I just finished listening to Next Generation Leader: 5 Essentials for Those Who Will Shape the Future (Audio CD) by Andy Stanley and wrote these thoughts. I once served on a pulpit committee charged with finding a new pastor for the church I attended. My first suggestion was to write out a job description for the pastor. The pastor emeritus, also serving on the committee, protested saying, "If a man is called he will know what a pastor does". My reply was, "You just fired the last pastor because he wasn't doing his job. Maybe we better get more specific". If that conversation were to happen again I might reply "Let's use Andy Stanley's book as a guide." Though not just for pastors Andy's book certainly does deal with the work of the pastor in this generation. The writer lists 5 essentials for leadership: Competence, courage, clarity, coaching and character. Mr. Stanley illustrates each of these essentials with stories from the military, sports and his own life. When dealing with his own life he not only talks about lessons learned but is honest in saying he learned many of the lessons by failing the first time. Two areas were especially helpful. Leaders need courage and leaders need coaching. Many in leadership positions fail because they are afraid to make a move without all the details. That is not how it works. God often just tells us the next step and we get more details when we move. There are pastors who fail because they think they need to have all the answers and are afraid to ask for help but most leaders need coaching. The author has presented us with good food for thought and I recommend this book. The audio edition was read well with good nuance in the reader's voice. I received a copy of the audio book for review from christianaudio with no expectation but that I review the book.