Books from Warren's Shelf

In most cases I no longer read a book cover to cover. I pick what seems to be the most relevant chapter or chapters for me, read them, and then perhaps skim the rest of the book. I also try not to keep most books. I give them away to colleagues, friends, or a local library.

I do lots of fun reading and listening. My wife and I take audio books with us on trips. Most recently we heard a mini-biography about the famed astronomer and mathematician Galileo, a good Agatha Christie mystery, and the lengthy audio book, Overcoming Life’s Disappointments, by Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People. And in the world of personal organization I’ve found a lot of help in David Allen’s Getting Things Done (which my boss gave me, hmmm). Next comes Michael Linenberger’s Total Workday Control (which an incredibly efficient support staffer commended to me, hmmm).

In terms of recently published books geared for Christian leaders, I do read or skim all the excellent titles in Leadership Network’s series with Jossey-Bass and Zondervan. Here are some “non-Leadership Network” books I’ve particularly enjoyed of late:

Web-Empower Your Church by Mark Stephenson

Mark is an incredible person with an even bigger heart for reaching people and developing them into followers of Christ. He is the primary mover behind the many teams of unpaid servants that have developed the website at a cutting-edge United Methodist congregation named Ginghamsburg. This story-rich book is packed with practical ideas and resources, a guaranteed help for anyone doing cyber ministry. Mark also started and leads the Web-Empowered Church, a ministry of The Foundation for Evangelism, to develop free web-ministry software for churches and ministries worldwide.

Irresistible Evangelism by Steve Sjogren, David Ping, and Doug Pollack.

The subtitle says it all: Natural Ways to Open Others to Jesus. It’s all about how servant evangelism, for which Sjogren is so well known, can fit into the total evangelistic ministry of the church. After emphasizing problems that arise from our scheming, scalp hunting, screaming, selling Jesus as if He's a fix-it man for life's every difficulty, stalking, sermonizing, and spectating (doing nothing), he presents evangelism as God's action through us. He suggests angles of active kindness, active friendships, active wondering, and active sharing. Sjogren also has a new book called Outflow, which I saw in pre-release version. It’s another winning Sjogren title, highly practical as all his other books.

Beyond the First Visit by Gary MacIntosh

Everyone likes to think that their own church is the friendliest one around. But do our guests see it that way? Veteran seminary professor, author, and consultant Gary McIntosh helps readers look at their churches through the eyes of a first-time guest to identify the things that might prevent the newcomer from returning for a second visit. This very practical book offers solid advice on assessing and improving the ways your church attracts people, welcomes them, does follow-up and brings them into the church family. It acknowledges that a welcoming attitude needs to become part of the very fabric of your church.

The Rise of Lakewood Church and Joel Osteen by Richard Young.

This book is a fascinating profile of America’s largest-attendance church, and a strongly cheerleading one at that. Its strength is that half the book profiles Joel Osteen’s dad, John, who founded Lakewood Church, and the 17 years Joel spent being trained through that ministry. It shows the tremendous foundation that Joel, along with his brothers and sisters, were able to build upon after John’s death in 1999.

I need to mention one more book that a surprising number of friends have told me to read: The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. I own it and have tried twice to read it. Not the kind of book you can skim! I can’t seem to get into it.

If you’re one of the many enthusiasts of Shaping of Things to Come, do you have a suggestion for me of how I might tackle it and stick with it?

Comments

[tony sheng]

Regarding _Shaping_, you might want to listen to some of these messages by Mike Frost as you read.
http://www.christianityworks.com/pages/teachers.asp?pid=150

[Warren Bird]

My friend Scott Thumma forwarded this helpful review on Amazon.com by a reader of The Shaping of Things to Come so I wanted to share it with the readers of this blog as well. (3rd review down the page) http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A195QV1S7CWTK3/ref=cm_pdp_reviews_see_all/102-2316321-1390562?ie=UTF8&sort%5Fby=MostRecentReview