A couple weeks ago I downloaded a copy of Gordon MacDonald’s A Resilient Life: You Can Move Ahead No Matter What.  This morning I was trying to remember how I heard about it.  Was it mentioned in an article?  Did I hear someone talk about it?  Honestly…I haven’t been able to recall how I heard about it.  But I do know what prompted me to download it once I heard about it.

I downloaded a copy because one of my core convictions is that whatever I want to happen at the member level in our small groups…has to be experienced by small group leaders first.  And it just follows that in  order for small group leaders (and coaches) to be able to pass anything of significance on to their members…I will need to set the pace.  In a very real sense I will need to be able to say, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 11:1 NIV

Like everything I’ve ever read of Gordon MacDonald’s, A Resilient Life is very readable.  Might even be called an easy read.  Certainly not a difficult read, but be careful that you don’t fly through it.  Take the time to re-read passages, making sure you’ve truly digested what is there.  Packed with great insights, powerful questions, and quotable lines, you’ll get so much more out of it if you’ll take the time to really consider what it is there.

I loved many of the chapters and my digital copy is full of highlights, notes, and bookmarks.  No doubt I’ll be referring to many of these principles as I spend time with the coaches and leaders in my ministry.  If you’re looking for some great stuff to chew on, I suggest you pick up a copy (or download one) of A Resilient Life.  So good.  You won’t be sorry.

I’ve been working my way through The Art of Neighboring: Building Genuine Relationships Right Outside Your Door.  Written by Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon, The Art of Neighboring was prompted by a joint church movement developed in Denver in response to a comment made by Arvada, Colorado mayor Bob Frie.  When asked, “How can we as churches best work together to serve the city?” Frie said,

“The majority of the issues that our city is facing would be eliminated or drastically reduced if we could just figure out a way to become a community of great neighbors.”

Can you imagine being in that meeting?  What would you have said in response to the mayor?  It must have been quite a moment when after the mayor left, Pathak blurted out, “Am I the only one here who is a little embarrassed?  I mean, here we are asking the mayor how we can best serve the city, and he basically tells us that it would be great if we could just get our people to obey the second half of the Great Commandment.”

What was born of that comment was a very intentional effort that impacted a city.  Seriously…what a concept!

The Art of Neighboring is an easy read and at the same time very inspiring.  Packed with stories and great application of scripture, you’ll also find plenty of practical ideas and the learnings that underpin what could be a movement in your city too.

A study guide is included in the book, making The Art of Neighboring a resource that could be used by groups looking for ways to serve together. Each chapter of the book is supported with an accompanying set of study questions.

I have to tell you…I love The Art of Neighboring and the idea of a community of great neighbors!  I want to encourage you to check it out.  And don’t miss the website: www.artofneighboring.com.  Very good stuff and just might impact your city!

Tripped across an interesting new book by Daniel Montgomery and Mike Cosper that I think you’re going to want to know about.  Faithmapping: A Gospel Atlas for Your Spiritual Journey takes the fragments of Christian life that most of see in isolation (missions, discipleship, worship, the cross, or the kingdom) and assembles them into “a beautiful, coherent picture.”

Not strangers to the missional movement, Montgomery and Cosper bring an experienced eye to the issues that confront all of us who want to help our own congregations navigate the ancient paths “that saints have followed for a long, long time.”  Two of the founding pastors of Sojourn Community Church, a fast-growing multi-site church in Louisville, Kentucky, Faithmapping is their “attempt to lay out the lessons [they've] learned as [they've] tried, failed and fallen in love with the gospel (p. 20).”

Faithmapping is organized by the framework of whole gospel, whole church and whole world.

Beginning with a look at the whole gospel, I think one of the many helpful concepts in Faithmapping is the integration of three central aspects of the gospel.  The gospel of the kingdom argues that the gospel is a kingdom announcement; the authors explore what the kingdom of God is and what the other competing kingdoms are.  The gospel of the cross makes the case that the gospel is “the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection–all that He did to pay the penalty for our sins.”  And the gospel of grace explains that the gospel is a gift of grace, “something that God accomplishes for us, entirely of His own strength and power, not because we earned or deserved anything.”

Continuing with the whole church, Faithmapping “unpacks the movements of transformation: how the gospel changes us from inside out and how that is different from the way the world understands religion and change.”  Explaining out our identities as worshipers, family, servants, disciples, and witnesses, this section illustrates how each is a road through the landscape of the gospel.

Concluding with the whole world, Faithmapping points us to a new dynamic.  ”The gospel is an announcement that forms a people–the church–and those people live out their new identities in the world around them, pointing people back to the gospel message that changed and saved them (p. 196).”

Practical application: I think my favorite aspect of Faithmapping is the way every chapter ends with a short look at application.  Asking three questions, Map It provides a way of integrating what I’m learning in the book to the rest of my life.  Here are the questions:

• Who am I?
• Where am I?
• What am I to do?

Faithmapping is both readable and important.  Likening it to the way John Ortberg referred to his The Life You’ve Always Wanted as Dallas (Willard) for Dummies, the authors refer to Faithmapping as Keller for Dummies.   I’d say they’re on the right track.  I found myself again and again marking a paragraph and noting that I need to come back to that.  There’s a ton of very good stuff in Faithmapping.

Had a chance last week to preview Tony Morgan’s Stuck in a Funk: How to Get Your Church Moving Forward.    One of the most strategic thinkers I know, Tony started blogging at TonyMorganLive in April, 2005 (about two months before I launched StrategyCentral).  He’s been turning out one great concept after another ever since.

Stuck in a Funk? is more than his latest great concept.  Packed with key insights into the funk that has churches stuck, this book takes it far beyond diagnosis. My copy is now full of bookmarks and notes highlighting exercises and whiteboard discussions we’ll be having soon.

The four parts of Stuck in a Funk? focus on (1) why churches are stuck, (2) the out-of-date and out-of-touch environments, systems or tactics that underpin the stuckness, (3) the leadership changes that may be long overdue, and (4) the messages that are being conveyed Monday through Saturday. Leveraging the metaphor of a dated leisure suit, Morgan makes the point that while “the leisure suit went the way of the pet rock and the cassette player” and “disappeared because better ideas came along,” many churches are stuck in a time warp, still using systems and tactics that no longer fit the context.

While there’s great value in reading this book, the real potential is to read it with your leadership team. Making Stuck in a Funk? even more practical for teams are the Key Ideas and Discussion Questions that follow the conclusion of the book. Great stuff, this is a great resource for leaders who are ready to get out of a funk. I loved it and I think you will too!

Had a chance this weekend to devour The Church in an Age of Crisis; the newest book from James Emery White.  White, the founder and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, is the former president of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and the blogger behind the Church & Culture blog (a must-read for anyone interested in life at crowd’s edge).

The Church in an Age of Crisis: 25 New Realities Facing Christianity is a fascinating, gut-wrenching, and terrifying read.  Anything but a page-turner…but only because every other paragraph contains a wait…what?  Can that be true? moment.  Definitely in the category of The Next Christians as essential reading for anyone attempting ministry in the 21st century.

I was both rocked and intrigued by what I discovered in this book.  Rocked at the thought of how different life is for the Church in 21st century western culture.  Intrigued (and challenged) by the thoughts of what it will take to change the trajectory.  I have no doubt that you will all feel the same way.

As the subtitle declares, The Church in an Age of Crisis dives into 25 new realities facing Christianity.  Ranging from issues of faith and mindset, to marriage and family, and then on to media, technology and mission…the book is literally packed with cultural references that will both leave you scratching your head, wondering how did this happen, and shaking your head, thinking how can we change course?

Setting the tone for the whole book is White’s brief acknowledgement of the enigmatic biblical references to the “men of Issachar,” who “understood the signs of the times and knew the best course for Israel to take.”  Friends, we must be like the men of Issachar.  We must understand the times and the best course to take.  If you want to play a part in a trajectory change…The Church in an Age of Crisis is a must read.

Spent some time with Mud and the Masterpiece this week.  John Burke’s latest, it is a masterpiece itself and immediately joins the required reading list for anyone who wants to reach people at crowd’s edge.

(Be sure and see the special offer at the end of my review!)

Burke, the founding pastor of Austin’s Gateway Church, is the author of two previous books; No Perfect People Allowed: Creating a Come-as-You-Are Culture in the Church and  Soul Revolution: How Imperfect People Become All God Intended.  If you’re sensing a trend, your eyes don’t deceive you.  With 16 years as the lead pastor of one of the very best examples of how to reach people in a post-modern, post-Christian culture, Burke is both passionate about the mission and a very compelling story-teller.

Mud and the Masterpiece: Seeing Yourself Through the Eyes of Jesus is a rare book.  Both inspiring and convicting, I found myself thinking that’s how it should be and why don’t I live that way again and again.  Packed with stories of real-life heartbreak, brokenness and transformation, it’s thickly laced with Jesus’ own interactions with people in the Gospels.

In chapter one, Burke references the story Jesus tells in Luke 15 about the return of the prodigal son and the way the father in the story treats his son.  Comparing it to the story of the discovery of a rare Rembrandt masterpiece, torn and muddied in a dumpster, he asks, “How would you treat this painting?  Would you treat it like trash?  It’s covered in mud, stained and torn–is it worthless?  Do you treat it like it’s worthless?  Or do you treat it like it’s a million-dollar masterpiece that needs to be handled with care and restored?”

And that’s the question that drives the book.  Can you “see past the mud and even the damage to recognize the immense value of this one-of-a-kind work of art?”  Taking his cue from “the life and interactions of Jesus with sin-stained and muddied people,” Burke challenges all of us to a transformational perspective.  What if we saw people through the eyes of Jesus?

Along with a careful examination of Jesus’ interactions with people is the reminder that the Pharisees focused on the mud and not the masterpiece.  Burke makes a very compelling case that the reason people are drawn to Jesus but not His followers is that “many Christians are NOT like Jesus–we don’t really see what Jesus sees in other people.  We don’t really feel the way Jesus felt toward people straying far from God, living messy lives.”

More than a look at how Jesus interacted with people, Mud and the Masterpiece is a look at how we can go on mission with Jesus.  Part two of the book looks at the actions of Jesus and illustrates very well how “we can be part of something that impacts the world around us.”  Further, every chapter ends with a question for reflection and an action step to try.  Perfect for individual or group use.

I love this book!  Along with No Perfect People Allowed, Mud and the Masterpiece immediately takes its place on my recommended list for anyone trying to live a life or build a ministry that reaches people far from God at crowd’s edge.  I highly recommend it!

Take advantage of this offer and help a special project

Purchase the book during launch week (February 1 – 8) and you’ll receive a number of bonuses while helping a great cause.

Here’s how to receive $55 worth of bonuses for purchasing.

There are books that steer toward a specific system.  In the first post in this series I provided a list of the books I consider required reading for the development of grouplife systems.  There are also books that do a great job of illustrating how to build a grouplife culture.  Here are four of my favorites:

A must-read in my opinion is Heather Zempel’s Community Is Messy.  A talented speaker and writer, Zempel delivered one of the most memorable talks ever at Willow Creek’s grouplife conference.  With a title like Community Is Messy: The Perils and Promise of Small Group Ministry, you just know it’s going to be a great read!

Zempel’s background as an environmental engineer provides some of the best illustrations I’ve come across to describe the messiness of the thing we call community.  If you’ve never heard her story about monitoring a pig lagoon (the treatment facility where “the pig poop” is gathered) to figure out how to reduce the stink…you’ve got to read this one.  Topping that one might seem a challenge until you come across her story about the development of an aquaponics system that featured tomato plants growing on top of a tilapia fish tank.  A fantastically successful experiment with massive unintended consequences.

The best part about Community Is Messy?  It goes way beyond a great collection of metaphor and ministry stories.  Deeply biblical, these pages are packed with scripture references and classic Bible stories that will definitely find their way into your leadership toolkit.  Every chapter is packed with principles and practices that will make their way into your thinking.  You can read the rest of my review right here.

If you only read one book this year, hands down it’s got to be Andy Stanley’s newest, Deep and Wide: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend.

My copy is marked up, underlined, starred, and dog-eared.  I laughed out loud (Seriously. And I was on a plane!).  I got choked up several times.  There’s a lot to really love aboutDeep and Wide.  In particular, I got a ton out of the section on the importance of the five faith catalysts and how North Point has designed their approach to make experiencing them more likely.

Very, very practical, you’ll find lots of ways to apply the principles of Deep and Wide no matter your specific ministry role.  You don’t have to be the senior pastor to end up with a marked up, starred, underlined and dog-eared copy.  I found so much here that will work its way into discussions with my team, I don’t even know where to begin!

At the same time both propositional (doesn’t this make sense?) and permission-giving (we’re not saying this is the only way to do church, it’s just the way we’ve learned to do it), I know you’ll come across lots of sections you’ll just have to share with the rest of your staff.  You can read my review right here.

Looking for help in designing an environment that encourages authentic, lasting connections?  Organic Community by Joseph R. Myers could be just the ticket to help your congregation move in that direction.  In the same way I found Myers’ previous book, The Search to Belong, both intriguing and irritating, there’s a lot to be learned in his newest offering.

If you’ve ever attempted to follow someone else’s master plan and found that it really didn’t work in your setting, this will be a book that is both comforting and challenging.  Comforting in that it may explain some of the difficulties in porting a strategy into a new setting.  Challenging in that becoming an organizational environmentalist is not a problem-free pursuit.  Read my complete review right here.

One of the most challenging new books on small group ministry? In my mind it is Community: Taking Your Small Group Off Life Support by Mars Hill’s Brad House.

Published by Crossway, this is not your run-of-the-mill book on groups.  Although the subtitle suggests that this is a book for small group leaders, it’s really a very thought-provoking read, focused almost entirely on guiding small group ministry point people toward the reframing of their entire ministry.

Almost immediately you will find in this book something different; something very unusual.  There is a thoughtful and thought-provoking quality to the writing.  It’s not light reading.  Instead, Community is the kind of book that you’ll find yourself re-reading, just to be sure you’ve caught the full meaning.  And…if your copy is like mine, it’ll be pretty marked up.  There’s a lot here.

If you’re looking for practical, hands-on tips and ideas about how to do small group ministry…this is not it.  At the same time, if you want to be sure you’re wrestling with the questions and formative thinking essential to building a quality small group ministry…Community has made my list as required reading.

Building a small group ministry?  The first set of books that I think of as required reading fall in the category of systems.  These 7 books provide an overview of what I view as the major systems in use right now.

I have my system of preference.  You will too.  My preferred system has problems.  Yours will too.  Remember, there is no problem-free.  Wise leaders simply choose the set of problems they’d rather have.I’ve included all of them because I believe we can learn from all of them.

Looking for real help in designing and building a dynamic small group ministry?  I just finished looking over a new book that I think you’re going to want to see.  Building a Life-Changing Small Group Ministry is an important addition to the collection of resources produced by Bill Donahue and his team of former Willow Creek compadres…and it is very good.

In my mind there are several things to love about Building a Life-Changing Small Group Ministry.  First, it begins and ends with some very good instruction on the possibility of change…

You can read the rest of my review right here.

I’ve said this a number of times, but I want to be sure and say this again.  Steve Gladen is a couple of things.  First, he’s one of the smartest GroupLife guys on the planet.  He’s also one of the most helpful small group experts on the planet.

Steve’s new book, Small Groups with Purpose: How to Create Healthy Communities is a perfect example of his brilliance and his extreme helpfulness.  Even better?  It is a great book, absolutely packed with wisdom and insight.  You’ll have trouble finding a chapter that doesn’t get extremely marked up, underlined, starred, and dogeared for future reference.

Read the rest of my review right here.

Looking for a way to think about how to design your small group ministry?  That might be the most helpful thing about Creating Community: Five Keys to Building a Small Group Culture.  Although it’s a short book (190 pages), it contains some very important keys to building a small group culture in your church.  Most important?  North Point’s fundamental bias is to be intentional about the what and the how of everything they do.  This is a huge lesson for the rest of us…one not to be missed.

Like the 7 Practices of Effective Ministry, Creating Community takes you sequentially through the process of making some challenging decisions as you begin to develop a small group ministry. Learning to ask three questions can provide a good foundation…

Read the rest of my review right here.

Looking for a soup-to-nuts primer on small group ministry?  For most churches,  Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups by Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas will neatly fill that need.  Unless yours is a large church (average adult attendance of more than 1,000), this will be a resource that will fill in a lot of blanks.

Covering the Journey Church methodology very thoroughly in 223 pages, Activate guides you from philosophy to implementation in a semester based approach.  Is it an “entirely new approach to small groups?”  No.  Does that make it any less valuable?  No again.  Incorporating concepts from a variety of sources, the Journey approach is a neatly designed system that will work in most churches.

Read the rest of my review right here.

Interested in developing sermon-based small groups?  Sticky Church by Larry Osborne is packed with helpful insights.

In addition to providing the nuts and bolts of how it works, Sticky Church carefully explains the underlying assumptions and principles North Coast has used to develop their sermon-based small group strategy. Finally, you’ll also find an appendix that is full of the forms, job descriptions and covenants you’ll need to begin to implement the concept.

Is the strategy for everyone? No. Is it designed to do it all? No, but no approach is.

Read the rest of my review right here.

When Carl George published Prepare Your Church for the Future in 1991 it was not the first book on small group ministry.  In fact, at the time it came out there were already many books on the idea of gathering in community with a few others…for Bible study or prayer or accountability or care.  If you’ve been around for a while, or have access to the library of someone who’s been around for a while, you’ve seen other books that predate George’s entry into the small group foray.  But you really won’t find many others that have been as influential.

The concept of the metachurch finds its roots in Prepare Your Church for the Future.  At the time of its writing it meant the next step beyond mega, but not in the sense of size.  More in the sense of organization.

Read the rest of my review right here.

Missional Communities are at the epicenter of one of the most important current trends in grouplife and the work of Mike Breen and 3DM is at the heart of it.

In my recent 5 part interview with Breen, he mentioned Launching Missional Communities: a field guide (co-written with Alex Absalom).   I’ve had a chance to carefully examine a review copy.  Here’s what I found:
First, Launching Missional Communities is truly a field guide…

You can read the rest of my review right here.

Stuck in the humdrum, wake up, get through the day, go to sleep, and repeat tomorrow world?  Looking for a way to reawaken the childlike amazement you had the first time you found God’s fingerprints on something?

I finally had a chance to take a look at Wonderstruck (the latest from Margaret Feinberg) this week.  I’d seen a few signs that there was a new book and ever since reading Organic God…couldn’t wait to see what’s next.  Trust me, I was not disappointed.  Wonderstruck is everything anticipated!

A popular speaker at conferences like Catalyst, RightNow, and Thrive, Margaret Feinberg was recently named one of the 30 Voices who will help lead the church in the next decade by Charisma magazine and one of the ’40 Under 40’ who will shape Christian publishing byChristian Retailing magazine.

Classic Feinberg, Wonderstruck is a very personal collection of the incidents, events and happenings that reawakened her to the kind of life God wants everyone to have.  The abundant life.  The “life that is truly life.”  If you’ve ever heard her speak, you’ll have no trouble hearing her tell these stories.  If you’ve never heard her, I’ve included a short clip below of her describing an experience that ended up embedded in her book Scouting the Divine.

If you’re looking for a book that will take you back to the wonder of God, I think you’ll find it in Wonderstruck.  I’m pretty sure you’ll be captivated by the stories and pulled into God’s word just like I was.  And I loved the inclusion of a 30 day experience at the end of the book.  I can definitely see this book ending up being on a lot of recommended lists!

Follow Margaret’s snarky, funny, and inspirational posts on Twitter [www.twitter.com/mafeinberg], Facebook [www.facebook.com/margaretfeinberg], or her blog [www.margaretfeinberg.com]. You can learn more about Wonderstruck by visiting www.margaretfeinberg.com/wonderstruck where she’s offering some crazy promos right now with up to $300 of free stuff.

Can’t see the video?  Click here to watch it.

Do you have your Christmas wish list together?  Here are my five recommendations for 2012:

If anything is a must-read…Deep & Wide absolutely fills the bill.  This is Andy Stanley’s explanation of the vision, the values, and the strategy that underpins North Point.

My copy is marked up, underlined, starred, and dog-eared.  I laughed out loud (Seriously. And I was on a plane!).  I got choked up several times.  There’s a lot to really love about Deep and Wide.

Let me be quick to say that you don’t have to be in a church that resonates with Andy Stanley and North Point’s vision.  You really don’t.  The book is written in a way that invites you to take a look under their hood and see the thinking behind why they do what they do.  Even better, there are many spots where Stanley references the internal conversation you might be having as you wrestle with their thinking!  So good.

You can read my full review right here.  I’m calling this an essential read and I’ll think it’ll be obvious why in the first few pages.

Patrick Lencioni’s newest book, The Advantage, is another must-read.  Lencioni, the author of a growing list of best-selling business and leadership books (including three of my previous recommendations: The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, Death by Meeting, and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team), is back with another winner.

The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business is different than Lencioni’s other books in that it isn’t a fable.  Instead, it draws on many of the principles from his other books to guide the reader through the process of developing organizational health.

Lencioni argues that the difference between a winning organization and an also-ran isn’t superior strategy, faster innovation, or smarter employees.  Instead, success is driven by organizational health.  ”Businesses that are whole, consistent, and complete, with complementary management, operations, strategy, and culture” are the ones that succeed.

Way beyond explaining the underlying ingredients to organizational health, The Advantage is packed with practical ideas, tips and practices that can be integrated into your team or your organization.  So good.  I highly recommend it!

One of my favorite reads this year was Heather Zempel’s, Community is Messy.  A talented writer and speaker, Zempel is the Discipleship Pastor at National Community Church in Washington D.C.

Embedded throughout the book is an inside look at National Community Church, one of the most fascinating churches in America in my opinion.    Operating in the challenging environment of Washington D.C., with “a demographic that consists primarily of single twenty-somethings,” NCC has had to find its way with commitment and experimentation.

The best part about Community Is Messy?  It goes way beyond a great collection of metaphor and ministry stories.  Deeply biblical, these pages are packed with scripture references and classic Bible stories that will definitely find their way into your leadership toolkit.  Every chapter is packed with principles and practices that will make their way into your thinking.

You may not agree with every conclusion.  No matter.  Your thinking will be challenged and your ministry will be strengthened.  I loved Community Is Messy and I bet you will too.

One of the very best leadership books I read this year was Jim Collins’ Great by Choice.  Although I didn’t write an individual review of it, I cited it many times in posts both here and StrategyCentral.

In some ways the continuation of Collins’ exceptional work in Good to Great, the key question in Great by Choice is how do some companies flourish unpredictable, tumultuous, and fast-moving times?  If you’re leading ministry in the 21st century, you can see right away that there might be some direct application for you!

There are a number of very applicable practices that will make an immediate difference in how you look at what you’re doing.  They’ll also make a difference in how you’re doing what you’re doing.  For example, once you really understand the concept of a SMaC recipe, you’ll probably begin developing your own right away.  Too good to leave on the shelf.

I loved Great by Choice and I think you will too.  More importantly, there are some insights here that you won’t want to miss.  I’ve already adopted some of Collins’ ideas.  I bet you’ll do the same.

One of the most immediately practical books I read this year was Peter Bregman’s, 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction and Get the Right Things Done.  Like Making Ideas Happen and The Accidental Creative (both super reads), 18 Minutes is a productivity book…with a very interesting slant.

At its essence, 18 Minutes offers a way to keep your focus on the things that matter most, fight off distractions, and get the best things done (if that sounds like a reworked title…it’s because the title is spot on).

The 6 Box Planning Tool is worth much more than the price of the book.  If you implement that one idea, you’ll have a much more productive 2013.  I loved 18 Minutes.  More importantly, I got a ton of great ideas and insights into a more productive and creative process.  I highly recommend it!