David Stoddard founded Leaders Legacy, Inc., in 2000 after a successful career in sales. Leaders Legacy, according to the book, “provides an intensive, value-added mentoring/coaching process for developing people, both personally and professionally, from the inside out.” Its stated goal is to “establish a network of mentors across the United States and around the world who understand and model the principles for developing people for sustained life-changing results.”

While this is a must-read book for anyone seeking to mentor another person or offer spiritual direction or counseling, I have to say I had a hard time reading it (it was a bit boring). I was also mildly bothered by the fact that, while this is a NavPress book and the author clearly states he is a follower of Jesus, his chapter on dealing with another person’s spirituality was a bit “mushy.” The author works hard to distinguish between “spirituality” and “religion” and on page 165 says this: “What the Bible introduced to me was not religion, but spirituality–the way I could develop an intimate, personal relationship with God.”

I am not disagreeing with his statement but he spends the whole chapter dancing around the edges of what a Christian spirituality might look like. I felt almost like I was hearing a principle from a known Christian given to the local Rotary group, a principle that those of us “in the know” would fill in the blanks on but that wouldn’t offend (at least not too much) any non-Christians in the audience.

Mr. Stoddard obviously knows how to mentor and I learned some good things from reading this book but I do recommend it with a bit of reservation.