Mentoring Leaders

One of the most important experiences of my ministry career has been training with Arrow Leadership Ministries.  Arrow’s president is Carson Pue, a man I have come to respect greatly for his love for God and love for leaders.  Carson has written a fantastic book called Mentoring Leaders.  In some ways it is an unfortunate title.  While this book would be extremely useful for an experienced leader to take a younger leader through in a mentoring relationship, it is not limited to that.  This book is actually an excellent introduction to leadership principles.  I believe this is so much that I have chose to use it as the text for a course in pastoral leadership that I am teaching.  Carson has a great handle on general leadership principles, scriptural truth and practical experience.  This book should be mandatory reading for all Christian leaders.

God’s Word Heard

The free audiobook download from www.christianaudio.com for September 2009 is a book that I have heard is quite good.  It is called the New Testament.  It is supposed to be a pretty good book.  The version they have available is called God’s Word.  In a day when we are reading everything, it is important for us to take time to be in the Scriptures.  You can download it for free for September only here.

Portable Seminary

I recently read a book called the Portable Seminary: A Master’s Level Overview in One Volume.  The idea is that it covers all of the topics that could come up in seminary.  Of course the title is not quite accurate in that it does not come close to providing a seminary education.  Each topic is covered fairly briefly (although the book itself is quite thick).  However, this book is good as a basic introduction to various Christian topics from a conservative perspective.  It is helpful for people searching for an area of interest and the book does give suggestions for further reading.  This book could also be helpful as preparation for formal theological education.  The Portable Seminary is definitely a helpful resource.

How To Get Free Books

It is always a challenge to get good books on a limited budget.  Thomas Nelson publishers have come up with a neat program for bloggers.  If you have a blog, you can get free books as long as you are willing to review the book on your blog and on an on-line book sellers site such as Amazon.  I have done this with the Noticer and have ordered my next book.  It is a great and generous program that I highly recommend.  You can find out more here.

Divine Comedy

The free audiobook for August 2009 from www.christianaudio.com is Dante’s Divine Comedy.  You can download it for free for this month only here.

unChristian

For the past couple of months I have been getting together with another pastor discussing a book that he suggested.  That book is unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons.  I can not overstate what an important book this is.  Using both statistical data and personal stories, the views that non-Christians (the authors prefer “outsiders”) have toward the church.  Those views include hypocritical, too focused on getting converts, antihomosexual, sheltered, too political and judgmental.  The authors are not afraid to talk about the mistakes of the church but they also offer suggestions on how we can shed our unChristian image.  An added feature is a collection of statements by well known Christian leaders after each chapter including Mark Batterson, Chuck Colson, Andy Stanley, John Stott and many others.  This could easily be a depressing book as the authors air the church’s dirty laundry but it is filled with optimism and a sanctified imagination that sees the potential for a truly Christian church for the future.  This book should be mandatory reading for all Christian leaders.

Crazy Love

The free audiobook download for the July from www.christianaudio.com is Francis’ Chan’s Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God.  During July 2009 only you can download this book from here.

Leadership Lessons from the Dancing Man

Watch this video and take a look at the questions.  This looks like a scene that Jesus would notice and then point out to his disciples.

Passionate Life

At both Woodford and First Baptist Churches we have been doing a great Bible study called the Passionate Life based on the book by the same name.  People have been enjoying the study because it is both theologically sound but also understandable to the average Christian.  The key to this study is something called lifeshapes, basically the use of geometric shape to remind people of the different points for each issue.  Almost everything is covered in this study from repentance to rest to relationships to leadership to prayer to evangelism and so on.  This book is available online extremely cheap (I have seen it as low at a cent) even though it is a good-sized hard cover.  It is perfect for a Bible study or one-on-one discipleship.

The De-Churched