Bill Hull

"The Christian Leader" by Bill Hull explains how Christians are to lead. This book is aimed at all Christians, not just those in formal church leadership roles. Hull believes all Christians are called to lead others to Christ. But this is not a book about discipleship, not directly. Hull challenges the appropriateness of secular leadership models for Christians who would lead in any sector of society. Hull holds up Jesus as the model leader and outlines in the book the leadership lessons show more Jesus teaches us. For Hull, being a leader is about character. To be a Christian leader means to allow ourselves to be shaped and led by God. Hull’s description of the Christian leader goes contrary to the usual secular model of a leader. Hull identifies as an evangelist but has little patience for the holier-than-thou variety. But Hull’s strong Christian language leaves no doubt about his faith commitment to Jesus Christ. There are lessons to be learned about authentic leadership from the book even for those who do not share Hull’s faith perspective. It may be difficult, though, for such readers to get past the Christian language to glean the universal lessons for leaders. But Hull is clearly writing for Christians and based on that premise, he has written a useful book for those who would lead following Jesus Christ as their model. show less

In this book Bill Hull presents some really good ideas. He says himself that they are basic, but sometimes the basic is not so obvious and sometimes the application is not so basic. One thing that definitely gives him some more credibility is the fact that he has already used this system and it is working well. I definitely believe that he based his theories off of correct ideas. One of these is the idea that the main purpose of the church is evangelism and therefore this should also be the show more main focus of the church. So often we get caught up in the building up of Christians that we forget that we're supposed to be reaching the lost.
The next point he makes that I think is critical to the discussion is the fact that all believers are to be ministers. And also, we are called to make disciples. Without these two ideas we would just go out and make converts but this is not what we are called to. It is important to build up disciples, so therefore I think that it is important to reach out to those that are lost, but I think that it is also very important right now to mobilize the church to do the same. This is something that hasn't really hit me till recently, but now I'm really noticing all the things that should be getting done but aren't, and the more I look at it I realize that it's not enough for me to just go do them, what would be more effective would be for me to train others to do those things. I go to the park sometimes to read and there are at least 30 teens in the park there who are obviously searching for Christ, but for me to just go witness to them and maybe even lead some of them to Christ isn't enough, it is also important that there is some sort of training ground for them in which they can learn and grow. This would take more work than just what I can do, it takes the mobilization, the regeneration of the church. It would take others stepping up and realizing that it is something that needs to be done. Not that this lessens my responsibility to reach out to those teenagers, but I feel that my responsibility to them is different. I feel like God has given me the responsibility of enabling others to go out and reach those teens, with me by their side.
All of this to say that I think that some of Bill Hull's ideas in this book are very practical and possible to use in reality. Since they are based off of Jesus' ministry with his disciples and they are proven through Hull's church I think that they have credibility as well. I think that the two things that stood out to me the most while reading through this book was the idea that we teach by example and it is essential to our Christian walk that we evangelize. These are two truths that I will take with me for the rest of my life. show less

Great concepts and well worth reading. The book is quite repetitve and could have been more concisely written though.

Some excellent insights on what discipleship entails but it loses impact towards the end.