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Lead So Others Can Follow
The spiritual climate in our world is changing. Some churches seem increasingly powerless against the rise of cultural secularism and moral relativism.
So how can you, as a leader, fight this oncoming tide and revitalize your church? Lead So Others Can Follow offers practical leadership advice in a simple yet compelling format. Author Jim Bradford offers a unique, hand-picked set of principles and practices gleaned in his thirty years of pastoral ministry such
How to develop a sustainable philosophy of leadership.
Practical tips on creating a Christ-honoring, people-centered ministry.
Sections on spirituality, strategies, and stamina and how to apply principles in your life and ministry.
Let this book help you face the challenge to keep spirituality and biblical principles hardwired into your leadership.
So how can you, as a leader, fight this oncoming tide and revitalize your church? Lead So Others Can Follow offers practical leadership advice in a simple yet compelling format. Author Jim Bradford offers a unique, hand-picked set of principles and practices gleaned in his thirty years of pastoral ministry such
How to develop a sustainable philosophy of leadership.
Practical tips on creating a Christ-honoring, people-centered ministry.
Sections on spirituality, strategies, and stamina and how to apply principles in your life and ministry.
Let this book help you face the challenge to keep spirituality and biblical principles hardwired into your leadership.
- GenresLeadership
144 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2015
30 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 13, 2019
Straightforward and Great Application
A quick and simple read with practical life applications on leadership. The ending is a bit abrupt- but each section holds good foundational ideas for Christ-focused leaders.
A quick and simple read with practical life applications on leadership. The ending is a bit abrupt- but each section holds good foundational ideas for Christ-focused leaders.
May 7, 2017
A concise and superbly written book that explores multiple dynamics in spiritual leadership. What makes the work stand out most to me is its accessibility and how the author's voice takes on the quality of an intimate conversation from an elder to a colleague desiring to learn.
Where I find the book most insightful is the way Bradford blends research into organizing principles that are penetrating and highly applicable. Throughout the book there are bulleted lists that the reader can easily translate into action steps. These pungent lists, when taken together, offer a theology of pastoral care that is decidedly servant-driven.
Anecdotal materials add richness due to their marked humility. It is these personal illustrations that create the conversationalist tone alluded to earlier and artfully demonstrate the principles functioning in a real life arena.
Where I find the book most insightful is the way Bradford blends research into organizing principles that are penetrating and highly applicable. Throughout the book there are bulleted lists that the reader can easily translate into action steps. These pungent lists, when taken together, offer a theology of pastoral care that is decidedly servant-driven.
Anecdotal materials add richness due to their marked humility. It is these personal illustrations that create the conversationalist tone alluded to earlier and artfully demonstrate the principles functioning in a real life arena.
November 10, 2019
As a young and floundering Bible college student, Jim was a bright spot in my life as an example and mentor.
There’s no fluff here. Just practical, meaningful and spiritual insights.
There’s no fluff here. Just practical, meaningful and spiritual insights.
November 5, 2025
A great tool for leadership!
January 19, 2023
Pastor Jim Bradford is one of the greatest spiritual leaders I know. This book just further confirmed why he’s great at leading.
The teachings in this book are very much practical and plausible to implement whether you’re a pastor, a key volunteer who leads a ministry, or if you’re about to step into either of those roles.
There are so many nuggets of wisdom throughout that you’ll want to highlight and revisit later. As a minister myself, this has changed my outlook on how to lead the people I shepherd.
The teachings in this book are very much practical and plausible to implement whether you’re a pastor, a key volunteer who leads a ministry, or if you’re about to step into either of those roles.
There are so many nuggets of wisdom throughout that you’ll want to highlight and revisit later. As a minister myself, this has changed my outlook on how to lead the people I shepherd.
February 26, 2016
James T. Bradford, Lead So Others Can Follow: 12 Practices and Principles for Ministry (Springfield, MO: Salubris Resources, 2015).
In the course of my ministry, Jim Bradford has been my boss, mentor, colleague, and friend. So, you will understand what I mean when I say I cannot be “objective” about his most recent book. I am not objective about him. He’s the real deal—a God-centered, Jesus-focused, Spirit-filled leader.
Unsurprisingly, then, I think Lead So Others Can Follow is a great primer on Christian leadership. While my endorsement of the book is colored by my respect for the author, that respect itself grows out of 25 years of observing Bradford’s leadership personally. Montaigne said, “No man is a hero to his own valet,” indicating that some leaders are impressive at a distance but not up close. Bradford is one of a handful of people I know who is impressive at both.
Bradford is an aerospace engineer by training. (One of his congregations printed a T-shirt with the motto, “My pastor is a rocket scientist.”) His analytical skills are evident through the book. He divides the books twelve chapters into four sections titled, respectively, “Spirituality and Servanthood,” “Systems and Strategies,” “Skills and Strengths,” and “Stamina and Stability.” (As the alliteration shows, Bradford is also a memorable preacher.)
There are hosts of books about what might be called the “externals” of leadership, what leaders do. Bradford examines these in the second and third sections of the book. Too little attention is paid to the “internals” of leadership, however—who leaders are. The internals are the focus of the first and final sections. As I look at these sections, I see an emphasis on the health of the leader, his (or her) spiritual, relational, physical, and emotional wellbeing.
Christian leaders—like all leaders—have power, which Bradford defines as “the influence we have and how we use it.” He distinguishes three kinds of power:
Positional Power—We have this power by virtue of the title on our office doors and the authority that our roles or positions give us.
Possessional Power—We have this power because of something we have that others do not.
Personal Power—This power flows out of the trust and respect others have for us. It is influence that is rooted in who we are, based on inner character and proven integrity rather than external position or personal possessions.
Christian leaders might influence their congregations in the short term through the exercise of positional or possessional power. Over time, however, appeals to these kinds of authority fall increasingly on deaf ears. They “push” people into following the leader. Only personal power—a leader’s spiritual authenticity, integrity, and strength of character—“pull” people into a leader’s sphere of influence. The battle for healthy leadership and healthy churches is won or lost by the leader’s cultivation of spiritual, relational, physical, and emotional health.
Bradford has great advice for the “externals” of leadership—oversight roles, strategic processes, staffing criteria, team building, public speaking, change management, etc. In my opinion, though, Bradford’s greatest contribution to the topic of Christian leadership lies in his opening and closing sections on leadership’s “internals.”
I close this review with the closing anecdote of Bradford’s book:
Amen to that! And read this book.
_____
P.S. This review originally appeared at InfluenceMagazine.com.
P.P.S. If you found this review helpful, please vote “Yes” on my Amazon review page.
In the course of my ministry, Jim Bradford has been my boss, mentor, colleague, and friend. So, you will understand what I mean when I say I cannot be “objective” about his most recent book. I am not objective about him. He’s the real deal—a God-centered, Jesus-focused, Spirit-filled leader.
Unsurprisingly, then, I think Lead So Others Can Follow is a great primer on Christian leadership. While my endorsement of the book is colored by my respect for the author, that respect itself grows out of 25 years of observing Bradford’s leadership personally. Montaigne said, “No man is a hero to his own valet,” indicating that some leaders are impressive at a distance but not up close. Bradford is one of a handful of people I know who is impressive at both.
Bradford is an aerospace engineer by training. (One of his congregations printed a T-shirt with the motto, “My pastor is a rocket scientist.”) His analytical skills are evident through the book. He divides the books twelve chapters into four sections titled, respectively, “Spirituality and Servanthood,” “Systems and Strategies,” “Skills and Strengths,” and “Stamina and Stability.” (As the alliteration shows, Bradford is also a memorable preacher.)
There are hosts of books about what might be called the “externals” of leadership, what leaders do. Bradford examines these in the second and third sections of the book. Too little attention is paid to the “internals” of leadership, however—who leaders are. The internals are the focus of the first and final sections. As I look at these sections, I see an emphasis on the health of the leader, his (or her) spiritual, relational, physical, and emotional wellbeing.
Christian leaders—like all leaders—have power, which Bradford defines as “the influence we have and how we use it.” He distinguishes three kinds of power:
Positional Power—We have this power by virtue of the title on our office doors and the authority that our roles or positions give us.
Possessional Power—We have this power because of something we have that others do not.
Personal Power—This power flows out of the trust and respect others have for us. It is influence that is rooted in who we are, based on inner character and proven integrity rather than external position or personal possessions.
Christian leaders might influence their congregations in the short term through the exercise of positional or possessional power. Over time, however, appeals to these kinds of authority fall increasingly on deaf ears. They “push” people into following the leader. Only personal power—a leader’s spiritual authenticity, integrity, and strength of character—“pull” people into a leader’s sphere of influence. The battle for healthy leadership and healthy churches is won or lost by the leader’s cultivation of spiritual, relational, physical, and emotional health.
Bradford has great advice for the “externals” of leadership—oversight roles, strategic processes, staffing criteria, team building, public speaking, change management, etc. In my opinion, though, Bradford’s greatest contribution to the topic of Christian leadership lies in his opening and closing sections on leadership’s “internals.”
I close this review with the closing anecdote of Bradford’s book:
At the 2010 Lausanne III conference in South Africa, a Pentecostal pastor from Kenya told the story of the East African revival of over fifty years ago. During that time, people would walk well-worn pathways to prayer huts and places of intercession in the forest. When Christians slipped away from prayer, their friends would notice by the condition of their paths, and gently encourage each other: “Brother, the grass grows on your path.”
As leaders of God’s people, engaged in spiritual battle and committed to prevailing, our challenge is to never let the grass grow on our pathway to prayer.
Amen to that! And read this book.
_____
P.S. This review originally appeared at InfluenceMagazine.com.
P.P.S. If you found this review helpful, please vote “Yes” on my Amazon review page.
November 1, 2016
Easy read but insightful. This book is focused on both the who and what of spiritual leadership. Unlike many business books that look to financial measures and metrics as the determinant of successful leadership; this book emphasizes character above all else and looks to scripture as the defining mandate on what successful spiritual leadership should look like. As the introduction aptly notes secular management books may reflect biblical leadership principles, such as servant leadership, but that is not the same as spiritual leadership. In spiritual leadership, how we live is for more important than what we say; especially if the two do not match.
Though written for the lens of church leadership, it's 12 practices and principles are directly on point for those seeking to live out business as mission in the marketplace. In Section 1: Spirituality and Servanthood and Section 4: Stamina and Stability you to see the difference between a Christian business leader and a business leader who identifies as Christian. In Sections 2 and 3: Systems and Strategies, and Skills and Strength, you can see how different a Christian business should look as its systems and strategies reflect the spiritual leadership of it's senior leaders.
Though written for the lens of church leadership, it's 12 practices and principles are directly on point for those seeking to live out business as mission in the marketplace. In Section 1: Spirituality and Servanthood and Section 4: Stamina and Stability you to see the difference between a Christian business leader and a business leader who identifies as Christian. In Sections 2 and 3: Systems and Strategies, and Skills and Strength, you can see how different a Christian business should look as its systems and strategies reflect the spiritual leadership of it's senior leaders.
February 17, 2022
Exceedingly helpful and practical. A comprehensive leadership guide for all ministry leaders in concise, thoughtful steps.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews