, there’s a pendulum—and it has swung. In the 1980s there was much talk about leadership and a lot of people writing on it, speaking on it. Leadership theories and ideas were influencing the church and the church was, in many ways, being shaped by that.

Then in the 1990s the pendulum began to swing the other direction. People started objecting to the near-constant references to Warren Bennis or Jim Collins’ books on leadership. They began to complain of the Maxwellization of leadership. “We need a little less leadership and a little more biblical principles,” some said.

I understand issue fatigue. But this incessant pendulum swing is not particularly helpful. And the de-emphasis on leadership isn’t healthy.

Here are three reasons we should not reject the culture of leadership development. Read more