Lead Like It Matters to God

Values-Driven Leadership in a Success-Driven World

by Richard Stearns

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Pub Date Mar 30 2021 | Archive Date Apr 29 2021

Christian

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Description

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.

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...

Advance Praise

"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

"Steady. Reliable. Focused. These are the words I use to describe Richard Stearns. I've known him for two decades, traveled with him to distant lands, and partnered with him in multiple projects. He leads with impeccable integrity and skill. I'm thrilled to read this book and gladly commend Rich to you as the perfect person to write it."

-Max Lucado, pastor and author

"Rich Stearns has written a book that we have all needed as leaders for so long, one that lifts the importance of values over success by human standards. Living faithfully is much harder than producing results that make us look smarter than we really are. This book will challenge your character and remind you of what really matters to God."

-David Anderson, author of Gracism: The Art of Inclusion, pastor of Bridgeway Community Church

"Richard Stearns is not only a leader to admire because of his successes, but to learn from because of his honest self-reflection about his failures. Interwoven as these two things necessarily are, Stearns lays them out before us here with humility, candor, grief, faith, and hope. Those are among the leadership characteristics I most want to reflect, and to do so in ways that honor God and those I try to lead. Thank you, Rich Stearns, for leading like it matters to God. It shows."

-Mark Labberton, president, Fuller Theological Seminary

"My friend Rich Stearns is a leader who is humble and unafraid, a rare combination. He knows that justice and mercy are not incompatible and that we all are called to speak both truth and love. I have had the privilege of watching Rich lead with the courage and humility needed for difficult times like this."

-Bill Haslam, former governor of Tennessee