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Everything a church leader needs to know about vision

If we’re not intentional about the vision, we will lose it. We will end up going somewhere we don’t want to go and becoming something we don’t want to become, according to Shawn Lovejoy in his book Be Mean About the Vision: Preserving and Protecting What Matters. On the other hand, maintaining the vision over time leads to success. Everyone starts out with a vision, but few finish with one. This book aims to describe how to finish with vision.

The book describes the importance of vision for Christian ministry, and church leadership in particular. Aspects of vision discussed include:

  • How to have a holy wrestling match to discover your God-given vision
  • How to keep the vision alive in yourself and in others
  • How to identify a vision hijacker and keep the vision from being hijacked
  • How to get things back on track when the vision is not working out
  • How to finish well and release the vision to a new leader gracefully

Many of the author’s concepts will be familiar to those who have previous familiarity with the work of Bill Hybels and Jim Collins, but the book as a whole provides a new perspective on the vision lifecycle of a church leader. I found the advice on finishing well to be particularly helpful, and I would warmly commend this book to any church leader.

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Subversive lessons from Jesus

Christians are tired of being the laughingstock of late-night television; they are also angered by the poor results the church is seeing as it seeks to be a transformative presence in society, according to Neil Cole in his book One Thing: A Revolution to Change the World with Love. This book aims to offer  an alternative that is biblical, effective, subversive, and loving, all at the same time, to Christians who are tired of being characterized by the world as angry people known only for what they are against.

The author compares the Corinthian church, which was infected by immorality, divisions and class distinctions, with the Galatian church, which was well-behaved but a little too legalistic, and argues that Paul was much more strident in condemning the sin of the Galatians than the many sins of the Corinthians. The greater sin is in fact that of attempting to fulfil God’s promise with our own ingenuity and effort, or what the author calls “do-it-yourself spirituality”, something that plagues the church today.

The second half of the book discusses what Jesus said and did about wealth, welfare, women in crisis and worship:

  • Being less that generous is irresponsible and lacks faith.
  • Jesus did not help people who deserved it; instead he gave grace – unmerited favour – to those who did not deserve it.
  • Jesus brought lasting change to the way women were perceived in society.
  • Jesus struck hard at the religion of his day without pause or respect, trampling on their practices and denouncing their leaders.

This is an original and thought-provoking book, which highlights a number of sins and dysfunctions of modern churches and Christianity as it is currently practised. There are enough revolutionary ideas to make any reader uncomfortable.

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Compelling reasons for joining a peer advisory group

Fewer than 1 percent of CEOs participate in CEO peer advisory groups, yet most of the high-performing CEOs who are members of a group say their experience has lifted their organizations and changed their lives beyond measure, according to Leon Shapiro and Leo Bottary in their book The Power of Peers: How the Company You Keep Drives Leadership, Growth and Success. While the CEO’s life can be a lonely one, it does not have to be.

My full review of the book is available at my business book reviews website.

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Stories to inspire risk management

If a fraud occurs, the church will lose more than just money. Donor confidence will rightly be weakened, and they may decide to reallocate their contributions to other organizations. Further, the reputation of the church and its pastor in the local community could be permanently damaged, according to Rollie Dimos in his book Integrity at Stake: Safeguarding Your Church From Financial Fraud.

This short book provides a useful discussion of a subject which most church leaders are reluctant to think about, but which can lead to devastating consequences if not dealt with appropriately. The first section provides a brief discussion of some risks faced by churches and Christian organisations, including risk management, controls, how to recover from an instance of fraud, and tools to reduce the risk of fraud, and the second section provides twelve different cases studies of actual instances of fraud.

The book does provide an appendix on how to perform a fraud risk assessment and another on performing an internal audit, but it is not a comprehensive resource on financial integrity in churches. In my opinion the book will be most useful for its case studies  providing cautionary tales which should inspire church leaders to implement appropriate risk management measures.

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The truth about digital disruption

The processes and incentives that companies use to keep focused on their main customers work so well that they blind those companies to important new technologies in emerging markets, and this leaves established companies vulnerable to new entrants who start by using the new technologies to target the low end of the market and gradually work their way upward to squeeze out incumbents in the profitable part of the market. That is the process of digital disruption for which Clayton Christensen is best known, and which is described in several articles in The Clayton M Christensen Reader.

My full review of the book is available at my business book reviews website.

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Workplace self-defence strategies

While bullying says more about the bully than it does about you, you are the one who has to learn to stand up for yourself, according to Lynne Curry in her book Beating the Workplace Bully: A Tactical Guide to Taking Charge. Those who do not stand up to the bully’s initial attack signal they are easy prey and inadvertently encourage continued bullying. Even if what is happening is not your fault, you are the one who must fix it, because you cannot expect the bully to change.

My full review of the book is available at my business book reviews website.

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A radically different version of economic history

It is important to understand how the US government has repeatedly and intelligently redesigned the economy in the past, because the market does not undergo an intelligent redesign by itself, according to Stephen Cohen and Bradford DeLong in their book Concrete Economics: The Hamilton Approach to Economic Growth and Policy. There are things that matter immensely for an economy that only government can do. If it hesitates, refuses, or botches the job, the problem does not just go away and the economy does not advance as it should.

My full review of the book is available at my business book reviews website.

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Five practices of winning companies

Most companies fail to create a compelling strategy, or if they do have such a strategy they fail to put it into practice; however, a small number of companies naturally combine strategy and execution in everything they do. According to Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi in their bookStrategy That Works: How Winning Companies Close the Strategy-to-Execution Gap, the products and services of these companies have an enviable position in the markets they care about, and the firms reliably deliver on their promises. They each have their own unique way of competing, but they all have one thing in common: their success is clearly related to the distinctive way they do things: their capabilities.

My full review of the book is available at my business book reviews website.

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The spark to ignite God’s vision for your church

Most churches have a generic sense of their vision rather than a clearly defined and contextually crafted vision, according to Will Mancini and Warren Bird in their book God Dreams: 12 Vision Templates for Finding and Focusing Your Church’s Future. In the world of vision, generic is an enemy; specific is your friend. Settling for generic will suck the life out of a church, and the people won’t even know it.

But how exactly do you go about finding God’s specific vision for your church? There are limitless directions in which a church could go, and it seems impossible to know where to start and who should be involved in the process. This book answers these problems by providing clear directions about using your leadership team in the discernment process and how you can use templates to get you started.

Starting with the templates, the discernment team seeks to discover which templates represent both their deepest longing as leaders and the future toward which their people will respond most heroically. The top templates are fused to create a single idea for a long-term vision, which is then focused and sharpened. The most important building blocks for the next 3 years are then identified, followed by the single most important focus for the coming year and the key immediate initiatives required over the next 90 days. What you end up with is a compelling long-term vision and a basic outline of strategies to get there.

In my opinion this is an outstanding book, the most helpful book on church vision that I have read. Most church leaders believe in the importance of painting an attractive vision of the future which motivates people to high levels of generosity and kingdom service, but their efforts so far have not achieved the desired results. This book might provide the spark that sets the compelling vision on fire.

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Techniques for re-framing issues to improve decisions

Left to our well-honed, pattern-seeking tendencies, we will begin paying attention to those parts of our environment that fit our frames. Just as significant, we will ignore or downplay those parts of our environment that do not fit our frame. Not only is our brilliance unquestioned, it is inappropriately reinforced by our search for evidence, according to John Austin in his book Unquestioned Brilliance: Navigating a Fundamental Leadership Trap.

My full review of the book is available at my business book reviews website.