Live Love Lead is the name of a book written by Hillsong Pastor Brian Houston. I have just read the book and here is my Live Love Lead review. Let me start by telling you that this was a book I really enjoyed. Want to know why?
Before I read the book Live Love Lead by Brian Houston I was reading The Power of I Am by Joel Osteen. You can read my The Power of I am review right here. As I mentioned in that review I have been really encouraged by the Joel Osteen books several times, but if you read a lot of his books in a short time it will be like a sweet cake that is very good, but in the end it simply gets to much. I also mentioned that the last chapter of his book which was about how life is not about me was a breath of fresh air, completely taking the focus of from me and placing the focus on the people around me. And that is when I started Live Love Lead by Brian Houston and that breath of fresh air kept coming!
Get to know Brian Houston
I have read some other Live Love Lead reviews on the Internet before writing my own and what I have noticed is that everyone emphasize the honesty of Brian Houston in the book as one of its big strengths. It was amazing, and sad, to read as Brian Houston writes about his father and all the challenges he has experienced because of what happened to his father and what his father did (don’t want to spoil it, so will not say more about the matter). It was also interesting to read as Brian Houston spoke about his stress, how he could not sleep at night and how he managed to overcome these challenges. In other words the honesty of Brian Houston and how he gives us a glimpse of his own life is what makes this book both inspiring and interesting.
It teaches us to live, to love and to lead
The book is filled with chapters meant to inspire and to encourage its readers. And the teachings in the book included with personal histories and examples from the life of the Hillsong church has a great effect on its readers. It makes you want to strive to get further, it makes you want to love and to lead. He encourages us all to live our own lives following the calling of God. So many are trapped trying to be someone else, but encourages us quoting Oscar Wilde who said: “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”
On the subject of living he also writes says: “Whenever you start living your life by comparison, you will always end up dissatisfied, envious, resentful, jealous, and bitter.” That is awfully true and something that hopefully more and more people will understand and thus stand up and follow the calling God has placed on their lives instead of trying to be someone else.
When he starts writing about love he does so in different contexts. He encourages us to love one another, even though we do not agree on every doctrine. We are to love across church walls and learn from whoever we meet. When he speaks of loving he says it very well as he writes “God loves us without conditions, though too often we place conditions on our love before extending it to others.” But what can we do when someone around is lives a way we believe is against the will of God? What is the task of the church in a society not following the Word of God? “The Church is not called to be an enforcer of rules but an outpost of grace” is what Brian Houston writes in his book and I believe that he has a good point saying so.
He does not only write about living and loving, but also about leading. He writes about how a leader needs to be a pioneer who breaks new ground. He says that “pioneering takes courage, ingenuity, and a sense of adventure. With a pioneer spirit must come willingness to fail and falter, but with an unwavering belief in the long-term future vision.” I so much enjoyed his example of Walt Disney as well who he claimed to be a pioneer. Did you know that when “Walt tried to get MGM studios to distribute Mickey Mouse, he was told that the idea would never work—they said a giant mouse on the screen would terrify women and children?” But, Walt Disney was a pioneer who changed our ways of thinking and has since then given a whole lot to the world.
Some more quotes from Live Love Lead by Brian Houston
Here you can read some of the sentences from the book that I enjoyed the most, but also made me think a lot and challenged me in my personal life.
- Based on the model of loving leadership we see in Christ, a pioneer takes territory previously considered uninhabitable and realizes its potential.
- What you focus on in life determines whether or not you will experience peace in your heart.
- Have you ever avoided someone because they were a truth teller and had things to say that you didn’t want to hear? I have, and let me tell you, it certainly didn’t help me then and it won’t help you now.
- Not everything is good, and not only good things happen to us, but we serve a God for whom all things work together for good—for those who love him, for those who are called according to his purpose.
- We don’t mean to become insular and self-righteous, exclusive and judgmental, but if we don’t focus on our relationship with God foremost, then we’re prone to becoming proud.
- We want to walk on water. But we insist on trying to do it under our own power.
- Follow your heart, stay true to the gift that is on your life, go forth in the strength that you have, be comfortable in your grace zone, be confident in your call—and watch as God exceeds your every expectation and leads you into a wide-open and spacious life.
Conclusion of my Live Love Lead review
To me Live Love Lead was a very inspiring book and not just inspiring, but I felt as if it brought me much closer to the heart of Brian Houston and to the heart and the vision of Hillsong. And even if I am not part of a Hillsong church it is still very interesting to learn from them, after all God has truly blessed their work and all their churches around the world.
If you want an inspiring book that will not only inspire, but also challenge you to live, love and lead, this is a book that I can warmly recommend!
