Elemental Children's Ministry

(picture originally uploaded to Flickr by Merry~Blues)

It seems that everyone and their mother who is involved in ministry is always looking for the next leadership book by the next leadership guru.

While I do enjoy reading books on leadership, I think that we miss out on a well-rounded leadership development when we narrow what we read to what we find in the leadership section of the bookstore. In fact, I think we miss out when we resign ourselves to any kind of reading niche. We need to be well rounded, reading those things that are contemporary and ancient, easy and hard, fiction and non-fiction.

With that being said, Out of Ur has a post from Scot McKnight listing his top 10 Leadership Books. You can read the post yourself for his reasoning behind his books, but here is the list (BTW, he had more than 10 books listed):

• Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle
• The Aeneid by Virgil
• Divine Comedy by Dante
• Confessions by Augustine
• Paradise Lost by John Milton
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
• On Walden Pond by Henry David Thoreau
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Dymer by C.S. Lewis
• Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis
• Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein
• Leaf by Niggle by J.R.R. Tolkein
• The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway
• I and Thou by Martin Buber

Now that is a pretty hefty list! I like it, though… partly because I’ve read a number of those already (albeit some required in high school and university)… mostly because these works develop different aspects of a person seeking to be a more well-rounded individual as well as a leader that is able to think beyond her immediate paradigms and context.

Anyway, what do you think of that list? Why would anyone in leadership even bother reading those, let alone someone in children’s ministry leadership?

If you aren’t into reading books like the ones above, what are some other ways to be a well-rounded leader? What are some other ways to be a well rounded person?

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