Leaders Who Last Book Review

I recently finished reading the book Leaders who Last by Margaret Marcuson. Marcuson is an ordained minsiter, a church consultant, and a pastor. As one might be able to tell from the title, this book is a guide for pastors on how to surive ministry over the long haul.

Margeret, when you meet her, is the kind of person that inspires a sense of peace and comfort. Her books does the same for pastors. It also encourages church leaders to do the same for their constituents.

Part of me found much of her writing to reminiscent of Peter Stienke's work on church health. Margaret is adept, however, at communicating this kind of information as though she were in a series of mentoring meetings instead of in a stuffy classroom. The book has a healthy mix of the systems theory that guides her thinking, and down to earth application of how her beliefs on leadership work in a day to day fashion.

Marcuson is thorough. Her encouragement to know your history and your familiy history is always helpful. The book covers relational triangles and how to navigate them as well. Where she excels is talking about how knowing your history, and navigating triangles applies in the mundane business of church life. Her encouragement to explore your relationship and your families relationship to money, and how you view a budget process in the church I thought was very helpful. As was how to integrate a personal and institutional need for purpose as a way of dealing with anxiety in leadership.

Perhaps most challenging for me was knowing who some of the people are that were mentioned as resources in the book. Ms. Marcuson and I belong to the same denomination and some of the same church circles. The persons she would view as models at times I would not. At times this was distracting, But, if I were to write a book, I am sure the roles would be reversed.

Overall, I recommend this book as a good read for anyone looking at doing ministry over the long haul.