North Point Community Church is a mega-church in Atlanta, built by visionary leader and pastor Andy Stanley. Beginning in the mid-1990s in rented facilities, North Point has grown to a weekly attendance of over 30,000 people.

Hearing this, pastors salivate. How can I do that? A book like Visioneering meets that desire. Stanley uses the Nehemiah narrative to illustrate how he uses vision to guide his life and ministry—and how you can too. This is not a book about how the grow a small church, but rather how to ensure that you make the most of your days in pursuit of something purposeful.

Pay the Price.
Embrace the vision.
After all, everybody ends up somewhere in life.
You have the opportunity to end up somewhere on purpose. (271)

From an academic perspective, the style of leadership Stanley promotes is firmly rooted in the trait-based tradition valuing action orientation, charm, personality, courage, intuition, judgment, and persuasiveness. (These adjectives are borrowed from Leadership Theory by John P. Dugan). This highly individualistic style suits the American ethos but it also suffers from the common problems associated with this leadership theory such as the radical divide between leaders and followers. What about the priesthood of all believers?

Visioneering is an interesting and inspiring collection of anecdotes around the idea of having purpose in life. From a leadership perspective, it lacks critical engagement with the many pitfalls of the trait-based tradition.

Stanley, Andy. Visioneering: God’s Blueprint for Developing and Maintaining Vision. Multnomah Books, 1999.