A Work of Heart: Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders

Great for home library

The heart of McNeal’s *A Work of Heart* is to challenge leaders in the church to a level of introspection with which the author assumes many are not familiar. Many of the skills spiritual leaders cultivate have tangible, and often quantifiable, results. McNeal challenges his readers to strive for spiritual goods--goods that are often intangible and whose direct outcomes are difficult to measure. It’s hard to find fault with that kind of premise.As I read through the book and tried to process what I liked and disliked about it, I came to the conclusion that it is the anecdotal nature of the book that captures its best and worst qualities.On the positive side, McNeal is obviously a seasoned and wise minister to ministers. Based on the amount of stories McNeal tells one gets the feeling that a lot of this book is the kind of wisdom he gives on a daily basis to the spiritual leaders he assists through his ministry. The reader will benefit from McNeal’s experience and wisdom as he reflects upon the six central domains of introspection or “heart works” he selects. In this sense, reading this book is like having a long lunch with a seasoned mentor and soaking in the advice and stories he has to offer.That kind of thing has its own intrinsic value, and we can call it anecdotal value. In courts of law “anecdotal evidence” is the kind of evidence that comes from a single person whose perspective is considered valuable but limited. The evidence is not considered complete until it is compared to other accounts and data. So on the positive side of things, McNeal’s anecdotal book is valuable precisely because it gives us the wisdom and perspective of a credible witness in spiritual leadership without all the distillation that a more critical account might require. This book is a great start to a conversation, and it is up to the reader to decide where to agree and disagree with McNeal to continue it.Yet the anecdotal nature of the book also limits its value. The book lacks a bibliography precisely because McNeal chooses not to investigate the topics beyond the scope of his own knowledge-base. Of course the author has obviously read, studied, and thought about these topics. And it is not difficult to see at certain points where McNeal is reacting to certain trends in ministry or ideologies in the air. But where he alludes to outside voices he is mostly negative and dismissive. There is no real dialogue, complexity, or nuance that a more critical investigation might offer. The reader simply gets McNeal’s pontifications.This is frustrating in two ways. First, unless a spiritual leader has not thought about these ideas at all (which I don’t think is true of the majority of this book’s target audience), the book does not offer much in the way of novelty. This means that the reader must slog through a lot of familiar ideas to get to the nuggets of wisdom. One might even have problems with the perspective McNeal offers on these familiar ideas simply because they have a history of debate that the author largely ignores.Second, it leads to a number of errors that distract from the main purposes of the book. McNeal’s explicit refusal to use outside sources like commentaries on his outline of Moses, David, Paul, and Jesus in the first part leads to a number of exegetical errors in the way McNeal understands these figures. In addition, the anecdotal, conversational nature of McNeal’s reflections produce contradictions inevitable to any one-sided perspective. For instance, although at a number of points McNeal rejects the primacy of attendance numbers as the most important evaluative tool for ministerial success, the vast majority of his narrative examples define success in terms of numerical growth or loss.To summarize, the anecdotal nature of the book is both its strength and weakness. On the one hand, it gives us an audience at McNeal’s feet, learning from someone with experience who has thought through these issues in his own way and puts them to practice in his own ministerial context. On the other hand, it limits the extent to which McNeal can offer anything more than a one-sided perspective, and often falls prey to bothersome errors.As a point of confession, I write this as a seminary-trained minister. My story is one that began in introspection and theological education and now I’m beginning to tackle a host of complementary skills necessary to a holistic ministry (like leadership training, which is why I’m reading this book) . My suspicion is that McNeal is writing for those whose stories are the opposite: those who have the amazing leadership, technological, and other kinds of skills that I’m working towards and find themselves working towards introspective, spiritual, and theological skills.In that sense, the book is well-merited, if not timely, as the seminary model of ministry training continues to decline. Yet for those that are familiar with the basics of spiritual discipline, introspection, culture, vocation, community, etc., there might be other books of more value. Any reader will benefit from this book some way, but there may be more efficient ways to spend the limited amount of time ministers have for personal study.

This book was required for school but is nothing like a boring textbook. It was an easy practical read. The book encourages spiritual leaders to look at their leadership style and self examination. I recommend this book for all spiritual leaders.

I was given this book some years ago by a pastor and Christian leader that I greatly respected. I devoured the book and have returned to it again and again. I now make a habit of re-reading at least once each year and I find it new and insightful each time. I bought this copy to give to someone else to encourage them in their walk with God, and work for God, to further energize them. I highly, highly recommend this book for anyone who wishes to get serious about working to advance the Kingdom of God.The first part of the book brings novel insights into the development of the ministries of Moses, David, Paul and Jesus. He then brings very realistic ways of viewing one's role in working for God and powerfully brings in their experiences in practical ways.

We are tempted on all sides, but our strength lies with Jesus, and this give way to intentionality in our ministry. McNeal states, “lack of focus eventually bankrupts early dreams” (p. 59). If my ministry was a train then it is the frequent stops that sometimes breaks concentration on my intentionality. Fun read to reflect on our intentionality of being sure the ministry one does is "A Work of Heart"

This book has got to be the best teaching tool I've every read.The writer must have had a one on one conversation with God every step of the way. I recommend that every Leader and want to be leader invest in this awesome book! Glory!

Le fond.L’organisation.Le dynamism.Excelence.Revue. Djfjghgg kfkgjiirkdodks joicokodkods Kao KOKOU kk did DMin dikjij ikeore KOKOU Ojo Kokou kolkokodek.

This book is one of my favorites I love how MacNeal has put things together. I use this book often in explaining the Christian Life... By 2 you're going to want to share it!

Brilliant book on how leaders are shaped. Insightful and probing. McNeal flags six important concepts which he illustrates in the lives of several of the biblical leaders.

Brilliant

Great reading on spiritual leadership and how God developed great leaders from oblivion to powerful instruments for his service.

One of the best books I have read for a long time. Reggie touches on what is most important for every Christian.

great book.