Draw from the Well

Resolved!

I made a decision this morning.  You see, I went to my bookshelf this morning to grab a book that I know I own...and it wasn't there.  I suspect that I loaned it to someone awhile ago and they never returned it.

I hate that.

I love my books.  I've invested lots of money and effort in my library.  I treat my books and other peoples' books with respect. 

So this morning, after mourning the loss of several books that have been loaned out and never returned I decided not to loan out my books any more.

What do you think?  Am I violating the "turn the other cheek" command of Jesus?  Am I hanging on to my material possessions too tightly or am I being a wise steward?

BTW, if you have one of my books...now is a good time to give it back!

The Shack

Saw this little article about the book The Shack on Rev's Leadership Update Email.

I had mixed feelings about The Shack since I'm a pretty critical reader and writer.  One can tell it's a first novel; great ideas with so-so development.  That being said, The Shack tackles some pretty tough territory and doesn't pull any punches.  This is not  your "easy" answer, everything-works-out-in-the-end type of book.  I wasn't startled by the variety of "personalities" of the Trinity...it seemed Matrixesque to me and reminiscent of Joan of Arcadia (I loved that show!)  But I do appreciate the thought put into expressing the "mystery" of the Trinity.  I think the book was a fair picture of grief, confusion, and forgiveness and how God helps us process through that.  Very thoughtful.

The Shack is a good, easy read.  I read it on an airplane ride.  I think it will promote good conversations.

1000+

I just hit 1000 books listed on my librarything account.  (librarything is a cool online book catalog system - I LOVE getting organized!)

Here are a few thoughts concerning my books:

1. I really have more than 1000 because I have a few shelves which have not yet been entered.
2. The majority of my books are Christian in nature, however, I do have a large amount of Chinese focused books and many works of fiction.
3. No, I have not read all my books.  However, I have read 2/3 of my books.
4. Most of my library comes from used books stores.  Translation: I've gotten lots of good deals.  Only recently have I been in a position to buy new books.  (I purchase 1 or 2 a month.)
5. I normally read multiple books at a time, usually a couple of non-fiction work books and one work of fiction right before I go to bed.
6. Seminary has killed my personal reading time.  I still read lots (300+ pages a week), but not the books I want to be reading.
7. While I tried to read at least one non-fiction book per week last year, I decided this year to read only my seminary class books (due to frantic cramming at the end of class - which must not happen again ever!)  Note the said booklist to the left...only a few lonely books this year so far.  Sadness.
8. While I am excited and blessed to have as many books as I do, Pastor told me that when he was my age he had a library of 3000.  I'm way behind!

Most favorite books?  I have a small collection of rare books:  a vintage copy of A Call of the Wild and an early edition of The Good Earth.

Most read book?  Where the Red Fern Grows, I was hooked on it when I was in elementary school, I've read it more than 50 times.  What's up with that?  I don't even like dogs!

Most influential books? Too many to list, especially as seasons change, but here are a few I'd take to desert islands with me:  Life Together by Bonhoeffer, The Shandung Compound by Gilkey, Ender's Game by Card, Celebration of Disciplines by Foster, Master Plan of Evangelism by Coleman, A Tale of Three Kings by Edwards, and those are just off the top of my head.

Really Revealing

Willow Creek recently published a little book that has caused quite a stir.  Basically, in their book, called Reveal, after completing a massive amount of personal surveys from lots of churches (really, they did a good survey), they discovered that many of the "good" things they had been focusing on as a church and organization weren't really producing all that much good in the people they were seeking to influence.  In the end, the confessed that they'd gotten some things wrong.

Reveal is a great read, especially if you are a church leader like me.  We want to know that the things we are doing are producing positive results, of course.  However, Reveal didn't really reveal a ton of new stuff to me.  For example, Reveal talked about how many of the programs of a church really only benefit new believers.  Reveal also talked about how church attendance didn't necessarily correlated with depth of spirituality.  Conversely, Reveal revealed that service did correlate to depth of spirituality.  Also, Reveal shared that those most spiritually stable were the most likely to feel that weekend church attendance wasn't necessarily crucial to their growth (and much more!) After being involved in full time ministry for over 15 years now, these results aren't that shocking.  And I REALLY appreciate Willow for their willingness to measure and analyze what they do.

However, the question remains what can we do to help people to grow?  Frankly, it's still clear to me that large portions of a typical congregation still need to find that spiritual depth; I've yet to find much that challenges the 20-60-20 rule (20% aren't interested in growth at all, 60% of the people are in various stages of needing maturity, 20% are fully mature.)

There are two key things that the Reveal study challenged me with.  First, the main issues was the reminder that the real challenge of a church is to help people to learn to feed themselves (and others.)  If we, as the church, set people up to believe that we are there to "feed" them, we are creating a lot of false expectations.  Second, it reminded me how what produces growth in a believers life changes as they grow in maturity, i.e. the more mature one becomes the more service and leadership produce growth in your life as opposed to small groups and classes.

The study shared that these five things are what people expect from their church:

1. Challenge me to grow and take next steps
2. Help me understand the Bible in greater depth
3. Help me develop a personal relationship with Jesus
4. Help me apply the Bible to my life
5. Provide compelling worship services

As I continue to ponder the results of the Reveal survey, I feel challenged to better articulate to people what might help them to grow.  I think this years focus on the Life Journals is a great step in the right direction. 

If you feel you aren't growing or being fed, a great question to ask yourself if what you feel would feed you?  Perhaps Jesus is taking you to a new level of spirituality and wants to grow you through a different medium.

For more on Reveal, check out the Reveal Blog.

Book Score

I visited the Goodwill today and look at all the books I found.  Wow!  Several of these are actually on my wishlist.  Yeahaw!  Can't beat the price.

No Bones About It

I like forensic stuff (except when it's gross!)  Just finished a book by Kathy Reichs who created the character "Bones".  Thought this was really interesting and clears up the confusion, thanks Kathy for the insight:

• Forensics is the application of scientific findings to legal questions.
• Pathologists are specialists who work with soft tissue.
• Anthropologist are specialists who work with bone.
• Pathologist:  freshly dead/relatively intact corpse.
• Anthropologist: skeleton in a shallow grave, charred body in a barrel, bone fragments in a wood chipper
• By examining the skeleton forensic anthropologists answer questions of identity, time and manner of death, and postmortem treatment of the corpse.

Kathy writes:  "And no one works alone.  While TV glamorizes the individual heroics of the lone scientist or detective, real police work involves the participation of many.  A pathologist may analyze the organs and brain, an entomologist the insects, an odontologist the teeth and dental records, a molecular biologist the DNA, and a ballistics expert the bullets and casings, while the forensic anthropologist pores over the bones.  Numerous players place pieces in the jigsaw puzzle until a picture emerges."

Now you know.

Are You Obsessed?

I just finishing reading The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive this morning.  If you are in ministry and not yet acquainted with Lencioni's work, you need to be.  Two things I love about Lencioni is that a) he uses stories to communicated truth and b) his books are concise and to the point.  Case in point, I read this book in two sittings.

I won't spoil your read by revealing the four obsessions, but here's what struck me:  for success to happen, it is fundamental that an organization must be clear.  Repeated business and ministry books are hounding this message.  Be clear.  Be simple.  Be focused.

As a leader, we are responsible for articulating the values and vision of our job/ministry/family, we are responsible for instilling those values and vision in those who work/follow/belong to and with us and we are responsible for protecting the values and vision and keeping those who work/follow/belong to us from straying or from becoming ingrown.  (These are not his obsessions, btw.)

I had a total of nine hours of meetings yesterday (it was a twelve hour day) and twice found myself reminded that there will always be excuses for lack of growth and productivity...leaders are the ones that move businesses/ministries/families beyond those places.

Where are you leading today?  How have you articulated, instilled and protected your values and vision recently? 

As our small groups begin (official kick off is September 22/23!) what will you communicate to the new people who come to your group to set the proper tone and expectations for your group? [Articulate] How will you help existing members continue to grow in their ownership of the group and it's vision?  [Instill] Finally, are there directions in your own life or desires expressed by other group members that are distracting or diluting the values and vision of your group?  How will you address that? [Protect]

For what it's worth the two other books I'm reading these days are Leadership on the Line and Organic Church.

My last meeting of the day yesterday was a delight as I discussed these very issues with a couple who leads a Solid Life Group at Living Water. (I hadn't even started the book yet!)These issues really are he key to good leadership. It was a fun conversation once I made it to the correct restaruant.

My final thought from this book is the importance of health for growth to occur.  This topic could be a separate blog entry, as I'm realizing that often organizations/ministries/families get hung up because they are not healthy...it doesn't matter what they do, if they are not healthy there is going to be a problem.  But that's a thought for another day.

Girl Talk

Just finished two books by women I respect.  Jen Hatmaker has written a fine book on how to study the Bible that really does appeal to the girlie girl within us all and Margaret Feinberg conspires with others to make the classics approachable.

I know that Margaret didn't write 20 Things You Should Read all by herself - I just came by way of it through hearing her speak.  Regardless, 20 Things is a GREAT primer on the founders in the faith that every Christian should be familiar with.  Not since Richard Foster deciphered the classics has there been such an approachable resource for an introduction to works that will change your life.  Just reading the author bios alone is worth the price of the book.  It saddens me that many modern Christians have no idea who most of the 20 are and have never read anything written by them.  Even if this book prompts you to only read one of the 20 authors original works, your faith will be enhanced.

I admit that I was put off by the pink.  When it comes to Bible study, well, I'm a snob.  So I feared that Hatmaker's Modern Girl's Guide to Bible Study would water down and trivialize something I really love (...I mean, Hatmaker???  okay, I was put off by the name too!)  Girl friend pulls no punches when it comes to laying a great foundation for studying scripture well, yet she does so with an engaging humor that, though I am disassociated from many of the "girl talk", mom & family life style, even kept me entertained.  What can I say, Jen sounds like a riot.  By the end of the book, I found myself respecting her love for scripture and her tutelage in how to understand and digest all it has to offer for our relationship with Jesus and growth as a believer.  She will convince you that you can and should study scripture and then equip you with the practical how tos!   

Can We Do That?

Written in 2002, this book is already getting a little dated.  By that I mean that the cutting edge ideas that Ed Young and Andy Stanley introduce have moved into mainstream as these churches create the trends that we all learn from (see this recent influential list.)  However, whether these ideas are new to you or not, it's cool that they all come packed into on little book.  This easy read gives you lots of things to ponder and helps you to decide where to explore more (i.e., do I like North Point's CM philosophy better than Fellowship's?)

No topic is left unturned from outreach, to staff roles, to discipleship, youth and kids.  It's a handy little book as far as giving you new ideas to think about.

So after reading a whole bunch of books and then reading a whole bunch of blogs and more books critiquing how everyone goes to conferences and reads books and tries to "copy" the church on that influential list that I mentioned before, (pause to take a breath), here's the conclusion I've come to:  The real key that all these innovators have is that THEY KNOW WHAT THEY WANT TO DO. 

When you are so clear that you can write down what you do in every area of your ministries, then your philosophy is set.  Lack of clarity is the biggest church killer around.  A million different methods might work, but within each method, the leader is clear and unapologetic about their focus.

The other things I keep reading is that these leaders all attribute their booming growth to God.  I keep reading "it's a God thing" over and over again.  That's good, because it's always a God thing.

This book is good fuel for the fire of new ideas you want to introduce to your ministry leaders (I've copied three chapters for one of the teams I'm on.)  Meanwhile, pursue clarity and trust God.

A Sweet Cuppa

Narrowing down the pile of "to read" books, I've recently polished off   The Gospel According to Starbucks.

Sweet's Starbucks was an so-so read.  First off, I'm not a huge fan of coffee in general, so the tidbits about beans was wasted on me.  Second, I was very interested in Sweet's analysis of Starbucks as an organization, especially since I've read a few articles which have talked about the decline of Starbucks lately (see here.)  I felt that Sweet was returning to the age of nostalgia instead of recognizing that Starbucks is going the way of many churches who lose their "grassroots" edge and become "institutional".  (Perhaps it's time for a St. Arbucks revival?)  Couple this with my own lackluster experiences at a local Starbucks (what, no free wifi?) and what can I say, I'm a hard sell with coffee. 

Sweet is a good story teller, and his EPIC points are right on for this culture.  The biggest take away for me was his discussion about icon vs idols:  "Our hope is not in idols.  Our hope is in God.  The only demands idols make on us is greater devotion.  But icons, by inviting us to look through them to God, make us more wise and good and holy, more dependent on God." Whom is "iconic" in my life?  An for whom am I and icon?  Do I become a "magnifying glass" through which others see God?  Or do I obscure people's view of God which my own sin and selfishness?  This was a new paradigm for me in having "heroes" in the faith.  And it might change my language...instead of getting out of the way of God, I might seek to "magnify" God.  It's so much less about me and more about Him all the time.

If you life coffee, if you like Sweet, you will probably like this book, but it just wasn't quite cutting edge enough for me.