I really enjoyed You, Inc., so I decided to pick up Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith. While I didn’t like the book as much as You, Inc., there were some great nuggets in the book that were very helpful. Here are a few of my favorite quotes: “Ignore your industries benchmarks and copy Disney’s.” (That’s funny and true) “Don’t just think better. Think different.” (What worked in the past won’t necessarily work in the future) “Everyone in your company is responsible for marketing your company.’ (Every person in our church is a representative of CF) “Go where others aren’t.” … Read More

I liked Transforming Leadership by Leighton Ford. It’s a little slow in parts, but if you’re looking for a book on leadership that focuses on the leadership style of Jesus, this is the one. He looks at Jesus’ life through the lens of how Jesus led His disciples and it’s very insightful. Here’s a few of my favorite quotes: “Vision is…the ability to see in a way that compels others to pay attention.” “The true leader is never satisfied to lead his people where they were.” ” Leaders are perpetual learners…learning is the essential fuel for the leader.” “An effective … Read More

I get asked fairly frequently about how I read as much as I do. I’ll read about 60 books this year (which isn’t going to break any records by the way). Here’s a few things that I share about what helps me read: 1. I like to read – if you hate reading, there’s no cure that I know of. I used to not like reading, but I was so hungry to learn, I got over it and dove into books. 2. Bring a book everywhere with you – People have tons of time that get wasted (waiting for someone, … Read More

I didn’t think that a 260 page book about why meetings are boring would be interesting, but I thought Death by Meeting by Patrick Lencioni was really good. I don’t know about you, but my life is full of meetings, some of them productive, others not so much. If you’ve never read a book by Patrick Lencioni, I highly recommend it. The fable he writes gives us a picture of the principles he is writing about. This book deals with the main problems in meetings and gives us 4 types of meetings that should be happening in an organization. Very … Read More

It took me a little while to find the writer’s rhythm, but once I found it I really enjoyed The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership by Steven Sample. As the title suggests, he gives several leadership insights that are quite contrarian to what is considered the prevailing wisdom of today. Some of my favorites: – You are what you read – Thinking gray, rather than black and white – A leader should never make a decision that one of his lieutenants could make – It’s healthy for a leader to be manipulated to some degree by his lieutenants – Never make … Read More

Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath is one of the best books on communication that I’ve ever read. Not because they talked about delivery or style, but because they dealt with the one topic that every communicator thinks about: “Are people remembering what I said 3 days later?” The average person forgets by Wednesday what was preached on Sunday (which doesn’t make me happy). But they offer 6 ways that ideas stick and take root in our minds. The one idea from the book that has stuck with me is “The Curse of Knowledge”. This is where we … Read More

I am a huge fan of Dwight A. Pryor and his ministry. So when I saw that he had written a book, I ordered it immediately. “A Different God?” was on the subject of replacement theology and supersessionism (which probably isn’t the first topic I’d think to read something on). But the book was good. It was only 25 pages (pamphlet sized). But if you’re interested in the subject, I’d recommend the book to you. If you’ve never been to Dwight’s website, here’s the link. He’s a brilliant thinker and theologian. I have ordered tons of his stuff and I … Read More

You, Inc. by Harry and Christine Beckwith was recommended to me and I was a little put off by the title. But by page 2 I was hooked. It’s about 320 pages of practical wisdom in work ethic, managing time, communication, making a good impression, going the extra mile for people, goal setting, appearance, being thankful, and a ton of other stuff. The chapter on how to remember people’s names was worth the price of the book for me. (That’s an area of challenge for me). Here’s a few of my favorite quotes: “The future belongs to the communicators.” “People … Read More

I loved The Treasure Principle, so I took the challenge of reading Randy Alcorn’s exhaustive work of stewardship: Money, Possessions, and Eternity. This is the most thorough treatment on the subject of stewardship that I have ever read. To me, it is THE definitive work on the subject. I consider myself to be someone who knows something about stewardship and I believe that I am a good stewardship and what God has entrusted to me, but this book really challenged me. This book looks at stewardship from every possible angle and gives some amazing counsel on topics that we need … Read More

Lew Graff, who visited our church a few weeks ago (read his thoughts here), reviewed my book “elements” on his blog. If you’re interested, you can read it here. And for those that are interested, if you want to buy “elements” in quantity for your small groups (or for early Christmas or Hanukkah gifts), email me and we’ll hook it up.