Leading God's People: Wisdom from the Early Church for Today Paperback – 3 April 2012

As someone who is in the process of training to be a Priest, I can attest that there is a plethora of books on `how to be a Priest' on the market today - some are transient and do not pass their first print run, others have become spiritual classics. Some of them focus on secular management techniques, giving them a spiritual glamour, others are semi-autobiographical and draw on the writer's experience, there are those that focus on the theology of Priesthood, others, like Michael Ramsey's `The Christian Priest' are a mixture of theology, spirituality and personal experience and have become classics in their own right.Beeley's book is a different one altogether - rather than focusing on secular models of leadership, or on his own personal experience, he draws on the writings of the Church Fathers and Mothers (S. Augustine, S. Gregory Nazianzus, Abba Moses et al.) showing, in a new way, what they wrote about Church leadership and how this highest of callings demands the all of those who are called. This is therefore no easy or comfortable read - it is not for the complacent or those who want quick wins, rather there is `naught for your comfort' in this book, rather the challenge and call to live a Christlike life. This is because the Church Fathers did not peddle easy grace or try and offer 7 easy ways to be a Priest. They knew the cost of being a Christlike Priest and that it was a lifetimes work, not something that could be covered in an afternoon seminar.It is fascinating as well to rediscover the writings of the Church Fathers and Mothers - we are a generation of Priests and theologians who has abandoned the reading their works, just as we have stopped reading the works of the Anglican divines, e.g. Richard Hooker, Lancelot Andrewes or George Herbert et al. Works that our forebears in the faith read and which lead them down paths of holiness, and taught them how to lead God's people. Even if, having read this book, we do not return to the writings of pre and post-Nicene Fathers and of theologians such as Augustine, we have at least been exposed in some small way to their writings.This is a book for those who know that leadership is costly and yet who want to live a life that fulfils God's call, a life that demands daily `taking up your cross' rather than your i-pad, the latest Dan Brown novel and an espresso! It is not a book for faint-hearted - you will not go away unchallenged or unchanged. I can't recommend this book highly enough.