I’ve read several of John C.
Maxwell’s books. He has become almost an
industry in himself for the production of leadership
books. It started while he was still a
pastor. Be All You Can Be! draws from leadership lessons he gave his staff
at a church where he was pastor.
Maxwell sounds more like a
pastor in this book than he does in some of his later works. It is full of homiletical mnemonics. As a kid, I thought these methods were mainly
intended to help the hearers remember the message. Nowadays, I think it is equally intended to
help pastor remember their sermons.
It is probably best to take
the book as a set of lessons. Each
chapter has a focused theme on some aspect of leadership. These themes recur in Maxwell’s other books,
and entire leadership books are built around any one of them.
The downside of the focused
chapters is that it is difficult to find the thread that ties them together,
other than leadership. It might be that
leadership is a costly endeavor. The
potential leader will face obstacles, resistance and distractions in
abundance. Much is demanded of a
successful leader, and he will need a vision, character, and commitment to
carry him through.
The upside of the book is
that it covers a lot of ground in relatively few pages. Each chapter can be read at convenient
intervals without much concern over the order in which you read them. If you looking for a basic leadership book,
especially one that draws on a Christian or ministry context, this may be the
one.
Having said that, I think it
is worth a paragraph to discuss Maxwell in a wider context. I’ve heard evangelicals lament that recently
the books most read by pastors relate to leadership rather than their
faith. Many of those leadership books
are probably Maxwell products. Be All You Can Be! is more explicitly
related to a church setting than his other books, but that isn’t an especially
important matter. Maxwell draw examples
from the Bible,
but he might have found adequate examples from other sources. Even the selection of an author for the
forward is telling. Zig
Ziglar is a prominent Christian,
but millions have read his self-help
and sales books without any concern, or possibly even knowledge, of his religion. This book might be found in the Christian
section of some bookstores, but it there is little that would keep it out of
the business or self-help aisles.
John C. Maxwell also wrote
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