A Work of Heart: Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders Hardcover - 2011

From the jacket flap

" . . . Many women and men provide real spiritual leadership. These leaders are masterpieces in too short a supply. They are genuine works of heart. They don't develop overnight, though it might seem they appear 'out of nowhere.' They always come from somewhere--the heart of God. They are carefully crafted, faithfully shaped."
--From the Preface

In this updated edition of his bestselling book A Work of Heart, Reggie McNeal proposes that effective spiritual leaders must become experts in matters of the heart--particularly their own. Keeping heart for the demanding work of ministry hinges on leaders' ability to discern God at work in their own lives, shaping their hearts to embrace the particular ministries to which they are called. This process of finding heart depends on an interactive partnership with God. God introduces the storyline--but the leader's responses affect the development of the drama.

To demonstrate the book's key points, McNeal leads readers on an excursion into the heart-shaping drama of four major Biblical leaders: Moses, David, Jesus, and Paul. He identifies the influences God used to shape them: Culture--the times and the environment in which a leader is raised; Call--the leader's personal call by God to mission; Community--the people who shape and sustain the leader; Communion--the leader's personal relationship with God; Conflict--the leader's engagement of destructive forces in life and ministry; and Commonplace--the daily choices of living.

Using illustrative stories of contemporary church leaders who opened their hearts to God's guidance, McNeal shows how God is still using these same influences to shape the hearts of religious leaders today. God creates leaders in order to share his heart with his people.