By Roger Parrott
Moody Publishers (2022)
Paperback, 256 pages
Reviewed by ROBERT KIRK
Roger Parrott is the President of Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi. From his ministry and professional experience, he writes practical and proven guidance on planning as Christian leaders. Opportunity Leadership introduces a ministry model that relies upon God’s leadership to guide an organization instead of utilizing traditional planning models. He does not advocate for traditional strategic planning but rather an approach that depends upon the leadership of God in determining the direction of Christian organizations, ministries, or churches. Much of what he presents runs counter to the prevailing principles of long-range strategic planning. He advocates shifting our planning focus because the “opportunity” approach “opened up growth, reach, and ministry that would never have been imaginable if I had stayed welded to conventional planning” (pp. 17–18).
However, he is not against all planning, just the type he calls “destination planning.” He makes this point clear when he writes, “I am advocating the abandonment of predicting futures through planning structures. Instead, I’m encouraging a deeper investment in implementation planning” (pp. 38–39). The author consistently maintains this distinction throughout his work.
The structure of the book contains four major sections, an epilogue, and endnotes in the back. The first five chapters comprise Part One, and they introduce the topic of opportunity leadership as a new paradigm for ministry and leadership. In the second part, six chapters are devoted to identifying the six necessary talents required to be an effective opportunity leader. In Part Three, another six chapters high-light the six essential tendencies leaders must lead their ministries to embrace in order to effectively utilize this model. In the fourth part, the author seeks to prepare the reader to be amazed at the opportunities that will begin to come as a result of adopting this model of leadership. Finally, in the epilogue, he demonstrates how David’s encounter with Goliath was a display of opportunity leadership.
This work contains a good combination of theological application and practical implementation. While the author consistently refers to his own experiences as a university president, he also adequately relies upon a scriptural foundation. Although this book is written primarily for Christian leaders within church ministries, parachurch ministries, Christian institutions, and even secular organizations, he does not assume his readers have a strong biblical background. Therefore, he writes in a way that is easy to read, while at the same time he is not too simplistic. This awareness of his audience is a major strength of this work, making it easily accessible for all Christian leaders who serve either vocationally or voluntarily. A weakness of this book is its failure to adequately address the topic of implementation planning, because it assumes the reader will know how to implement the plans once the overall direction is discerned.
Overall, I found this book a challenge to my preconceived notions about leading a church into the future; therefore, I highly recommend this book to all those who are involved in Christian leadership. The principles espoused in this book will be a blessing for leaders because of the simplicity of the opportunity leadership model and its ultimate desire to glorify God.
Robert Kirk is pastor of Indian River Baptist Church, Chesapeake, Virginia, and a doctor of ministry student at The Rawlings School of Divinity at Liberty University. He also holds a BS in industrial engineering and an MDIV and master’s of theology.