Overview—Give a brief overview of the book, including its theme, perspective and approach.
The Making of a Leader is a classic work of Robert Clinton’s in which he seeks to help the reader navigate the stages of leadership and thus make the most out of the leadership experience. Clinton identifies five developmental phases of the leader: Sovereign Foundations, Inner-Life Growth, Ministry Maturing, Life Maturing, and Convergence. He breaks down the crucial elements of each stage and proposes ideas on applying his analysis to the leader's life. Clinton develops his framework from case studies from the lives of Christian leaders and from these studies highlights his points. As a Christian, Clinton also looks toward biblical examples to buttress his material.
Critique—Offer a brief critique of the book, including elements of strength and weakness.
Clinton has provided a well articulated and thorough framework by which any leader may evaluate his own life and look toward the next phase. One can easily recognize stages of leadership that one has passed through, successfully or not. He is very comprehensive in his study and thus provides many points for application and further consideration.
By way of critique, I wonder if Clinton’s framework derives from a study of biblical leadership or is simply his analysis supported by biblical and historical anecdotes. If one went to the Scriptures asking, “What does the Bible say about stages of leadership”, I’m not sure if Clinton’s categories would emerge as clearly as he articulates them. Much of his material rings true in a common sense sort of way, but one can easily find exceptions to the rule. Many leadership trajectories take tangential courses and one would like to think that a leader can re-invent himself along the journey. All in all though I would say that the Clinton’s pattern can be broadly applied. I think all his points are experienced by any leader, though not necessarily in the order Clinton suggests.
Application—Offer some specific application to your own ministry— demonstrating the value and relevance of the material in this book.
I found Clinton’s section on the Word Check, the Obedience Check, and the Integrity Check in the early development of the leader to be a timely challenge to understand hardships and challenges in ministry to be divine opportunities for take one’s stand. Also, understanding leadership backlash was a very helpful section. His thinking on the deepening lessons of the life maturing process stressed the roles of trials in a leader’s life and focused on the importance of “being” over “doing”. As a leader, who you are is the only secure foundation on which to build what you do.
Best Quote—Be sure to include the page number where the quote can be found.
p.197 “A leader is a person (1) with God-given capacity and (2) with God-given responsibility to influence (3) a specific group of God’s people (4) toward God’s purposes for the group.”
The Making of a Leader is a classic work of Robert Clinton’s in which he seeks to help the reader navigate the stages of leadership and thus make the most out of the leadership experience. Clinton identifies five developmental phases of the leader: Sovereign Foundations, Inner-Life Growth, Ministry Maturing, Life Maturing, and Convergence. He breaks down the crucial elements of each stage and proposes ideas on applying his analysis to the leader's life. Clinton develops his framework from case studies from the lives of Christian leaders and from these studies highlights his points. As a Christian, Clinton also looks toward biblical examples to buttress his material.
Critique—Offer a brief critique of the book, including elements of strength and weakness.
Clinton has provided a well articulated and thorough framework by which any leader may evaluate his own life and look toward the next phase. One can easily recognize stages of leadership that one has passed through, successfully or not. He is very comprehensive in his study and thus provides many points for application and further consideration.
By way of critique, I wonder if Clinton’s framework derives from a study of biblical leadership or is simply his analysis supported by biblical and historical anecdotes. If one went to the Scriptures asking, “What does the Bible say about stages of leadership”, I’m not sure if Clinton’s categories would emerge as clearly as he articulates them. Much of his material rings true in a common sense sort of way, but one can easily find exceptions to the rule. Many leadership trajectories take tangential courses and one would like to think that a leader can re-invent himself along the journey. All in all though I would say that the Clinton’s pattern can be broadly applied. I think all his points are experienced by any leader, though not necessarily in the order Clinton suggests.
Application—Offer some specific application to your own ministry— demonstrating the value and relevance of the material in this book.
I found Clinton’s section on the Word Check, the Obedience Check, and the Integrity Check in the early development of the leader to be a timely challenge to understand hardships and challenges in ministry to be divine opportunities for take one’s stand. Also, understanding leadership backlash was a very helpful section. His thinking on the deepening lessons of the life maturing process stressed the roles of trials in a leader’s life and focused on the importance of “being” over “doing”. As a leader, who you are is the only secure foundation on which to build what you do.
Best Quote—Be sure to include the page number where the quote can be found.
p.197 “A leader is a person (1) with God-given capacity and (2) with God-given responsibility to influence (3) a specific group of God’s people (4) toward God’s purposes for the group.”
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