Two Great Books I’ve Read Recently July 8, 2011

People ask me often about great books I’ve read recently, so here are two that I would HIGHLY recommend…

#1 – When People Are Big And God Is Small (Overcoming Peer Pressure, Codependency and the Fear of Man) – Honestly, I think this is a book that every person on the planet should read…it will take your view of God to the next level!  It blew me away!

#2 – Derailed - Excellent, Excellent, Excellent book on leadership and the things that can derail a leader and the entire organization!

Today We Are Rich March 30, 2011

In the fall of 2003 I had the privilege of seeing Tim Sanders speak at Catalyst and was blown away by his passion and challenged by what the Lord has put on his hear to challenge young leaders with.  (I also bought and devoured this book as a result of his talk…I highly recommend it!)

Tim has recently written a brand new book entitled, “Today We Are Rich, Harnessing The Power Of Total Confidence.”  (Here is the website with a FREE downloadable EBook…check it out!!!)

Recently I had the privilege of asking Tim some questions about his new book…and loved what he had to say about it…

#1 – What drove you to write, “Today We Are Rich?”

In the fall of 2008, I saw so many people lose their confidence as circumstances changed.  As the economy sank, their Mojo drained away.  I’ve been through this a few times in my life, and in each situation, the Confidence Plan I was taught early on gave turned recessions into growth opportunities for me.

One day in 2009, I also realized that I’ve failed to tell my entire story through my books.  While she was still alive, I wanted to introduce my grandmother Billye King Coffman to the world.  She’s a prayer warrior, philosopher, strong hearted person and an inspiration from the cubicle to the vestibule.

So far, my books have all offered career and business advice.  Inside them, however, was my Christian point of view about people, love, faith and the power of giving.  When I was inspired to write Today We Are Rich, I knew it was time to squarely address my beliefs and speak to a new generation that needed a secular cat like me to let them know that “what you learn on Sunday will make you a rock star on Monday.” That’s why I left Random House and signed with Tyndale House Publishers – one of the best faith ones in the world.

#2 – Why do you think it is important for us to focus on our purpose in life and not just our passions?

Passion is the pursuit of self: Fun, mastery, actualization and personal rewards.  We should encourage our children to chase their passions like butterflies – it gives them dimension and helps them find their voice and skills.

But as they grow into adults and physically mature, we must challenge them to live a life of service and follow a worthwhile purpose.  If they continue to follow their passions into adulthood or parenthood, everyone suffers and energy comes and goes along with windfalls and challenges.  To tell your kids “just do what you love,” is like telling them “love yourself at the expense of everyone else.”

When you decide to make the leap from serving passions to serving a purpose, you are spiritually coming of age.  You can know pursue significance.

From a performance point of view, it’s important to be purpose driven because a sense of meaning can give us unlimited energy and unbreakable resilience.  Nazi war camp survivor Viktor Frankl once said that “when there’s purpose in a thing, there is no suffering.”  Purpose is also important to find the sweet spot between self-confidence and humility.  When you are on-purpose, you follow and repot to a higher power, God’s will.  This helps you, as Pastor Steven Furtick likes to say, “deflect all the glory to God.”

In my case, my purpose comes from a Scripture in Hebrews that I paraphrase: “Provoke good works in people and outbursts of love, not forsaking as we gather in public.” Gives me a clear compass in my life for knowing which direction to go.  And that’s important, because Billye taught me that “success is not a destination, but a direction – true North.”

#3 – What is your biggest hope that your readers will take away from the book?

If I had to choose a single piece of advice from the book, here it is: Stick with your rock, never forsake your foundation of positive thinking, faith, gratitude and the burning desire to participate in the end of suffering.

If you feel like you are moving Sideways in your life, as I have in mine, ask yourself the following question.  “What are you not doing today that you were doing back when things were better?” Often, you’ll find out that you aren’t reading good stuff, like your Bible.  You aren’t talking to your parents or respecting your elders – trusting your Facebook friends more than the Rocks in your life.  If you are lost, to quote Pastor Heck from the small church I grew up in, “the only way back to Eden is to go back home and admit you aren’t keeping it between the ditches.”

#4 – How important do you think a persons personal relationship with Jesus is in regards to this whole idea?

Following Christ, and living his plan is essential to living in The Good Loop (as in the Good Book), where you create the life you seek through faith and toil.

When you have a close relationship with God, you buttress your sense of Total Confidence, the trinity of powerful beliefs: You, Your Team and Your God. Absent a strong spiritual life, as confidence rewards you with success, you can get drunk on your power and become arrogant and ungrateful.  And when you do, you will always pay the price, usually on the installment plan.

I tell Christians that are ‘down on their luck’ to double down on their faith.  I tell them, “don’t test your faith – let your faith test you.”  Then I tell them to read about Job, take a good look in the mirror and if it’s possible, go hang our with your grandmother and just listen!

So…check it out…I am sure you will be both inspired and challenged by it!

Three Books I Would Highly Recommend… June 14, 2010

I’ve been a reading ninja lately…books don’t stand a chance around me…here are three that I have torn through and I would highly recommend…

#1 – The Orange Code – This book fired me up, challenged me AND made me mad at the same time.  Because…if THESE people can get THIS fired up and focused about starting a company that helps people save money then what in the world could God’s Church do if we became laser focused in our mission to reach people far from God!  We have a MUCH better “product!!!”  Seriously…this is a GREAT read!

#2 – Overcoming The Dark Side of Leadership – EVERY SINGLE LEADER ON THE PLANET should read this book!  WOW!  I seriously cannot recommend it highly enough.  Now…before you order it let me promise you it will be one of the most eye opening, throat punching books you’ve EVER read…but reading it COULD save your ministry!  Yes…it’s THAT GOOD!

#3 – Stuff Christians Like - I know, I know…I talked about it last night, but I wanted to throw it out there again.  (NO…Jon Acuff didn’t pay me to endorse his book; in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever even met him!)  This book seriously made me laugh out loud…often!!!  (And we ALL know that Christians need to laugh more!)

Vince and Some RADICAL Love! February 2, 2010

Hey!  Today I’m pumped to be part of the blog tour for Vince Antonucci and his new book, “Guerrilla Lovers: Changing the World with Revolutionary Compassion.” (Vince is also giving away a bunch of free resources for pastors, guerrilla assignments, and more at www.guerrillalover.com).  So Vince, in your book you describe how the early church grew, despite having almost nothing going for it, and you talk about what we can learn from them.  Could you tell us about that?

Answer: Sure.  From 100 to 311 A.D., Christianity was illegal and persecuted but the number of Christians grew from 25,000 to twenty million.  Why did it grow so rapidly?  Historians suggest two decisive influences. Both of these were … plagues.  Typically, widespread death-bringing epidemics don’t add to anyone’s “attendance” numbers, but historians tell us that Christianity grew rapidly in large part because of these two horrific plagues.  When the plagues came, everyone fled the cities to avoid the lethal contagion – everyone, that is, except Christians.

These first Christians understood they had not joined a religion, but a revolution.  They knew they could not add others to the revolution by power, so they did it through the way they lived their lives. They became guerrilla lovers. They realized they could catch something and die. But they hoped those to whom they ministered would also catch something – the love of Christ – and live, eternally. They chose to be people offering contagious life, in a place filled with contagious death, and because of that decision the revolution spread.  They had nothing to rely on except love, but fortunately love worked.

Experts tell us that there are about 8 million less people going to church today in America than twenty years ago.  Why are we going backwards?  I think it’s because too often we’re relying on everything except love.  We need to ignite a guerrilla lover revolution.

So true.  Thanks Vince.  And if you want to get your own copy of Guerrilla Lovers, you can do so here.

Leading On Empty April 15, 2009

A few years ago I had the privilege of meeting Pastor Wayne Cordeiro at a Leadership Network meeting in Dallas…and the Lord used him that day to both challenge and encourage me in incredible ways.

Recently, through a recommendation by Bob, I picked up his book, “Leading on Empty,”…and COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN!

• You can order it here
• OR…you can order it here

If you are a senior pastor…seriously…I can’t say this strong enough–GET THIS BOOK ASAP…GET AWAY BY YOURSELF…AND READ IT! Pastor Wayne does an outstanding job of talking about leadership burnout from the senior pastors’ perspective…and how it can be prevented.

(Reading the book made such an impact on me personally I bought a copy for everyone on our SMT…and also for the guys who were in my last coaching network.  BTW…if you were in my last coaching network and haven’t gotten your copy–get in touch with Lindsay and she will take care of you.)

Pastors–here’s the deal…MOST people do not understand us!  In fact, I’ve always said it takes a pastor to understand a pastor.  Well, Wayne is a pastor’s pastor.  Here are a few highlights from the book…

• “We don’t forget that we are Christians.  We forget that we are human, and that one oversight alone can debilitate the potential of our future.”
• “Pastors are expected to lead even when the desire or inclination to do so is severely challenged.  I knew others loved me, but living up to the expectations systemically ingrained into the fabric of who I was became the person I could not escape.”
• “Gradually my creativity began to flag, and I found it easier to imitate rather than innovate.  I was backing away from the very things that used to challenge and invigorate me.”
• “Zeal and good intentions can fuel us in the beginning, but they won’t last over the long haul…high self expectations can eventually eat full time shepherds alive.”
• “I was fixing everybody’s problems except my own, and I needed time to replenish my spirit.”
• “I wonder how much more effective our churches would be if we made the pastor’s spiritual health–not the pastor’s efficiency–our number one priority.”  Quote from Philip Yancy in the book
• “In a sense, a pastor never punches out.  Of course some may, but for those who see their profession as a calling, they simply cannot.”
• “Many times we won’t make major course corrections until the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of making the change.”
• “While everyone in our great church loves the Cordeiro family, I have come to realize that nobody is fighting for my family.  That’s my job.”
• “Yesterday’s great ideas get tired today, and churches, even great ones, can get tired.  Without wise and hungry leaders, a church’s endeavors will flatline.”

I could go on and on…TRUST ME…GET THIS BOOK!!!

Mad Church Disease…Do You Have It? January 13, 2009

One of the things that pastors and church leaders tell others to do is be honest about where they are in life…but very few of us follow our own advice.  AND…when someone steps up and IS honest it usually makes us all quite uncomfortable.

I think one of the things that we, as church leaders, need to be is more real…and that is why I am so thankful that Anne Jackson had the courage to write Mad Church Disease.

WARNING…if you are a church leader who wishes to remain dysfunctional and co-dependent on the affirmation of others then you probably do not need to read this book!  If you “have the spiritual gift of BS” and love to pretend that you have it all together all of the time…DO NOT even entertain reading what she wrote because…

It will convict you…challenge you…but hopefully it will give you permission to seek the help that you desperately need so that you can be more effective in your work for Jesus and His kingdom.
I emailed Anne and asked her, “Why did you write this book?’  Below is her response.  Thanks Anne for being honest…some morons will not like it…but others will be rescued because of it!

Anne’s response to, “Why did you write this book?”

Why did I write this book?  Well, there were a few reasons:

1. I’M A PREACHER’S KID.  Enough said…Just kidding. Kind of.  Seriously…that has a lot to do with it! :)
2. WE’RE OUT TO BE DESTROYED – Not to be Debbie Downer here, but John 10:10 says that the enemy is ONLY out to steal, kill and destroy us.  That’s his only mission – to take down the light and hope of the world.  I really think that we don’t take this seriously enough and little by little, he wins.  If we’re not able to love ourselves the way God intended, we can’t love others the way God intended.  Physically, we’re in our worst shape ever…emotionally, it’s so easy to escape when we’re under pressure…relationally, we isolate because we’re afraid…and spiritually, it’s hard to just spend time resting in God’s sovereignty. The stats don’t lie. The average pastor is more unhealthy than the average American and it’s the younger pastors that are doing the worst.  We’re falling apart and we’re falling apart alone. It’s happened to me and it’s happened to so many of my friends.  I’ve read literally thousands of emails of people sharing their stories of burnout with me.  Mad Church Disease truly an epidemic!
3. WE DON’T TALK ABOUT IT! – Generally speaking, most people in ministry feel like they have to exhibit a professional spiritual front….we pretend we have it all together when in reality, we’re keeping quiet about the areas we’re struggling in.  We feel like we have to have it all together in order to lead, and if we were really honest and maybe even confessed something, we’d lose our jobs or be removed from our positions of leadership.  By keeping our junk inside, we’re operating in our own strength (not to mention we’re sinning!) and we disconnect from our relationship with Christ.  That relationship is necessary to fulfill His purpose in our life (John 15:5).   It’s my hope that this book will challenge people to have conversations they wouldn’t normally have and in the process, get healthy and set examples for others to be healthy.
4. BUT THERE’S HOPE – Personally, I hit rock bottom in 2005.  I was so stressed out I ended up hospitalized for a week because my abdominal cavity was inflamed.  They couldn’t find one thing causing it though, but stress.  I was so depressed and anxious there were times I couldn’t leave my own bed.  I had pushed my friends and husband away and was losing faith in God.  I finally gave up and got help.  And three years later, after a LOT of counseling, some medication, and intentionally surrounding myself with people who love me (and come after me if I try and run!) I have experienced the hope and the joy that comes with living out God’s purpose in your life.  I am not perfect, I screw up and I’ve been close to burning out a few times…but in the end, I’ve learned about what God intends for sacrifice…and rest…and purpose…and I just feel honored to have this opportunity to share what God’s done through my failure.  It actually takes getting off your arse and doing something though…there’s no magic pill.  But hopefully this book will inspire people to start talking about this…and ultimately, to be healthy enough to love God…and love others!