Readers are Leaders

Last Tuesday I was sharing with my men's Bible study class that "Readers are Leaders". This is what my youth group leader told me 30 years ago. And it’s true.

Two days after I repeated these words to my class I was reading the book Axiom by Bill Hybels. In it he has a chapter titled “Read All You Can”. Here are some excerpts from that chapter:


“Leaders have a responsibility before God to constantly get better, and one of the most reliable ways to do so is to read. Great leaders read frequently. They read voraciously. They read classics and new releases. They soak up lessons from the military, from academia, from politics, from nongovernmental organizations, and from church leaders who are leading well. They refuse to let themselves off the hook in this regard, because they know that all great leaders read.”

“I have little patience with leaders who get themselves into leadership binds and then confess that they haven’t read a leadership book in years. If you’re a serious-minded leader, you will read. You will read all you can. You will read when you feel like it, and you will read when you don’t. You will do whatever you have to do to increase your leadership input, because you know as well as I do that it will make you better.”

So what are you waiting for? Pick up a good book and start reading!
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