This book. I should read it every day.

This was my first Henri Nouwen book and it was such a delight. Nouwen walks through his time from working in a church as a priest into his time working at a group home for special needs as their spiritual leader. Throughout this transition he is detailing what he has learned about leading people as a Christian and it was really unique! Nouwen is an easy read with very deep thoughts making this enjoyable and light.

After literal decades of hearing and seeing Henri Nouwen quoted, referenced, and read out loud, I am glad that I have now actually read one of his books! This book did focus pretty specifically on leadership, so I think I would have even more takeaways from a longer or broader text, but I really appreciated the insight shared, and I can easily see why his thoughts and words are so foundational to the modern Christian movement. I especially liked his focus on the temptations of Jesus, as it was a new but revealing examination for me.

Pretty dang good. One of the best books on Christian leadership I’ve read and it took 5 minutes. The movement away from power obsessed leadership that nouwen calls Christians to is the most Christlike and radically simple thing.

This book is a great reminder about keeping your eyes out for the temptations found in leadership: relevance, popularity, and power. It provides great action steps to take when facing these temptations, and is a really humbling reminder that most of what Jesus asks of us is simply “do you love me?”

In ‘In the Name of Jesus,’ Nouwen writes about the skills the Christian leader of the 21st century needs to possess. Writing in the 20th century, Nouwen was and remains prophetic.

The life of Jesus, who emptied himself, is front and center through Nouwen’s move from Harvard to L’Arche. His experience of “burnout” and desire to achieve through human means, is real and what every pastor needs to be reminded of as they faithfully shepherd a people.

This book will sit with you beyond its initial read and I hope that the short quotable bits will sink themselves into the hearts of all who read.

I love Nouwen’s mind & his writing is just spectacular. I want to come back to this book & re-read it year after year because it’s such an important vision of ministry & what discipleship looks like walked out & lives out honestly.

Read this for the first time several years ago and told myself I needed to read this once a year. Sadly, the follow through wasn’t exactly there, and I never read it again until now, and WOW!

I am reminded why I thought this book so necessary. To be a leader in apprenticeship to Jesus is no easy task, and the call to a downward servant-leadership is not for the faint of heart. In this book, Nouwen reminds me that there is hope for even a prideful, popularity-driven, control freak like me. Nouwen uses the story of Jesus asking Peter to feed his sheep to offer incite on what a servant leader looks, thinks, and acts like and then gives practical advice in how begin the downward journey.

This book is easily read in a single afternoon but if put into practice could reap the rewards of eternity ♥️

Another absolute gem! I’m on a roll at the moment. This book is really short, only 80 pages, but so full of wisdom.

I didn’t know anything about Henri Nouwen until I saw this book recommendation, but his story of being called to leave a highly acclaimed academic career to live with and pastor those with disabilities in the L’Arche Daybreak Community, Canada is utterly compelling and humbling.

He introduces us to a number of his friends from the community through anecdotes and a framing device for the book and his main point is that they taught him more about leadership than any academic institution ever did.

In the book, he focusses on three main temptations in Christian leadership:

- to be relevant
- to be spectacular
- to be powerful

Using Jesus’ temptations in the desert as his text and Jesus’ responses to Peter in John 21, he offers suggestions on how to combat these temptations and shows what the character of a Christian leader should actually look like.

Absolutely loved it!

This was great book! Really great reflections on what needs to happen to avoid burnout in Christian leadership. Really good thoughts on spiritual disciplines as well.

My dad and I were browsing through the books on his bookshelf, talking about them, and he found one little book that he called probably the best book on Christian leadership he's read (he's a pastor).

I aspire to be an author. In some ways, authors are leaders and influences. Many authors like to hide away from the limelight, which is something easier for an author than a politician or musician. Some authors do stand in the spotlight, if they're activists or pastors, for example.

Either way, if I'm going to be an author, that would make me in some ways a leader. And I'm a Christian. I may not write "Christian" books, but my prayer is that my leadership and books radiate my faith.

And that basically would make me a Christian leader. Which I had already thought about, so I picked up this book from his bookshelf.

Now to talk about the book. It was _really_ good. Henri Nouwen brought his thoughts from the three temptations the devil presented to Jesus while he fasted and the three times Jesus asked "Do you love me?" and gave Peter a command after he'd resurrected and cooked fish on the beach.

Nouwen goes to the roots, the fundamentals, the base of [the] three great 1) temptations of Christian leaders, 2) challenges Jesus gives to Christian leaders, and 3) disciplines Christian leaders need to develop.

On my dad's bookshelf, there are many non-fiction books on theology, a hundred or more pages in most; and then there's this little almost-booklet among them all. A humble, honest book that doesn't boast many pages but is so powerful. That doesn't say a lot, but does say a lot.

This is not a visually hard read. But for Christian leaders, it should be a very hard spiritual, emotional read.

I'd recommend it to any Christian leader.

Thank you Jesus for prompting me to read this today. Help me to live it.