Every church, regardless of size, is a tribal church, and church leaders must know who those tribes are and how to relate to them, according to Steve Stroope and Kurt Bruner in their book Tribal Church: Lead Small. Impact Big. The book goes on to discuss many different types of tribes including family tribes, life group tribes, leadership tribes, elder tribes, generation tribes, campus tribes and the unreached tribe.

Woven amongst the discussion of tribes are glimpses of the remarkable story of the growth and ministries of Lake Pointe Church since its start in 1979. Lake Pointe has grown to be a very big church, but the book is not about aspiring to be big; it is about being faithful to your present opportunities to minister to the tribe or tribes that make up your church. Lake Pointe has multiple campuses, but all are reasonably close, with the purpose of encouraging those who were already coming to Lake Pointe to be salt and light in their local community.

The family tribe is an important focus of the book, both with regard to the church leader’s own family and the families in the church. The family is regarded as God’s primary vehicle for spiritual formation, and Lake Pointe provides a number of family resources and runs frequent church-wide campaigns encouraging families to take responsibility for their children’s spiritual formation such as by praying together at least 5 times per week.

There is always something to be learned from looking at how another church approaches ministry. Lake Pointe has clearly been influenced by others such as Saddleback and Willow Creek, but it has its own distinctive culture and practices. Most large churches experience some difficulties in trying to give attenders the “small church” experience as well as the “big church”, and it seems to me that there is much to learn from the tribal approach advocated by the authors.

There are things you can do to help you succeed even in challenging times, and they are in fact the same things that you should do regardless of whether conditions are good or bad, according to Mark Sanborn in his book Up, Down or Sideways: How to Succeed when Times are Good, Bad or in Between. My full review of the book is available at my business blog.

The primary reason why we struggle so deeply to be transformed into the character of Christ is likely because so often, instead of living with humility and vulnerability, we are busy chasing power and prestige, according to Chris Seay in his book A Place at the Table: 40 Days of Solidarity with the Poor. The book invites the reader on a 40-day journey to rediscover what the Bible says about food, life, love and grace, and to connect with the poor.

After some introductory chapters on sharing, gratitude, fasting and feasting, the book provides daily readings with meditations for 40 “fast” days interspersed with 7 “feast” days. Each of the 40 fast days also includes a brief description of a person living in poverty, usually associated with a Compassion project or a Living Water International project. Many of the daily readings are from Exodus, giving the reader plenty of opportunity to consider the Israelites’ reliance on God for their daily food.

The Bible version used for the readings is The Voice translation, a project of “a collection of creatives and scholars” with the aim of providing a translation which is both accurate in meaning and “beautiful in its telling”. The translation is a fresh one, with some interesting insights, although I found that it took some time to get used to God being called The Eternal One, sometimes shortened to Eternal.

Many people will find this to be a very useful resource to use during Lent. I personally found many of the reflections quite moving, and the constant daily reminders of the situations of people living in poverty helped to put the contemplations about fasting into context.

In many ways, Kenya has been quite disconnected from the financial crisis affecting the US and Europe. Kenya did not have substantial investments in the sub-prime mortgage markets that brought about the crisis in the US, and Kenya has not experienced a run on its banks or economic instability arising from the severe difficulties experienced by nations such as Greece when attempting to refinance excessive levels of debt.

However, the world’s economic systems are all interconnected, and a significant event which affects one country will inevitably have a flow-on effect to other countries. Thus the current economic problems in Europe will continue to have a substantial effect on Kenya’s economy this year. Kenya’s exports are weak, and overly reliant on European markets for tea, tourism and horticulture. The country is uncompetitive in manufacturing, largely due to poor transport infrastructure.

If, as many are predicting, Europe’s economic prospects continue to deteriorate during this year, Kenya’s key exports are likely to suffer accordingly. Although Kenya was able to cope with the first wave of the global economic crisis in 2009, its public debt has increased substantially in the interim, and its inflation rate has increased to around 19%, leaving the country vulnerable to further financial storms.

Kenya’s GDP growth over the next few years is forecast to be lower than that of other East African economies, largely because of increasing public expenditure as the new devolved style of government required by the new Kenyan Constitution is implemented. The country’s public debt has already risen sharply in the past year, and the country cannot continue indefinitely to spend more than it earns in revenue.

In an effort to increase the country’s revenue, the government is currently planning an overhaul of the value-added tax system. According to one estimate, loopholes and collection problems with the current VAT system cost the country more than $1 billion per year in lost revenue. Recent external shocks and strong domestic demand have contributed to a high inflation rate, with resulting increases in the current account deficit and depreciation of the Kenyan Shilling.

Kenya’s inflation rate is currently hovering around 19%, after recently reaching a high of 19.72%. Sharp drops in the value of the Kenyan Shilling last year led the Central Bank of Kenya to tighten monetary policy by increasing the official interest rate. This had the effect of curbing credit growth and stabilising the currency exchange rate. However, there are still challenging economic times ahead.

Islamist militants struck again in Northern Nigeria, killing more than 160 people in bomb attacks in the city of Kano last Friday. The attack by the Boko Haram terrorists consisted of a series of bomb explosions  which destroyed police buildings, passport offices and immigration centres around the city. Kano is home to some 9 million people, most of whom are Muslims, and most of the victims in the latest attacks were Muslims.

The bombings appear to have partly had the purpose of freeing some Boko Haram terrorists from jail. The group had warned that it would strike if its imprisoned members were not freed. The scale of the attacks indicate that large numbers of people are involved, and there is a high degree of organisation and co-ordination. The sophisticated nature of the operations gives credence to rumours that Boko Haram operatives have received training from Al Shabaab.

It is widely believed that some members of Nigeria’s security forces are sympathetic to Boko Haram and providing covert assistance to the group. Key Boko Haram prisoners have been mysteriously released from prison. It is hard to tell how extensive the support for the group is, given that many of the victims have been Muslims and many prominent Muslim leaders have spoken out against the terrorist acts; however it is obvious that Boko Haram has a substantial supporter base.

On this day 41 years ago, the first Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which was held in Singapore under the chairmanship of Lee Kuan Yew, had just concluded. Milton Obote, the president of Uganda, was preparing to return home, and contemplating ways of getting rid of Idi Amin, the commander of Uganda’s army, who was making a nuisance of himself and misappropriating army funds. Meanwhile, Amin was contemplating ways of getting rid of Obote.

On the night of 24 January 1971 and the early morning of 25 January, Ugandan military vehicles rolled into the streets of Kampala, blocking major roads and surrounding Obote’s residence and Entebbe Airport. Early in the morning Radio Uganda broadcast the announcement that Obote’s corrupt government had been deposed, and Idi Amin would be leading a military government until new elections could be held.

There was cheering in the streets after the radio announcement, but the rejoicing was short-lived. One week later, Amin declared himself President, and his rule proved to be even more repressive and arbitrary than that of Obote. Hundreds of thousands of people were tortured and executed, all Asians were expelled from the country, and Uganda suffered a self-inflicted economic collapse.

It is easy to use words to build someone up, but it is even easier to use words to tear someone else down, particularly someone who is not present to offer a defence. Social media can be used to encourage others, but often the instant and seemingly private way of posting comments makes it very easy to launch a public attack on someone else. The third chapter of the letter of James describes the dangers of the tongue, which could equally apply to the keyboard:

The tongue is small, but makes great boasts. A little fire sets a large forest ablaze. The tongue is a fire, a world of evil amongst our other body parts, contaminating the whole body, and setting on fire the course of a person’s life with flames from hell. All types of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures can be tamed and have been tamed by humans, but no human is able to tame the tongue. It is an unpredictable evil, full of deadly poison. We use it to bless our God and Father, and we use it to curse people who have been made in the image of God. Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. Friends, it should not be like this.

What is it that possesses us to make us say unkind thing to or about others? As James says later in the chapter, jealousy and selfishness are key parts of the problem. We seek to assert our own self-importance by tearing someone else down. The remedy is to seek wisdom from above, which is pure, conciliatory, kind, obedient, full of mercy, unprejudiced and genuine.

Trust is a stabilizing force in our lives; when you present yourself as trustworthy, you diminish the negative effects of uncertainty; by being trustworthy, you help people open their minds and share their ideas, according to Amy Lyman in her book The Trustworthy Leader: Leveraging the Power of Trust to Transform Your Organization. The author was co-founder of the Great Place to Work Institute, which surveys the quality of relationships between employees and their leaders, and much of the content of the book is based on interviews with leaders from organizations identified as high-trust workplaces.

Three key characteristics found in trustworthy leaders are credibility, respect and fairness. According to the author, such leaders consistently follow a pattern which she calls the Virtuous Circle of Trustworthy Leadership, which has the following six elements:

• Honour: Trustworthy leaders feel honoured for being asked to lead, and acknowledge the responsibility that comes with it
• Inclusion: Trustworthy leaders are inclusive towards everyone in the organization’s community
• Value and engage followers: Trustworthy leaders connect with followers as people, learn from them and support their contributions
• Sharing information: Trustworthy leaders give employees access to useful information and invite them into the discussion
• Developing others: Trustworthy leaders help employees to learn, grow, and discover their talents
• Movement through uncertainty to pursue opportunities: Trustworthy leaders have the support of employees in trying novel approaches and finding the best way forward

Although the author has made no ground-breaking discoveries, the book does provide an interesting new perspective on the key factors which contribute to trustworthiness in leaders, and makes a strong case for the proposition that a good leader is a virtuous one. I did not find the book to be as engrossing as some other business books, but it does provide helpful insights for those who have leadership roles.

All mistakes are not created equal; it is possible to design for brilliant mistakes – those that accelerate learning and lead to breakthrough innovation – and to avoid tragic ones, according to Paul Schoemaker in his book Brilliant Mistakes: Finding Success on the Far Side of Failure. My full review of the book is available at my business blog.