I've had this book of my list of books to read for 3 years. I've hesitated posting this review because I haven't stopped thinking about this book since I read it. Moneyball by Michael Lewis is a great book about the Oakland A's and Billy Beane their general manager. It's their story of how they compete and succeed in a market where players make millions of dollars which they cannot pay. So they have to find alternate ways of getting quality players to compete. It's a great book if you're a baseball fan and an interesting read if you're a leader.
In the church, especially younger churches, we face a similar challenge to Beane's. You generally can't go out and hire high priced team members like larger, more established churches. So what do you do? You have to find other means of recruiting, developing, discipling, and training leaders. Honestly, it's a great challenge and it's the way it should be. When I can go out and hire all the "impact players" I need to "do" church, I've failed in my responsibility as a Pastor. If Ephesians 4:11-12 is still true, then my job is to equip people for ministry and get out of the way while they use their God given gifts within the body of Christ. If I go out and hire every position that opens up on our staff with people from outside, I've relegated discipleship to someone else (and turned into the church version of the New York Yankees, which is never good).
Anyway, I doubt this was Lewis' intention when writing the book, but the book really challenged me to take a more active role in developing servant leaders who understand their gifts and are in places where they can use those gifts and make the greatest contribution to the Kingdom.
This book is a great read! I highly recommend it!
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