John Maxwell is one of the contemporary church's leading authorities on leadership. For many years a pastor, today Maxwell's ministry focuses on writing and teaching about Christian leadership through his organization and tape series, Injoy. He was interviewed recently by Preaching editor Michael Duduit.

Preaching: Your ministry focus has become leadership and leadership gifts. You are also a preacher and a former pastor. What do you see as the links between preaching and leadership? In what ways to you see the preaching task as a leadership task within the church?

Maxwell: All great leaders are effective communicators. It is the vehicle for the vision. For me to know where I want to take a group of people and not have the ability to cast that dream, preach that message, communicate that heart, makes the dream impossible. The vision won't be accomplished.

So one of the reasons I have committed so much time, not only in teaching leadership but communication, is I think they are so compatible. You show me a great leader and I'll show you a person that became a great leader because of his or her ability to communicate effectively. You can be a good preacher and not a good leader but you cannot be a good leader without being a good preacher or a good communicator. You have to be able to communicate the vision. What I love about it is that they all do it differently, there is not a certain style or a certain method. But they all have the ability to get their heart into the heart of their people. And that is always done through preaching and through communication.

Preaching: What are some of the particular approaches or methods in preaching that tend to strengthen our work in leadership?

Maxwell: I think the style is determined by the culture as far as effectiveness. You and I both know that in the United States you can go to seven or eight different areas and based on the culture you have to have a different style to be able to communicate effectively. I think the best example I can give you is my own life.

I grew up in Ohio and the midwest. When I pastored in Ohio, I built a fairly substantial church there. The preaching was exhortation. A lot of exhorting. People migrated to it because it gave them, I think, assurance and security. When I moved to southern California, that style didn't work. I had to learn to relate, be relevant, ask questions, speak in more of an open manner. Less telling, more sharing, probably a little bit more transparency. A little bit more vulnerability. I couldn't rely upon tradition there, so I had to adapt. What I have found is that great communicators can do that.

I'm now living in Atlanta, I've just moved here. I'm not pastoring here but if I was to communicate here, I would do it even differently here than I did in Ohio or would have done it in San Diego. So I think that culture determines the style. The great communicators understand that and have the ability to adapt to that culture and to relate to the people on the level where they are.