The Apostle Paul is an example of a follower of Christ who demonstrates for us the paths we must all take to finish well, according to Neil Cole in his book Journeys to Significance: Charting a Leadership Course From the Life of Paul. He argues that Paul’s leadership abilities and effectiveness increased with each of his missionary journeys, and the book uses the story of those journeys to find leadership lessons applicable to all who are engaged in Christian ministry.
The book helped me to see Paul’s story from a new perspective. The natural tendency is to view Paul’s missionary journeys as a whole, rather than chronologically, and to assume that Paul applied a consistent level of apostolic excellence throughout. However, as the author points out, if Paul is to be a realistic model for Christians today, we need to discover how he learned and improved throughout his ministry, so that we can do likewise.
The first two chapters describe how Paul’s birth, early life, conversion and period of learning and waiting following his conversion prepared him for the mission God had planned. Chapter 3 describes the first journey, in which Paul and Barnabas rapidly covered a lot of territory, making converts and moving on. There was lots of activity, but the churches planted were weak and struggling. Chapter 4 describes the second journey, in which Paul parted company from his mentor Barnabas, underwent suffering, and recruited leaders that he could leave behind at each church plant so that the churches would be stronger.
Chapter 5 describes the third journey, in which Paul lived in Ephesus for 3 years, training and sending out leaders who could multiply the work of church planting, thereby achieving far greater effectiveness than had been achieved on the first two journeys. Chapter 6 describes the fourth journey, to Rome, in which Paul’s influence spread to governors, kings and the emperor, with some of his most effective work occurring while imprisoned. Then Paul’s final journey to death is described, and how he finished well.
There are many Christian leadership books which offer advice based on cultural and organizational principles. This is not one of them. This book is an extended Bible study of the life of Paul, and all of the leadership advice offered is drawn directly from that study. At times the author strays into conjecture, and some readers will disagree with some of his views on the historical record, but in my opinion this is a very useful and enlightening book for church leaders.