I feel it's a little presumptuous of me to have decided a book written to christian leaders would be "for me" as I am not a man/leader in the church nor is my husband in a prominent leadership position. But, I have a curious appetite for self improvement/christian interest books and figured advice on home life given to church leaders has to be pretty potent stuff. Some of the best philosophies/concepts about marriage and family life I have adopted have come from well written, christian books. So knowing this to be a tried and true strategy I jumped into The Family Life of a Christian Leader by Ajith Fernando. Ajith is a director of the Youth for Christ program in Sri Lanka and has been in leadership for 35 years. He is a well respected voice in the christian counseling and ministry world and seems to have the real life witness to qualify him as an excellent author for this genre of book.
I found the perspectives and stories from Ajith's differing culture very interesting and yet still extremely pertinent to any family situation. He does a great job of striking a very challenging, yet applicable balance between scripture and real life strategies to apply. He also does a wonderful job of painting a very true to life yet inspiring picture of both the struggles of family life, especially with a ministry career, and also inspiring readers to see what a witness and blessing a harmonious home could be. Each chapter that addresses a "hard" issue has a corresponding encouraging one. I really appreciate Ajith's diligence to help build up Christian leaders to the biblical qualifications of church leadership while also strongly exhorting them to cherish and care for their wife and children. My family has been involved in part time ministries through the years and also have been close to families in full time ministry and know the great burden and challenge that lifestyle can be for a family. I feel this book does a great job of exhorting the importance of this grand calling while also offering very compassionate advice on lightening the load for a ministry family.
I received this book in exchange for my honest review thanks to Crossway Publishing.
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