Book summaries
Leader’s Edge summaries: the argument of a book in a few minutes. Page 11 of 21 · 485 in all.
Tempered Resilience: How Leaders Are Formed in the Crucible of Change
This book describes the characteristics of leaders who can affect needed, significant change in an organization, even when change initiatives are met with resistance or sabotage. The author argues that leaders must develop resilience and “adaptive capacity,” to wisely cut through resistance and accomplish the mission…
Author Interview: Terry Dalrymple
This book presents key principles, cases studies, and proven strategies for catalyzing movements that multiply disciples while lifting whole communities out of cycles of poverty and disease (page 15). The purpose of the book is to move beyond doing sustainable development in a single village to starting…
Journey With Me: Spiritual Formation for Global Workers
As ministry workers, we often expect a thriving personal relationship with God to be an outcome of our ministry. This book propounds that ministry is the result of the overflow of our relationship with God, rather than vice versa.
Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know
This book is an invitation to let go of knowledge and opinions that are no longer serving you well, and to anchor your sense of self in flexibility rather than consistency.
Author Interview: Jackson Wu
This book, which is not a commentary on Romans, “seeks to offer a biblically faithful reading of Romans through Eastern eyes” (page 4).
What God Has to Say about Our Bodies: How the Gospel Is Good News for Our Physical Selves
There’s a danger in focusing too much on our bodies. There’s also a danger in not valuing them enough. The Bible has lots to say about the body.
The Emotionally Healthy Leader: How Transforming Your Inner Life Will Deeply Transform Your Church, Team, and the World
This rich and wise book explores two key dimensions of every spiritual leader’s life: 1) the interior life and how to cultivate it; and 2) how to integrate a rich personal spiritual life with key outward tasks that are the responsibility of every leader. Scazzero explains that cultivating the inner life involves…
Author Interview: Tom and JoAnn Doyle
This book is a touching narration of the true-to-life stories of seven former Muslim women who risk their lives because of their faith in Jesus.
The Practice: Shipping Creative Work
This book is made up of short chapters of wisdom from marketing and creative guru Seth Godin. It is not a standard business book but rather, is written more like proverbs.
The Ninefold Path of Jesus: Hidden Wisdom of the Beatitudes
In this book based on the Beatitudes, Mark Scandrette shows how these nine statements by Jesus found in Matthew 5 invite the reader into nine postures for life – literal postures that are demonstrated in the book through illustrations. Instead of living in fear, anxiety, and greed, we can choose radical love.
Author Interview: Craig Ott
This book, which is based on cross-cultural research and real-life experiences, explores ways to appreciate and engage learners from different cultures. It proceeds from a Christian conviction that the ultimate goal of all teaching is human flourishing.
The Innovation Crisis, Creating Disruptive Influence in the Ministry You Lead
Throughout The Innovation Crisis, Ted Esler utilizes thoughtful reflection, conversational narrative, and historical and present-day examples to drive home the significant gaps in innovation that exist within the modern church.
Friendship with God: Discover God’s Relational Presence and Receive Peace, Identity, and Purpose for Your Life
Are you tired of feeling spiritually bored and disconnected from God? Do you have an underlying dissatisfaction in your relationship with God?
Author Interview: Sadiri Joy Tira and Juliet Uytanlet (eds.)
This edited book is a compendium of 16 papers presented at the “Hybridity, Diaspora, and Mission Dei: Exploring New Horizons Consultation,” sponsored by the Lausanne Movement and the Global Diaspora Network in June 2018 at the Biblical Seminary of the Philippines.
Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment
This book is a deep, detailed dive into the science behind decision making. It focuses on how decisions and judgment are made, what influences them, and how better decisions can be made. It utilizes math, case studies, and research to prove that noise, the things that make decisions difficult, is a primary influencer…
Getting Over Yourself: Trading Believe-in-Yourself Religion for Christ-Centered Christianity
The contemporary message of the world exhorts us to believe that we are promised and entitled the biggest and best life can possibly offer. As we in missions know, this cuts right across the grain of the necessary missionary posture of self-denial and sacrifice.
Author Interview: Christopher Flanders & Werner Mischke
This edited book explores the contribution of honor-shame cultural language in gospel communication, in order to navigate the tension between faithfulness to God’s ancient Word and relevance to the current local and social context.
I Love It Here: How Great Leaders Create Organizations Their People Never Want to Leave
This is a short, fast-paced book on how leaders can empower and retain employees. The author, founder of The Undercover Millennial, has conducted extensive informal reviews of how employees see their companies. He unpacks the major findings. While there is some emphasis on generational differences, this book is more…
Ten Words to Live By: Delighting in and Doing What God Commands
Here is a book that gives a helpful and meaningful review of the Ten Commandments, which we suggest is a good thing for even long-standing Christians to do. Some view the Ten Commandments as a list of restrictions placed on rebellious people by and angry God.
Author Interview: Darrell L. Bock
This edited book addresses the “unexplored space” (left largely untouched by published missiology) of the conceptual and practical intersection between community development, the least reached, and the emergence of vibrant, growing churches or communities of Jesus followers.
What’s Your Problem?: To Solve Your Toughest Problems, Change the Problems You Solve
This book’s thesis is that reframing problems, seeing them in new ways or redefining them, creates breakthroughs. Understanding the best problem to solve is not as easy as one might think. The author makes the case that it is fundamental to good leadership. This is a practical, step by step guide on how reframing can…
Journey of the Soul: A Practical Guide to Emotional and Spiritual Growth
The healthy Christian life should be one of continuing spiritual, emotional, and relational growth. But many feel stuck at one stage of the journey.
Author Interview: David Greenlee, Mark Galpin, Paul Bendor-Samuel (eds.)
This edited book addresses the “unexplored space” (left largely untouched by published missiology) of the conceptual and practical intersection between community development, the least reached, and the emergence of vibrant, growing churches or communities of Jesus followers.
A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload
This is a short book with a strong thesis and practical application. “Without careful attention, faith-based organizations will inevitably drift from their founding mission” (Kindle location 15).