The Empowered Leader: 10 Keys to Servant Leadership

by Calvin Miller

God blessed King David as a leader only after David submitted himself to God's strength. In The Empowered Leader, Dr. Calvin Miller shows how following David's example can turn you into the leader you can be, the leader God wants you to be.

Genres: Leadership, Church, Christianity

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Calvin Miller has written over 40 books of popular theology and inspiration. A former pastor, he is professor of preaching and pastoral ministry at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama. He and his wife, Joyce, have two grown children.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

No. Just, no. Not only is Calvin a terrible writer, but he is a terrible exegete. He sees things in scripture that aren't there, retranslates words for his pleasure, make statements that are not true... I kept giving it another page, but the more it went, the more things went south. There are a lot of great books out there and, more specifically, there are a lot of great leadership books out there. Why this one? There are a bunch of things here that sound good but aren't. Here are some examples: They (meek leaders) sacrifice without grumbling, give without calculating, suffer without groaning." At first, this sounds good - no grumbling. Then suddenly calculating is bad. Obviously you should be generous, but a big part of leadership is in LEADING, which is very difficult to do if you don't know where you're going or what you have to go on. And then he says that they can't groan either. That's just wrong. In fact, David actually said "all day long I groan to you". Another example, "great leadership always proclaims itself". As catchy as that sounds, what does that mean? I remember Jesus humbly serving. I remember David living in the wilderness and not taking leadership from Saul. Another example: "inward substance, outward daring and magnetic motivation is God's recipe for greatness". What? First off, greatness by God is defined by obedience and humility, not what we can bring to the table. We are made in God's image, that's where we get our value and specialness. inward substance? Like David who had little to offer? Or Samson whose greatness was not his own and had terrible character? Outward daring like Gideon who stood cowering? The truth is that God uses people that we wouldn't to do things that we couldn't. Nothing you can do can make you deserve God's goodness, but when you are willing and sometimes when you aren't willing, God pushes you into obedience. There are other things that I could say and even wanted to say, but long story short, life is too short to read bad books, especially if you aren't enjoying the book.

[Dj Wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thought provoking book about leadership and how we can see through King David’s life both failure and success in leading. How he used and leaned upon God for wisdom, patience, and forgiveness in all that he did.

[Pete Bartel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad; biased towards pastors