Category: Book Summaries

Twelve Extraordinary Women

This has been quite a month. On January 25th, Jennifer and I celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary; and we celebrated her birthday just last week.  Jennifer is an extraordinary woman (see my previous posts on “Jennifer: A Leader After God’s Heart”; 4 Leadership Jewels from my wife, Jennifer; and my family life).

So, it’s appropriate to turn our focus to twelve extraordinary women of the Bible, and what God wants us to learn from them. All these women ultimately became extraordinary not because of any natural qualities of their own, but because the one true God whom they worshiped is great, mighty, glorious, and awesome, and He refined them like silver. He redeemed them through the work of an extraordinary Savior—His own divine Son—and conformed them to His image (Romans 8:29).

In other words, the gracious work of God in their lives made each one of these women truly extraordinary. They therefore stand as reminders of both our fallenness and our potential. Speaking together as one, they all point us to Christ.

As you consider their examples, John MacArthur’s prayer for you is that you will share their faith, imitate their faithfulness, and learn to love the Savior whose work in their lives made them truly extraordinary. As MacArthur puts it, “Your life can be extraordinary, too, by His wonderful grace.”

Click here for more from John MacArthur about 12 Extraordinary Women

The Truth About Leadership

In 1987, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner were scheduled to present about leadership at a two-day conference following Tom Peters—a leading management guru at the time. Academics at Santa Clara University, Kouzes and Posner decided to focus on individual leadership skills and the challenges that take place to “make extraordinary things happen.”

Following the presentation, they published The Leadership Challenge—a blockbuster business book that has sold over two million copies. On the 25th anniversary of its publication, they released the fifth edition of the book.

In 2010, Kouzes and Posner published another book entitled The Truth About Leadership: The No-Fads, Heart-of-the-Matter Facts You Need to Know.  As they point out, the context of leadership has changed dramatically since they first asked people in the early 1980s to describe their personal best leadership experiences and their most admired leaders.

However, as the context of leadership has changed, the content of leadership has not changed much at all. The fundamental behaviors, actions, and practices of leaders have remained essentially the same since Kouzes and Posner first began researching and writing about leadership nearly four decades ago.

Click here for more from Kouzes and Posner