Christians, even pastors, don't know how to talk about ambition. As Dave Harvey puts it, "Check your local bookstore. In contrast to sex, which drives more publishing than any topic in the galaxy, there's practically nothing on ambition. Seriously, nada. I tried to find it, but it isn't there. You rarely even find the subject mentioned in business books anymore. Sex sells; ambition apologizes for even showing up."

His new book, Rescuing Ambition (Crossway, 2010) aims to change that. He doesn't just warn about the dangers of selfish ambition, he elevates the importance of godly ambitions.

Harvey, a criminology major in college, was working as a security manager in Philadelphia when he got involved in a church plant. Soon he was asked to join the staff of that church, Covenant Fellowship in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, as "the youth guy/evangelism guy/administrator/whatever was needed around the office." Within a few years, he became senior pastor and served in that capacity for 19 years. He ...