'The Conviction to Lead' by Albert Mohler
Every leader wants to lead better. Much has been written on leadership and yet, as Albert Mohler proves in The Conviction to Lead, there is still more. He starts the book with “My goal is to change the way you think about leadership. I do not aim merely to add one more voice to the conversation; I want to fundamentally change the way leadership is understood and practiced.”
Mohler surveys the vast leadership industry and points out that in all the useful things that have been said about leadership, the central problem “is a lack of attention to what leaders believe and why this is central.” His burden is “to redefine Christian leadership so that it is inseparable from passionately held beliefs, and to motivate those who are deeply committed to truth to be ready for leadership. I want to see a generation arise that is simultaneously leading with conviction and driven by the conviction to lead. The generation that accomplishes this will set the world on fire.”
Mohler advocates is what he calls “convictional intelligence.” This must be developed by diving deeply into the truth of the Bible and learning to think like a Christian.
The leader must be relentless in his pursuit of truth and the application of truth to his life and his organization. Through twenty-five short chapters Mohler describes the kind of character that ought to mark the leader and looks at specific skills, habits and intellectual exercises that can make all the difference between a mediocre leader and a great one. He writes about the importance of gaining and maintaining credibility, of developing the intellect, of making wise decisions, and even of facing the new realities of a digital world.
Mohler takes the massive amount of scholarship and popular-level writing on leadership, extracts what is most valuable, and then sets it all in the context of Scripture. From the first page to the last, he is applying Scripture to leadership, crafting an understanding that is thoroughly and completely biblical. This book is truly gospel-centered; the gospel is not appended to the book, but at its heart.
The book is currently available only at Amazon, though I’m sure it will soon be available everywhere else good books are sold.
Mohler surveys the vast leadership industry and points out that in all the useful things that have been said about leadership, the central problem “is a lack of attention to what leaders believe and why this is central.” His burden is “to redefine Christian leadership so that it is inseparable from passionately held beliefs, and to motivate those who are deeply committed to truth to be ready for leadership. I want to see a generation arise that is simultaneously leading with conviction and driven by the conviction to lead. The generation that accomplishes this will set the world on fire.”Mohler advocates is what he calls “convictional intelligence.” This must be developed by diving deeply into the truth of the Bible and learning to think like a Christian.
“For the Christian leaders, those convictions must be drawn from the Bible and must take the shape of the gospel. Our ultimate conviction is that everything we do is dignified and magnified by the fact that we were created for the glory of God. We were made for his glory, and this means that each one of us has a divine purpose. The Christian leader finds passion in the great truths of the Christian faith, and especially in the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
The leader must be relentless in his pursuit of truth and the application of truth to his life and his organization. Through twenty-five short chapters Mohler describes the kind of character that ought to mark the leader and looks at specific skills, habits and intellectual exercises that can make all the difference between a mediocre leader and a great one. He writes about the importance of gaining and maintaining credibility, of developing the intellect, of making wise decisions, and even of facing the new realities of a digital world.
Mohler has faced great leadership challenges, the greatest of which was undoubtedly being called—while he was only in his young thirties—to lead one of America’s most important seminaries. While he draws many examples from history, and especially British history, he also draws many lessons from his own successes and failures.
Mohler takes the massive amount of scholarship and popular-level writing on leadership, extracts what is most valuable, and then sets it all in the context of Scripture. From the first page to the last, he is applying Scripture to leadership, crafting an understanding that is thoroughly and completely biblical. This book is truly gospel-centered; the gospel is not appended to the book, but at its heart.
The book is currently available only at Amazon, though I’m sure it will soon be available everywhere else good books are sold.
