A lot of the wisdom that Darlene Zschech has accumulated over the years is reflected in her book The Great Generational Transition: Practical Insight for Every Leader. Darlene’s rise to international prominence began with her song “Shout to the Lord”, and her belief in the importance of raising up young leaders is demonstrated by the fact that she has already handed over her position as worship pastor of Hillsong Church to a younger leader, even though she is not yet 45 years old.
Rather than containing “chapters”, the book contains a number of “values”: time for growth, encouragement, 20/20 dreams and visions, energy, the squeeze (the importance of being stretched), open doors, excellence, humility, greater than adversity (times of adversity are necessary for faith building), failure is not final, throw out the old?(don’t just jump ship; make sure the transition to new leadership succeeds), people, genius and hearts of flesh.
The book is creatively designed, with red pages separating the “values” and a small sans-serif font for the text. The book is probably more suited to reading in small doses, one value at a time, perhaps followed by discussion or contemplation of the value, rather than reading the whole book in a linear fashion. Many Christian leaders will benefit from considering Darlene’s ideas.