The Longview by Roger Parrott
The Longview is written to ministry leaders, but longview principles are for every Christian striving for authentically biblical leadership, whether in ministry or the marketplace. How will you choose to face the challenges of leadership? Will you choose to pursue immediate results – or will you choose to follow Christ and have the fortitude, vision, skill, and strength to understand that genuine transformation is gained through envisioning the longview implications of every leadership action?
The Longview, p. 10-11
Synopsis: As its name implies, The Longview is about defying the trends of short-sighted goal-making for quick returns by learning to lead for long-term significance. It is written by Dr. Roger Parrott, who is the president of Belhaven University, a liberal arts institution in Jackson, Mississippi. The book includes chapters on taking a long-term approach to leadership, keeping egos in check, managing conflicts of interest, humility, mentoring, spontaneity, accountability and vision.Positives: I have read leadership books in the past and figured that this would rehash older material. My expectations were low. I was pleasantly surprised by this book’s contents and enjoyed the reading. Parrott writes well and is passionate about the topics he has chosen to discuss. It was clear to me that he took pride in this work and truly had something to say. He has the experience to back up his points and openly shares about what he has learned over the years.
I particularly liked how Parrott compared making decisions to playing chess. Each move has ripple effects and should not be considered in isolation. He also has a great deal to say about addressing rumors and conflict, sharing credit, keeping a team on the same page and creating the right culture. Finally, egos are a huge problem for leaders and I loved how he dealt with this early on. Underpinning everything is a desire to follow Christ.
Negatives: At times, I felt that this book was too narrowly focused. Parrott works as the president of a university and some of what he has to say would mainly apply to other university presidents or leaders of larger Christian organizations. Though everyone is in a position of influence, portions of this book don’t reach a broader audience.
Also, this isn’t really a negative, but I have no idea whether Parrott practices what he preaches. I would be curious to know what students and subordinates would have to say. Finally, this is nitpicking, but I scratched my head at his interpretation of 1 Corinthians 13 (p. 13) and wasn’t crazy about the places where he referred to Belhaven as “my institution”. Though the author came across as a person of humility, the statements of possession worked against the chapter on ego and he does not own the school.
Summary: Persons in leadership positions or with an interest in organization behavior will benefit from reading this insightful book. I have not seen many books which so skillfully inform cross-disciplinary leadership with Christian principles.
Rating: 5/5 (Fresh and informative.)
This book was provided for review by David C. Cook. To learn more about this book, or purchase from Amazon, click here. You might also want to check out the book’s website.
The Nines – A Resource and Review
The Nines was a one-day event held on 09/09/09. Leadership Network asked over 75 leaders, “If you had just nine minutes to share with church leaders, what would you tell them?”
In the spirit of being helpful, I want to direct your attention to a resource that is quite handy. And, unlike Romancing the 70′s, it is FREE! And, it already happened. But, it isn’t too late! Basically, influential church leaders were given 9 minutes to talk about WHATEVER they are PASSIONATE about. And, all the videos are available online (no registration or having to give out your email address or anything like that). Further down in this post is a link to the entire collection. What a great idea! I so prefer listening to people talk about what they are passionate about rather than something that sounds like it was a chore to put together (and listen to).
My review is not entirely glowing. For some of them, I had a hard time believing they were speaking about something that they’re really excited about. If this is the case, I’d hate to see what it looks like when they’re preaching on something they aren’t passionate about and have more than 9 minutes! I’m reminded of the Apostle Paul, who once went on for so long that a member of the congregation fell not just asleep, but out of the window! When they went to him, they found that he had died. So, Paul somehow revived him. Personally, I would think that this would have been enough excitement for one night. Can you imagine? However, the story goes on to say that Paul preached into the morning!1 After all that, he kept going! Unbelievable. This has to be one of my favorite Bible stories ever.
A few of these videos are borderline intolerable and make me want to gag. Some of these Pastors can’t get out of the way of their own ego. Many of them lead off with the size of their church/campus and all the wonderful things they are doing. Some of them implicitly or even explicitly equate church size with success. One guy basically puts down churches with 2oo to 300 people saying “we’ve all been there”. Are you kidding me? I’ve never been one to leave inflammatory comments under YouTube videos, but I was surely tempted. What about the small but faithful churches mentioned in the book of Revelation? Whatever happened to the first being last and not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing? How about where it says that God is the one who makes things grow?2
I am reminded of the following scriptures:
It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.3
I guess that means I should rejoice, even when I question the motives of the person speaking. After all, Lord knows that my motives often aren’t the best either. The important thing is that Christ is preached.
While I couldn’t make it to the end with some of these, others are outstanding. You can view all 77 of these videos at the following website: http://thenines.leadnet.org/stream.htm.
Unfortunately, the videos don’t have subject titles. So, consider them like the Forrest-Gump-you-never-know-what-you’re-gonna-get box of chocolate. They are titled by speaker, though. I’ve found more than I few that I’ve already begun to follow. Along with the one in the prior post, below are a few of my personal favorites from the event. These are excellent. I may be adding more to this list as time goes by. If you’ve seen any of the videos from The Nines, I’d love to know which ones are your favorite.
