A Work of Heart: Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders

Although I got this for less than five dollars, I received a copy of "A Work of Heart" with water stains that penetrated every page, mold on the outside and inside of the cover, and a dead bug smashed in the back cover. If there was more than one copy, I would have liked a different copy to be sent to me.

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 King

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 lifeThanks for the life change

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.