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book review – “Exponential”

June 14, 2010 in books, entertainment, ministry with 0 Comments

Somehow I ended up on the the email lists of a few book publishers. I get several offers to review books on my blog, but many of them just don’t interest me and I don’t have the time for the extra reading (especially on topics that don’t apply). But every once in a while, I get an offer that sucks me in. “Exponential” is one of those books.

I’ve been a staff pastor for several years. I have dreams of one day leading a church and/or planting one. When that happens, I’ll be revisiting this book for some of the ideas and concepts it contains.

“Exponential” is a book about creating and sustaining multisite ministry among churches. At the core of this is the idea of reproduction through apprenticeship. This is something that applies to every believer, not just pastors interested in adding an additional location for their church. And for me, that’s what makes this book great. As much as this is a book about church planting, it’s also a book about how to create ministries and leaders who seek to reproduce themselves in apprentices (to use the term in the book) who will in turn continue to pass their heart/vision/skill on to others.

I found this book to be very accessible and easy to read. It’s written by Dave Ferguson with some humorous notes from his brother, Jon Ferguson, along the way. It has some great personal stories/examples to balance out and illustrate the philosophical and strategic content. And there’s a lot of that here. It’s full of practical advice and tips for how to reproduce and raise up leaders and churches. This is one of those books that will end up on my shelf for future reference.

For me, a book like this challenges me on a couple of levels. First, it causes me to evaluate my current ministry assignment and find ways to improve on how I am leading and what I am passing on to others (apprentices) around me. Second, I begin to step back from my current situation and dream about what God is calling me to and where he will eventually lead me–sort of a big picture or long term vision.

If you’re a pastor interested in starting a multisite location or if you are a lay leader in your church, “Exponential” is an excellent resource for you to find ways to reproduce yourself in others and expand the Kingdom and the ministry you lead.

You can buy “Exponential” at amazon.com (if you purchase through this link, you’ll help support the blog).

For disclosure’s sake, I need to add that my copy of Exponential was provided for review by Zondervan.

book review – “steering through chaos”

March 15, 2010 in books, entertainment, ministry with 0 Comments

When I started reading this book, I breathed a sigh of relief. That’s because I received a copy of this book for free for the purpose of reviewing it on my blog. In addition to that my friend Justin Lathrop (who is on staff with the author) invited me to the “blog tour” of the book. When I accepted the invitation, in the back of my head I said, “I hope this is good, because I really don’t want to struggle to give it a decent review.” However all fears were quickly forgotten as I began to read. “Steering Through Chaos” is a great book that effectively communicates its message.

In “Steering Through Chaos”, Scott Wilson aims to help the reader understand, embrace and navigate through one of the most difficult and challenging aspects of pastoral ministry: change and transition.

Scott does a great job communicating in a way that comes across as sincere, authentic and experienced. His approach and style made reading this book not only informative, but enjoyable as well. Often I felt like Scott was just having conversation with me over coffee. In chapter 8, he discusses the importance of having a life coach. For the author, it’s the single most important principle in the book. I couldn’t help but think that the book itself is like a mini life coach session with Scott.

Most books that I read end up back on the shelf and get lost in the mix. A few books go to the shelf and stick out. These are the books that I make note of their position, the look of the spine and its height. These are books that I want to find again. The ones that will serve as a reference for me in the future. “Steering Through Chaos” is part of that later group.

For me, this book was a refreshing look at what pastoral ministry is about. Reading it served as a sort of “realignment” for me. Unfortunately, in the past I’ve seen a lot of what ministry is not. This book has come to me at a time when I really needed to see an optimistic, healthy, God-honoring perspective of ministry and the challenges that it brings. I appreciated that Scott’s passion isn’t to lead effective change in and of itself. Instead his focus is to be deeply committed to following Jesus and bringing as many people as possible with him on the journey (even though that often results in a bit of chaos along the way). This is probably best illustrated in chapter 5, which deals with the importance and need for corporate prayer. It’s a powerful reminder to make sure we’re listening to the right voice.

This is a book that I’m going to be recommending to the staff I serve with at Cornerstone. It provides some great insight on how we can work through some of the challenges that we are/will be facing as we continue to grow and transition.

I recommend this book to anyone in a leadership role, especially those in ministry and those who need to keep a vision alive in front of a group of people.

You can purchase “Steering Through Chaos” by Scott Wilson on amazon.com.

wronged

March 8, 2010 in ministry, spiritual with 4 Comments

Several weeks ago I was reading from the One Year Reading Plan when I came across 1 Corinthians 6. The Apostle Paul is writing about how some of the Christians at Corinth had disputes with each other and had brought those disputes to secular courts for judgment. Paul criticizes them for their inability to resolve their differences on their own.

But then Paul takes the topic to a deeper level. He says in verses 7-8,

“Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers.”

And then week ago Pastor Phil spoke about forgiving those who have hurt you and caused you pain. It was a great message. One of those where you nod your head and think, “yeah, I need to forgive those horrible, evil, arogant people who have wronged me. They’re so bad for treating poor, innocent me that way (#sarcasm).”

Then came the proverbial “kick in the teeth”.

Pastor Phil closed the message out by encouraging us to not only forgive, but then to also pray that those who have wronged us would experience blessing.

Ouch.

Then this past week, Mark Batterson wrote on his blog about bitterness and how to overcome:

I honestly believe that prayer is the only antidote to anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness. You can’t just forgive. You’ve got to pray for that person. Why? Because it will change your heart. You’ll find that a supernatural love for that person disarms your anger. Forgiveness will set your free. And prayer is the key.

Um, anyone else see a reoccuring theme here?

Yeah…I think I have some praying to do….

new year commitments

December 31, 2009 in family, ministry, spiritual with 3 Comments

As I’m typing this, I’m sitting on my couch, trying to work on my final sermon at Stone Church this Sunday, January 3. With all of the craziness of the past few days, I’ve hardly had a chance to reflect on Christmas, let alone evaluate 2009 or really give any thought to 2010. The last couple of weeks have been a blur of activity. Parties, family, get-togethers, saying goodbyes have all been a part of the busyness. I’m grateful for these opportunities, but unfortunate thing is that I haven’t been able to stop and focus on the season.

That may not be a bad thing. Typically I over-analyze my New Year’s resolutions and end up with a list so long that I don’t know where to start…so I typically don’t. So here are three commitments I’m making to myself for 2010.

One Year Bible Reading Plan – I’ve been reading through the Chronological Bible for the past five years. It’s a great way to read the Bible in a year, but like anything else, the process has gotten a bit stale for me and I need to change things up. So I’m going to be using one of the reading plans from youversion.com. They have a great iPhone app that will help me keep up to date as well. I’d encourage you to check out their plans. They have several and one of them is bound to fit you.
Read at least one book a month. This one has been on my list every year for several years. I don’t think I’ve ever quite accomplished it. Well, this year will be different. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s the fact that I just packed my office and had shelves (yes, plural) of books that I own but have hardly cracked. This means I’ll probably have to cut back on some of the feeds in my Google Reader….
Spend more time with my family. One thing I’ve realized this past year is that I have to fight for my family. I have to fight for time with them and I have to be intentional about the quality of that time. It just doesn’t happen on it’s own. One of the ways I plan to do this is by starting to read to Parker before bedtime (thinking about starting with The Chronicles of Narnia or The Hobbit). This is going to be tough because I’m a TV junkie and his bedtime is right during that primetime hour, but I know I’m doing him a disservice if I don’t do it. And quite honestly, it’s pretty sad if I put TV before him.

Anyway, I’d love to throw in others, but these are the main three I’m going to focus on. The non-negotiable ones that I’m going to fight to accomplish.

What are some of your commitments for the new year?

a rough night

December 2, 2009 in ministry with 2 Comments

Tonight was rough.

Over 5 years ago, Bethany, Parker and I made a decision to join the pastoral team at Stone Church. During our time here, we’ve walked with students and families through times of great joy and utter sorrow. We’ve seen students grow and mature. We’ve laughed and struggled together. We’ve learned about ourselves and about each other. We’ve shared struggles and rejoiced in victories. Most importantly, we’ve grown to love these students and our leadership team.

Which brings me back to tonight: rough.

This past Sunday we accepted an Associate Pastor position at Cornerstone Church in Bethalto, IL and tonight we informed our students of the approaching transition.

The situation is really bittersweet. We are extremely excited about the new ministry assignment and believe this is an incredible opportunity for us (more on that in another post).

It’s tough, however, to begin to say goodbye to people in whom you’ve invested time, energy and emotion.

To the students of @thestonecrew, we love you more than you know and we’ll miss you terribly. But as I shared tonight, we can be confident of the fact that God is good and following his plans results in a better outcome than our own. Psalm 16:8 says “I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” Things may seem “shaky” during this time, but we put our trust in the One who himself will not be moved. And that is what sustains us during these times.