Shortly after Imelda Marcos was found to own 3,000 pairs of shoes, Bill Hybels began a sermon on patience this way: "Bill Hybels speaking on patience is like Imelda Marcos speaking on frugality."

But it might equally be said that "Bill Hybels writing on leadership is like Tiger Woods writing on golf." In his latest book, Courageous Leadership (Zondervan, 2002), Hybels has written a manifesto on leadership, probably his most important book to date. If you believe a pastor should primarily be a shepherd or theologian, be warned: Courageous Leadership is the clearest, most forceful case yet for pastor as leader.

The classic, wry definition of a leader is "someone who has followers," and Hybels has plenty, both at the sprawling Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, and in the 7,200 churches of the Willow Creek Association. Now, after surviving 30 years of church leadership, virtually all at Willow, Hybels tells us his approach. (Not to make you feel old, but the youthful ...