Product Description

A behind- the- scenes analysis of twenty key principles of leadership, illustrated with stories and examples from the life of Billy Graham, whose fingerprints are on many leading Christian institutions and organizations, with transferable applications to people serving in a leadership role in business, educational, church, or parachurch settings.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #297888 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Business leadership is not necessarily the first word one thinks of to describe Billy Graham, as authors Myra (president and CEO of Christianity Today, Inc.) and Shelley (executive editor of Leadership Journal) admit. But they demonstrate convincingly that Graham has been an amazingly effective "business" leader for more than 50 years. In a project that draws together interviews with Graham's colleagues, written materials both by and about Graham and the insights of leadership classics such as Jim Collins's Good to Great, they provide an intriguing exploration of his skills. They begin by examining the foundations of Graham's organization, covering topics like team formation and mission. They then look at periods of growth and development, including financing, vision casting and expansion. The section on the challenges and difficulties Graham and his organization have faced contains inspiring discussions of handling failure and criticism. The authors then look at how Graham's ministry became networked with many other ministries, movements and businesses, while still maintaining a focused mission. They conclude by revealing what Graham and others feel are the true roots of his leadership abilities—humility, prayer, love and openness to innovation. This book will prove a tremendous resource for churches and many businesses, distilling much-needed leadership wisdom and weaving it into the life example of a trusted and beloved man. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From the Back Cover
A behind-the-scenes analysis of 21 essential leadership principles from the life of Billy Graham
Billy Graham looms large as one of the twentieth century's most influential and innovative leaders. Most people are unaware of his remarkable effectiveness as not only preacher and pastor, but as a CEO and a global leader as well.
The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham is full of transferable applications for leaders in the church, parachurch, academia, government, and business. Lively interviews with his closest associates illustrate 21 principles that have driven six decades of visionary impact. First-hand accounts reveal stories of courageous leadership and growth through painful lessons.
Graham's relentless application of core beliefs and leadership principles have resulted in, among many honors, being listed in Gallup's ten "most admired men" thirty times, more than anyone else. Time magazine named him one of the top ten leaders of the twentieth century. This book asks: How did this happen? What are the essentials he embraced to achieve such extraordinary results? What can we learn from him and apply to our own leadership roles?
This book is dedicated to those readers
. Who sense the pressing need in today's world for inspired leadership
. Who rise to leadership's high calling and are willing to carry its weight
. Who are determined to deepen and expand their capacities and effectiveness

About the Author
Harold Myra is president and CEO of Christianity Today International, has taught at Wheaton College Graduate School, and is the author of several books, including Leaders and Surprised by Children. He and his family reside in the Chicago suburbs.

Marshall Shelley is a vice preisdent of Christianity Today, and editor of Leadership Journal. He is the author of a number of books, including Well-Inspired Dragons. He and his family live in the Chicago suburbs.

Marshall Shelley es vicepresidente de Christianity Today, Inc. y editor ejecutivo de Leadership Journal.

Customer Reviews

Excellent Information
This is an amazing book. I had read the autobiography of Billy Graham before I read this one and I think that made a great difference. I had the background to relate to when reading it. The book gave great examples of leadership and how to implement them. Using, of course, Billy Graham as an example. Very, very good! I would highly recommend it!

"Take up your attache, and follow me."
How did an itinerant North Carolina fundamentalist develop his ministry into a billion-dollar gospel empire?

God, obviously, had a hand in it. But most of the credit has to go to Billy Graham.

Harold Myra and Marshall Shelley reveal how Billy did it.

_The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham_ is a book chiefly intended, not for ministers and youth pastors, but for politicians and corporate CEOs- - leaders who are more clearly in Billy's league. Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld read it, almost hot off the press. Karl Rove has read it (though too late to salvage the campaign of John McCain, who did not). Jeff Skilling has read it. Also, Rev. Benny Hinn. Pres. George W. Bush has read the book jacket. Meanwhile, socialist Muslim terrorist-buddies like Barack Obama are taking their leadership ideas from such Jewish -Marxist screeds as Saul Alinsky's _Rules for Radicals_.

Now that Harold Myra and Marshall Shelley have let the cat out of the bag in disclosing Rev. Graham's secrets, I feel it is okay to share one more well-kept secret of the mass-evangelism industry (Billy Graham won't mind, he's retired):

At Billy's evangelistic crusades--you must have seen one on television, even if you never attended--most of those folks who left their seats and cascaded down the aisles of the stadium and spilled out onto the playing field were not actually sinners coming forward to get saved. Most of them were trained spiritual counselors (volunteers from local churches) who were waiting for their cue to come forward and to assist with the harvest of new converts.

You may not have access to the televised re-runs of a Billy Graham crusade; but if you have the chance to attend one by his son, Rev. Frankie, watch closely, nothing has changed. Billy's secrets have not been forgotten:

When the sermon ends and the organ starts to play the theme song, "Just as I am without one plea," here's how to tell the repentant sinners from the happy-hearted volunteer counselors: the aspiring converts are blushing, or dabbing their eyes with a hankie as they come down the steps to the front. The trained spiritual counselors are carrying a New Testament and some helpful literature from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

It is the job of the counselors, when the organ sounds, to prime the pump: they arise from their seats (not all at once, that would be too obvious) and make their way to the playing field. That way, if you or some other lost soul is thinking of getting saved, you may say to yourself, Well, other people are going down, maybe I should, too." What you don't know is that those other folks are going down there in order to save you, not to get saved themselves - and it's a good thing you don't know that, or you might chicken out. (Seriously: to repent of your sins before a television audience of two million, plus another 70,000 right there in the stands, can be embarrassing. Billy always understood that, which is part of what made him so great.)

The actual process of getting born again does not take long after you make it past all of those kneecaps in the bleachers and down the aisle and out to the playing field. An experienced counselor can process you for Heaven in less than thirty minutes. But Billy's Greater World Evangelistic Crusades were so popular and so huge that it could get pretty chaotic down there, with a thousand trained spiritual counselors scrambling for one hundred potential converts. It was like a spiritual mosh-pit, or like open-piñata time at a birthday party: when the goodies fall, you have to grab and grab quick, or you'll never get sole dibs on a repentant sinner in need of servicing.

If you're one of the sinners who have come forward, the whole process is pretty straightforward: first, you hook up with a spiritual counselor - they're not hard to find. The counselor gives you a little explanatory talk about the Four Steps to Peace with God. Then you pray together. That's the exact moment when you ask Jesus Christ into your heart as your personal lord and saviour; although - bear with me, this can be a little confusing - it is not actually Jesus per se who comes into your heart, it's the holy Ghost who comes in, and the Ghost then becomes one with your own immortal spirit. (I don't understand the science side of that, but it seems to work; and a lot of the credit goes to Billy Graham's leadership technique.)

This uniting of your spirit with the holy Ghost is what evangelists mean by "the atonement" (the at-one-ment). All of those sinners who have taken the Four Steps, including you, have now become "at-one" with God.

For me, that is absolutely the worst moment of an evangelistic Crusade, when I see all of those former friends taking the Four Steps to become at-one with the Trinity. It makes me feel so dejected that I usually step over to the stadium hot dog stand, and I ask the vendor there to please make me one with everything. (Ha-ha-ha! Pardon the borrowed witticism - I stole that joke from a hot dog vendor, and it still cracks me up every time I tell it.)

After the prayer is over, you are one with God and are no longer "lost." At worst, you are just a little confused. But that's why they give you the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association promotional literature, and a free New Testament, and the list of Bible-believing local churches: so that you can continue to "grow in faith and discipleship" after the conversion experience.

(This is one key component of organizational success: you have to get out there, recruiting new talent for the movement. Catholics do that by making babies. Billy Graham did it by gaining converts, which is a lot tougher way to go.)

The new converts are then free to head home. There's always a traffic jam leaving the Crusade--these events are held in big stadiums and convention centers.

And here's another secret: by sundown I have usually reclaimed sole dibs on 8 out of 10.

- L.

The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham
Awesome book! Full of fantastic leadership hints and real-life examples. I would recommend to anyone interested in improving themselves and/or improving relationships with others.