Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian - 496 pages

Last year I read Master and Commander, the first in a 21 (!) book series by Patrick O'Brian.  I loved it.

Post Captain continues the misadventures of captain Jack Aubrey and his surgeon friend,  Stephen Maturin.  Picking up right after Master and Commander, it is a brief rare season of peace between England, France, and Spain.  As often happens with sailors with too much time on their hands, they quickly fall into debt and love.  Jack is enraptured with the young heiress Sophia Williams, and Stephen falls for the unconventional widow Diana Villiers.  The first half of the book almost reads like a Jane Austen novel told from the man's (are there any real men in those books?) perspective.
Thankfully, war breaks out and the boys leave land behind to sink, plunder, and generally harass the French enemy.

As usual Patrick O'Brian's distinctive writing style, while taking some getting used to,  takes the breath away and draws the reader in.  The action was bigger, the romance greater, and the development of the often contentious relationship between Aubrey and Maturin was delightful.  I also enjoyed the insights on leadership, as Jack learns to maintain discipline and good morale amongst the crew of his ship.

I can't wait to read the next one!

"It is unjust to provoke a man and then complain he is a satyr if the provocation succeeds."

"How helpless a man is, against direct attack by a woman."

"The sailor, at sea (his proper element), lives in the present.  There is nothing he can do about the past at all; and having regard to the uncertainty of the omnipotent ocean and the weather, very little about the future."

"Ever since I was breeched I have pined to see a narwhal."

Adoniram Judson: How Few There Are That Die So Hard by John Piper - 24 Pages

This short, free ebook is a converted transcript of one of John Piper's biographical sermons that he gave for many years at the annual Desiring God Pastor's Conference.

Though it is short, it packs a punch.  I was expecting more biography and less exhortation, but I was pleasantly surprised and challenged.  Piper weaves in glimpses of Judson's life, suffering, and fruitful death to his call for followers of Jesus to embrace suffering as the God ordained means of bringing the lost nations into the joy of glorifying Christ.  A great read.  I will be handing this out to anyone interested in joining us on the field.

"My question is, if Christ delays his return another two hundred years - a mere fraction of a day in his reckoning - which of you will have suffered and died so that the triumphs of grace will be told about one or two of those 3,500 [unreached groups of] peoples who are in the same condition today that the Karen and Chin and Kachins and Burmese were in 1813?...Most of these hopeless peoples do not want you to come.  At least they think they don't.  They are hostile to Christian missions.  Today this is the final frontier"

"Judson wrote to missionary candidates in 1832:  

Remember, a large proportion of those who come out on a mission to the East die within five years after leaving their native land.  Walk softly, therefore; death is narrowly watching your steps. 

The question for us is not whether we will die, but whether we will die in a way that bears much fruit."

The Conviction to Lead by Albert Mohler - 224 Pages

I normally don't like to read books on leadership.  I find that they generally fall into one or more of the following categories: Secular leadership books filled with un-and-anti-Biblical advice, Christian leadership books that are trying to be like the secular ones but with some proof texts sprinkled in, or Biblical leadership books that are solid but are really only applicable to a senior pastor role.

With The Conviction to Lead, Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler has broken the mold, composing a book that is driven and grounded in a high view of Scripture as well as broad enough to speak to Christians in any sphere of leadership, not just the church.

The basic premise is clearly displayed in the book's title - that more than skill, personality, methods, and opportunities, it is the conviction to lead that is preeminent to being a successful, faithful, and Christ-honoring leader.  Stating that "true leadership starts with a purpose, not a plan," Mohler seeks to bring together and empower two groups of people in the Christian leadership world - those who are believers and those who are leaders.  He says,

"If our leaders are not passionately driven by the right beliefs, we are headed for disaster.  At the same time, if believers cannot lead, we are headed nowhere.  My goal is to redefine Christian leadership so that it is inseperable from passionately held beliefs, and to motivate those who are deeply commited to truth to be ready for leadership."

Mohler succeeds brilliantly with his goal, grounding much of his advice and exhortation in his real life experience of turning almost singlehandedly the historic Southern Baptist Seminary from a being a bastion of Liberal theology to being a flagship of Biblical faithfulness that it has now become.

I would put this up there with Oswald Sanders' book as one of the best on Christian leadership.  I look forward to returning to it often and recommending it to others.

"We do not believe in belief any more than we have faith in faith.  We believe the gospel, and we have faith in Christ.  Our beliefs have substance and our faith has an object."

"You can divide all leaders into those who merely hold an office or position and those who hold great convictions"