As a leader, I am always hearing about new books that come out. Because I love to read, I buy many of them and try to glean as much as I can from them. But here’s what always seemed to happen to me: I would get on a kick to read a certain author, genre, or subject and it wiped me out. When we were in our first 18 months at CCML, I read every book I could find on church planting, church growth, and ministry paradigms. I felt this was the only responsible thing to do, so I could be the most informed person possible about what I was in the process of doing. The next year was nothing but leadership books. I think I read 3 John Maxwell books back to back to back besides all the other standard leadership texts. Now we’re 4 1/2 years into this experiment called CCML and I’m mixing up my reading. I can’t tell you how much healthier I feel (losing 60 pounds has also helped). So as of late, I have been challenged spiritually by “The Barbarian Way” by Erwin McManus. “The Likeability Factor” by Tim Sanders has helped me a great deal relationally. “Jewish Sources in Early Christianity” has pushed me theologically, and “Simply Strategic Volunteers” is helping me ministerially. The point is, now that I’m mixing up the kinds of books that I’m reading I am enjoying the books more and I feel I’m getting more out of them. I’ve even started reading books that have nothing to do with church or the Bible from time to time, just to clear my head and let all the ideas being introduced settle for a while. So I’ve read a couple of books on baseball just to keep it real. The point is: as a leader you must read, but mix it up because everyone likes pizza but no one wants to eat it every night.