Leaders are Readers

For the past several months, I have been going through a Bible study with the other Verity staff guys where we study the facets of spiritual leadership. Our most recent lesson focused on the fact that leaders are readers. We learned that the Apostle Paul, when under house arrest, specifically valued the scrolls and the parchments above any other material thing, requesting those be brought to him quickly. He knew the importance of reading (and also the importance of writing down his thoughts). It is also worthy of note that immediately following Paul’s famous exhortation to Timothy to let no man despise his youth, but to be the example to the believers of speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity, he continued, “Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.”

In starting this blog, a primary motivation is to record the lessons God is teaching me as I am learning them. One of the best ways to learn is through gleaning nuggets of wisdom through the lives and the words of faithful men—those who have gone before and proven the way. In this vein, coupled with the fact that leaders are readers, I’ve decided to change some of my habits and spend more time either in reading good books or using pockets of “spare time” to listen to a variety of excellent audiobooks I have access to. It is in these moments of “sitting at the feet” of wise men that I that I can benefit from their experiences, knowledge, and insights.

Today I had the unique blessing of selecting books out of a ministry center library that is being liquidated. I was able to choose a variety of biographies of great Christian men and women, accounts of God’s faithfulness through history, books on having a closer relationship with God, and doctrinal theses from scholars of Scripture. It is my goal that as I take the next step of reading these books that I would be increasing my faith, and in turn be able to share what I am learning here.