What do you think?
Rate this book
Finish Line Leadership: Setting the Pace in Following Jesus
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
From a Roman jail, the Apostle Paul wrote these iconic words to a younger ministry leader. Paul was cold and winter was coming. “Do your best to come to me soon,” he wrote to Timothy. In whatever time Paul had left, he wanted to pour his life into this younger leader, strengthening Timothy in the calling God had placed upon him.
Finishing well in the Christian life, especially as a leader, is hard. So many leaders struggle to finish well, and too many fail. Dave Kraft has over five decades of ministry experience. Throughout this time, he has made it his personal life mission to help develop, equip, and empower leaders in local churches so that they finish their race well. Kraft’s book Finish Line Leadership is his version of 2 Timothy, his heartfelt plea and practical steps to run the race with integrity and joy.
Endorsements“Dave Kraft is a godly man, full of wisdom. Don’t miss this book.”
Justin Anderson, US Vice President, Acts 29 Network
“Finish Line Leadership is what the Bible calls, ‘wise counsel.’”
Jerry Dirmann, President of Solid Lives and Senior Pastor of The Rock Network
“This book is an incredibly valuable contribution to the weighty but necessary call of leadership.”
Kristin Nave, Co-host Abiding Free Podcast, Bible Study Author, and Teacher
“A treasure trove of leadership wisdom from a guy running his race well.”
Tony Merida, Pastor for Preaching and Vision of Imago Dei Church and a Council Member of The Gospel Coalition
About the AuthorDave Kraft worked for the Navigators staff for thirty-seven years and has served on the pastoral staff at various local churches, assuming responsibility for small groups, discipleship, and men’s ministries. In 2005, Dave retired from the Navigators and began professionally coaching hundreds of leaders all over the world, both in the church world as well as in the business world. He and his late wife Susan were married for 55 years. They have four adult children and seven grandchildren. You can find more of his work at DaveKraft.org.
Finishing well in the Christian life, especially as a leader, is hard. So many leaders struggle to finish well, and too many fail. Dave Kraft has over five decades of ministry experience. Throughout this time, he has made it his personal life mission to help develop, equip, and empower leaders in local churches so that they finish their race well. Kraft’s book Finish Line Leadership is his version of 2 Timothy, his heartfelt plea and practical steps to run the race with integrity and joy.
Endorsements“Dave Kraft is a godly man, full of wisdom. Don’t miss this book.”
Justin Anderson, US Vice President, Acts 29 Network
“Finish Line Leadership is what the Bible calls, ‘wise counsel.’”
Jerry Dirmann, President of Solid Lives and Senior Pastor of The Rock Network
“This book is an incredibly valuable contribution to the weighty but necessary call of leadership.”
Kristin Nave, Co-host Abiding Free Podcast, Bible Study Author, and Teacher
“A treasure trove of leadership wisdom from a guy running his race well.”
Tony Merida, Pastor for Preaching and Vision of Imago Dei Church and a Council Member of The Gospel Coalition
About the AuthorDave Kraft worked for the Navigators staff for thirty-seven years and has served on the pastoral staff at various local churches, assuming responsibility for small groups, discipleship, and men’s ministries. In 2005, Dave retired from the Navigators and began professionally coaching hundreds of leaders all over the world, both in the church world as well as in the business world. He and his late wife Susan were married for 55 years. They have four adult children and seven grandchildren. You can find more of his work at DaveKraft.org.
226 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 24, 2024
5 people are currently reading
10 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 15, 2024
I have enjoyed Dave Kraft’s previous three books, and looked forward to reading this one. Dave is currently 84 years old, has fifty-five years of vocational Christian leadership experience, and is still passionate about developing, equipping and empowering the next generation of leaders in local churches.
This is a helpful book for leaders, particularly Christian leaders. At the end of each of the twenty-three chapters are questions for reflection, discussion and application. The author covers so much information in this book that it is helpful to go back over those sections after reading the book to determine what you want to work on to improve your leadership.
The author tells us that many leaders don’t live, lead, and finish well because they focus too much on leading others and don’t invest enough time in leading themselves. He tells us that we can’t lead others with integrity and credibility if we are not leading and modeling it in our lives.
Among the many topics covered in this book are spiritual disciplines, a life purpose, calling, vision, people pleasing, character, learning, values, dreamers and implementers, hiring and firing, trust, meetings, decision making, healthy cultures, and difficult conversations.
This would be a good book to read and discuss with others, including a church leadership team.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:
1. Christian leadership starts with Jesus and ends with Jesus.
2. What’s wonderful is when your calling and your job are one and the same, for this is where a sense of true fulfillment and godly satisfaction will be found.
3. Every Christian and every Christian leader is saved to serve.
4. A leader is a person who takes people from where they are to someplace else.
5. Experience has taught me that more leaders disqualify themselves over character issues than competency issues.
6. Being a person of character (who you actually are) is more important than reputation (who other people think you are).
7. Leaders are learners. When you stop learning, you stop leading.
8. Truly teachable leaders will not only allow, but also welcome others speaking into their lives—exhorting them, rebuking them, reproving them.
9. An effective leader is asking more questions than giving more answers.
10. Most leaders are traveling too fast and trying to do too much.
11. One of the most important jobs of a leader is identifying, recruiting, and developing the next generation of leaders.
12. Work done for the Savior should be the best we can do—there is no room for laziness, sloppiness, or mediocrity.
13. Hire slowly and fire quickly is saying we should take ample time before bringing someone on, and when it is clear they need to go, don’t take an inordinate amount of time making the decision, as it hurts team morale and the person in question.
14. I don’t think we need less meeting, but better meetings.
15. A controlling leader is one of the most destructive forms of leadership.
16. Readiness to risk failure is probably the attribute that separates good leaders from poor ones.
17. Empowering people involves creating an atmosphere that frees them to be their best and do their best for the Savior.
18. There are many things excellent leaders do and do well. Having difficult conversations has to be at the top of the list.
19. A leader possesses the ability to see a better future and motivate people to travel there.
20. You can’t lead or develop people if you don’t care for them, and you can’t lead or develop people if you only care—all three are critical.
This is a helpful book for leaders, particularly Christian leaders. At the end of each of the twenty-three chapters are questions for reflection, discussion and application. The author covers so much information in this book that it is helpful to go back over those sections after reading the book to determine what you want to work on to improve your leadership.
The author tells us that many leaders don’t live, lead, and finish well because they focus too much on leading others and don’t invest enough time in leading themselves. He tells us that we can’t lead others with integrity and credibility if we are not leading and modeling it in our lives.
Among the many topics covered in this book are spiritual disciplines, a life purpose, calling, vision, people pleasing, character, learning, values, dreamers and implementers, hiring and firing, trust, meetings, decision making, healthy cultures, and difficult conversations.
This would be a good book to read and discuss with others, including a church leadership team.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:
1. Christian leadership starts with Jesus and ends with Jesus.
2. What’s wonderful is when your calling and your job are one and the same, for this is where a sense of true fulfillment and godly satisfaction will be found.
3. Every Christian and every Christian leader is saved to serve.
4. A leader is a person who takes people from where they are to someplace else.
5. Experience has taught me that more leaders disqualify themselves over character issues than competency issues.
6. Being a person of character (who you actually are) is more important than reputation (who other people think you are).
7. Leaders are learners. When you stop learning, you stop leading.
8. Truly teachable leaders will not only allow, but also welcome others speaking into their lives—exhorting them, rebuking them, reproving them.
9. An effective leader is asking more questions than giving more answers.
10. Most leaders are traveling too fast and trying to do too much.
11. One of the most important jobs of a leader is identifying, recruiting, and developing the next generation of leaders.
12. Work done for the Savior should be the best we can do—there is no room for laziness, sloppiness, or mediocrity.
13. Hire slowly and fire quickly is saying we should take ample time before bringing someone on, and when it is clear they need to go, don’t take an inordinate amount of time making the decision, as it hurts team morale and the person in question.
14. I don’t think we need less meeting, but better meetings.
15. A controlling leader is one of the most destructive forms of leadership.
16. Readiness to risk failure is probably the attribute that separates good leaders from poor ones.
17. Empowering people involves creating an atmosphere that frees them to be their best and do their best for the Savior.
18. There are many things excellent leaders do and do well. Having difficult conversations has to be at the top of the list.
19. A leader possesses the ability to see a better future and motivate people to travel there.
20. You can’t lead or develop people if you don’t care for them, and you can’t lead or develop people if you only care—all three are critical.
May 26, 2025
This book is a compilation of many leadership lessons, divided into two sections: leading yourself and leading others. Each lesson is brief and has reflection questions. The author reminds you to review the chapter and look for application. There is enought wisdom in the book to last a long time and it merits rereading. There are so many leadership books for the general market an not as many that are like this one, centered on the Gospel and Scripture.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews