The God Who Goes Before You: Pastoral Leadership as Christ-Centered Followership

by Timothy Paul Jones, Michael S. Wilder, R. Albert Mohler Jr. (Foreword)

In  The God Who Goes before You , Michael S. Wilder and Timothy Paul Jones establish a foundation for Christian leadership that draws not from human assumptions, but from the wisdom of God.

By considering the whole canon of scripture as their supreme and sufficient authority, Wilder and Jones present both pastors and laity with a Christ-centered, kingdom-focused vision of godly leadership.

When it comes to leadership, there is much to be learned from empirical research and from marketplace leaders. However, without Scripture as our authority, flawed views of God's purposes and human nature will skew our understanding of the character and practices of God-called leaders. In this book, Wilder and Jones redefine leadership as Christ-centered followership and present a radically countercultural perspective on leadership practices in the church today. 

Genres: Leadership, Christian, Church, Theology

288 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2018

About the author

Timothy Paul Jones is an American evangelical scholar known for his work in apologetics and family ministry. He serves as the C. Edwin Gheens Professor of Christian Family Ministry at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Jones has authored influential texts defending the historical reliability of the New Testament and has promoted a model of “family-equipping ministry,” which balances family discipleship with age-specific church programs. His apologetics have evolved from evidential to presuppositional approaches, emphasizing the role of the church’s moral witness and care for the marginalized. He has been recognized for books such as Misquoting Truth, How We Got the Bible, and In Church as It Is in Heaven, the latter promoting multiethnic church communities. Jones is a member of the Evangelical Theological Society and has been praised as a leading voice in engaging both secular critics and intra-faith debates. He and his wife Rayann have four adopted children.

Reviews

[Tim Michiemo · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 Stars

[Pig Rieke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It isn’t a steak and it isn’t poison. It is just fine.

[Nickolas Wingholt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so unexpectedly encouraging. I took a class on Christian leadership this year and I simply did not expect the theological depth and clarity that proceeded from these pages. Wilder and Jones argue beyond popular methods of leadership and contend that true leadership srpings forth from authentic followership of Jesus. They offer a fresh perspective that puts the threefold office in it's proper place, arguing that the traditional roles of prophet, priest, and king are often misunderstood and misapplied. They propose a more authentic approach rooted in Christ's example and gospel principles found in both the Old and New Testaments. 1st-time read. 4/5.

[Mark Watts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Situates leadership in a proper biblical theology

[Aaron Shamp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very, very good. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is because it became quite redundant towards the end.

[Beverly Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well researched book on leadership. It is grounded in Scripture and theologically and Biblically offers its readers principals to live out their goals of leadership within the Christian community. Glean from it’s council from all of Scripture from the Old to the New Testament. Becoming leaders who adhere to roles as Shepherd leaders who form God's people as those who are redeemed sojourners, living stones and suffering servants who will receive a great reward and crown of glory when the Chief Shepherd appears to receive His Church without spot or wrinkle. Becoming leaders who welcome the Shepherd’s voice of ”well done my faithful servants.” I recommend these book to pastors and all Christian leaders.

[Matthew Deaver · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helpfully corrects a misguided concept of viewing ones leadership in terms of functioning in the role of prophet, priest, or king. The authors convincingly argue that there is a dissonance between these biblical roles in the OT and the way the roles are defined among evangelicals today. Instead, Christian leadership (and pastoral ministry in particular) must be defined by following Christ and the pattern that is set forth in the NT.

[Scott K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leadership Inspiration

What a challenging and inspirational read! Recommended by a trusted leader of leaders, I am so glad to have read the wisdom contained in these pages. I highly recommend this book for all who are called into leadership of ANY kind.

[Devon · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable book on the necessity of true pastoral leadership. In the modern church leadership has been more business driven than Christ centered. This book renewed the importance of service in the essence of leadership.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5

The main idea of the book was good but felt very repetitive. The book could've been a lot shorter and, I think, it would've been more impactful.

[Kenneth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Half of this book refutes an absurd leadership concept about kings, priests, prophets, and judges that I have never heard of. The counterpoint to these concepts are nonsequitor to the very lengthy setup, but that doesn't make them wrong, just poorly introduced. If you can get past the superfluous verbosity there and in subsequent chapters, the leadership concept presented is extremely useful. This is the only Christian leadership book I have read proposes a definition of leadership that is distinctly Christian--no non-Christian would be able to follow this leadership style. That said, the definition of leadership presented cannot fully be applied for a leader of non-Christians (as the authors acknowledge), but it can still motivate certain actions from the Christian leader. The book is clearly written for pastors serving in the context of the local church giving it a very limited scope, though it is useful for leaders in general who are Christians.

Leadership definition:
The Christ-following leader--living as a bearer of God's image in union with Christ and his people--develops a diverse community of fellow laborers who are equipped and empowered to pursue shared goals that fulfill the creation mandate and the Great Commission in submission to the Word of God.

[Michael Burchfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for a class on Christian Leadership - I enjoyed the book and will probably read it again. Written by Michael S Wilder and Timothy Paul Jones, it is a solid work which, as the subtitle states, developed in detail what pastoral leadership as Christ-centered followership is all about. I found the book helpful as a pastor - and especially part three: New Covenant Practices for Leadership through Followership. I liked that section because it related most to me in my present station of life. I may use this book as a guide for leadership training for a pre-elder-in-training group I am launching. I gave the book a four star rating, mainly because I did not feel it was as accessible for the average reader as other works on leadership. Clearly Wilder and Jones are scholars and the book is written on more of a scholarly level- or at least for those people who are seminary level. That was not surprising though - both of these men serve as faculty members at two Baptist seminaries. All in all, a great read.

[James Kerr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good book and a bit of a biblical theology of leadership. The authors focus on the character of God and the leadership given to man primarily as followership of Jesus.
I would have liked more on dealing with conflict with those of your flock snd those not of your flock. This was not their aim though one of the final footnotes does allude to the desire to build upon this work for more practical applications.
There are excellent questions to ask yourself or others if you were to use this in a group setting. BandH could do a little better job on the formatting, especially in a book this good with content. These guys are obviously exceptional teachers. I highly recommend this book if you are looking for a foundational, character, and biblically focused book on leadership.

[Connor Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I probably would’ve given this book five stars, but I’m burnt out on leadership books, though this is the best one I’ve read. I agree with the problem this book address, that people have abused and poorly interpreted the scriptures to create very shallow books on leadership.

Jesus life serves as a model that ought to reshape and sanctify all areas of the human experience, including leadership. When that truth is rightly understood, Christians, not just pastors, are invited to share in Christ’s sufferings, by being under shepherds of his flock, laying their lives down for them by serving among them, protecting them, preparing them, guiding them, guarding them, etc..

This is a great book for any Christian that I’d highly recommend to anyone.

[Abbie Hoekstra-Nold · Rating 4 out of 5]

"If we as shepherds cannot bring ourselves to slow down, we have lost sight of a crucial truth about our pastoral role: our identity in Christ precedes our calling as leaders in Christ's church.

We are sheep before we are shepherds; we are members of the body of Christ before we are overseers of the body; we are disciples of God‘s way before we are teachers of God‘s word…

[Jesus] assesses our success not by our busyness, but by our faithfulness. For leaders in the church of Jesus Christ, this faithfulness is defined by our conformity to the example of the Shepherd God who has gone before us…

We are called to be both models for the sheep and imitators of the Shepherd God."

[Sully Sowers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, I have some thoughts about this book. The beginning couple of chapters are skippable, but they produce a well rounded definition for “Christian Leadership”

The biggest point they want readers to understand is such a unique biblical truth “Leadership is followership”.

I thoroughly enjoyed the back half of the book, found myself sitting in the chapters and digesting so much biblical truth! I would recommend this to any Christian Leader!

[Jonathan Lloyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay. The first half was really good and engaging, but became repetitive toward the end. I believe this book addressed the theoretical aspects of servant leadership very well, but there was little by way of practical pastoral advice. I appreciate their work, but wish it was more practical and engaging.

[Jake Bronson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jones and Wilder argue a pastor's worked should be marked first by humbly following Christ's example. If you've read a book like this, I would not say that you need to read this one as well. It was a good read, but nothing stood out as particularly special about The God that Goes Before You versus other books in this category.

[Purshia Gambles · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was pastoral helpful to anyone walking alongside people in a ministerial way. But also I felt it was a miss because I had to read it for a leadership class and it was pretty heavily marketed to only males. But still pretty solid content!

[James Mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

good and practical

The God Who Goes before You is a good read as pertains to Christian leadership. This book provides great practicality of what it means and looks like to be a leader from a Biblical perspective.

[Patrick Vestergaard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely incredible read. Takes you back to the biblical definition of the pastor and unpacks it with forceful applications.

[Brenden Wentworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful model and one to be returned to

[Andrew Watkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an EXCELLENT biblical theology of leadership! Highly recommended!

[Spencer Wendell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book on Christian leadership. I was not looking forward to reading this, but it has helped to shape the foundation for how I look to lead as a believer.

[Mark E. Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ended up loving it, some odd stuff but I understand why he said what he said

[Nolan Bechtold · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seminary

[Christian Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent introduction to biblical case of godly leadership found in the old and New Testament

[Michaela Classen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best leadership book I've ever read. The first one every Christian should read. Thoroughly biblical, and practically clear.

[Josh G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book for a seminary course on Christian Leadership taught by one of the authors. As was typical in some of my courses, I had to skim this book to manage my coursework. My initial perspective was: "This is a helpful biblical theology on leadership, but nothing really jumped off the page." As such I gave it 4 stars for it's substance.

I am so glad I returned to this book and gave it a deep read. Not only is this book a helpful biblical theology on leadership, but the authors provide the sort of theological precision, practical wisdom, and personal counsel needed for church leaders to understand both the position and character of our leadership.

At many points, I found myself thinking about the pastors who are publicly known for abusive, domineering styles of leadership. Wilder and Jones show how such leadership traits develop and why they are out of step with God's heart for shepherd-leadership.

If you're looking for a distinctly Christian approach to leadership, especially pastoral leadership, then start here. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

[Adrian Agapie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a good reminder to lead like Jesus because it's Jesus' mission rather than your favorite CEO. I really appreciated the author's emphasis on God's glory rather than attaining our objectives -- although I wish that part was a bit more practical. For exemple, you organise a big evangelization event, pray, mobilize the whole church -- and it rains. How do you see God's glory in that?

There is also a whole section on the leader of the church as prophet, king or priest — which was irrelevant to ME.