Lead Like It Matters to God: Values-Driven Leadership in a Success-Driven World

by Richard Stearns

Publisher:

IVP USA

, 2021

Overview

Outcomes Conference Book of the Year

Christian Book Award Finalist

Richard Stearns is a leader who has been tested as a CEO in both secular companies and also as the head of one of the world’s largest Christian ministries. After stints as CEO of Parker Brothers and then Lenox, Stearns accepted the invitation to leave his corporate career to become the president of World Vision US, where he became the longest serving president in their seventy-year history. During his tenure there he implemented corporate best practices, lowering overheads while tripling revenues. His leadership in calling the American church to respond to some of the greatest crises of our time, notably the HIV and AIDS pandemic, and the global refugee crisis, challenged Christians to embrace a bold vision for compassion, mercy, and justice.

In Lead Like It Matters to God, Stearns shares the leadership principles he has learned over the course of his remarkable career. As a leader who has navigated both secular and sacred spaces, Stearns claims that the values Christian leaders embrace in their workplaces are actually more important than the results they achieve—that God is more concerned about a leader's character than a leader's success. With wisdom, wit, and biblical teaching, Stearns shares captivating stories of his life journey and unpacks seventeen crucial values that can transform leaders and their organizations. When leaders embody values such as integrity, courage, excellence, forgiveness, humility, surrender, balance, generosity, perseverance, love, and encouragement, they not only improve their witness for Christ, they also shape institutions, influence culture, improve team performance, and create healthy workplaces where people can flourish.

Through this book, Stearns will inspire a new generation of Christian leaders to boldly take their values into their workplaces to tangibly demonstrate the character of Christ, the love of Christ, and the truth of Christ as they live out their faith in full view of others.

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Key Features

• Shares the leadership principles he has learned over the course of his remarkable career
• Unpacks seventeen crucial values that can transform leaders and their organizations

Contents

• Introduction
• 1. Leadership Changes the World: Joining the Revolution
• 2. The Plans I Have For You: A Bit of Autobiography
• 3. Surrender: Not My Will but Thy Will
• 4. Sacrifice: Career Suicide
• 5. Trust: He’s Got This
• 6. Excellence: It’s How You Play the Game
• 7. Love: What’s Love Got to Do With It?
• 8. Humility: The Executive Toilet
• 9. Integrity: Who You Are When No One Is Watching
• 10. Vision: Seeing a Better Tomorrow
• 11. Courage: Do Not Be Afraid
• 12. Generosity (Greedlessness): The Toxicity of Money
• 13. Forgiveness: I’m Sorry
• 14. Self-Awareness: Know Thyself
• 15. Balance: All Work and No Play
• 16. Humor: If We Don’t Laugh, We’ll Cry
• 17. Encouragement: Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant
• 18. Perseverance: Hang in There
• 19. Listening: Bees Do It
• 20. Taking God to Work

Praise for the Print Edition

For years, I have hoped that Rich Stearns would write this very book. The sad predicament is not simply that the Christian world often outdoes the ambient culture in defining success as winning, displaying, and image maintenance. The end result is exhaustion and cynicism. In this enlivening book, Rich Stearns shows a different way: the way of integrity. Very few people have ever served in such wide-ranging positions of experience as Rich Stearns. Here he guides us through the lessons he has learned along the way. This book will equip and inspire you as you lead, in whatever place God has put you, by enabling you to listen to a battle-tested leader who has earned our trust.

—Russell Moore, president, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention

Richard Stearns has written a remarkably helpful book that lays out the key biblical values of leadership faithfulness. As I read Rich's book, I couldn't help but think of Proverbs 16:31, 'Gray hair is a glorious crown; it is found in the ways of righteousness.' While Rich may actually have gray hair, Lead Like It Matters to God is a treasure trove of wisdom from a seasoned leader who has sought to model biblical fidelity in the businesses and organizations he has led. Enjoy learning leadership not from a theoretician but a practitioner.

—Ed Stetzer, Wheaton College

This book is a rare treat—a fireside chat with a battle-tested Christian CEO who has led big organizations in both the secular and ministry worlds. Rich Stearns offers a master's-level course on leadership with faith as his north star. Embrace these seventeen leadership values and you will become a better leader and a better ambassador for Christ.

—John C. Maxwell, author of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

Product Details

• Title: Lead like It Matters to God: Values-Driven Leadership in a Success-Driven World
• Author: Richard Stearns
• Publisher: IVP USA
• Print Publication Date: 2021
• Logos Release Date: 2023
• Pages: 250
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Leadership › Religious aspects--Christianity; Values › Religious aspects--Christianity
• Resource ID: LLS:LDLKMTRGDVDLSDW
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2023-09-14T12:32:20Z

About Richard Stearns

Richard Stearns is president emeritus of World Vision US, where he served as president for twenty years, traveling more than three million miles as an advocate for the world’s poor. Before leading the Christian relief and development organization, he was a corporate CEO at both Parker Brothers and Lenox. His bestselling book The Hole in Our Gospel was named the 2010 Christian Book of the Year. Among the honors Stearns received for his humanitarian service are five honorary doctoral degrees, the Julia Vadala Taft Outstanding Leadership Award from InterAction, and the Christian Leadership Alliance's highest honor. Rich and his wife, Reneé, have five adult children and six grandchildren, and live in Bellevue, Washington.