Archive for the 'Books' Category

Books I’m Reading, Music I’m Loving

Published
by
Justin
on October 17, 2008
in Books and Music
. 4 Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about things that I love in hopes that you will love them too…so here we go

Books:
Anatomy of Peace
by The Arbinger Institute

When I read Leadership and Self Deception a couple of years ago, it changed my life. Seriously. I didn’t have those expectations when starting to read this book because I wanted it to stand alone. I can’t say this book had the profound insight into my life for the here and now as the other book, but this book helped give me a vocabulary and insight into my personal justification which results in distorting the relationships and world around me. Once again, The Arbinger Institute cleverly delivers bombshell messages that could change your life if you can find yourself in the story. I would give both this book and Leadership and Self-Deception 5 stars and recommend them to anyone who wants their relationship to grow. 

The Call of the Wild
by Jack London

Yes, for real. I found this book in a Dutch thrift store and remembered reading it as a kid in school. So, I decided to make this book my ‘mindless’ read. This is a classic book, amazing writing, and a cool story about a genius dog that can pull 1000 pounds in the snow and kill a moose by itself. I really found myself relating to Buck in his extra-ordinaryness…ok, maybe not. 

The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse
by David Johnson and Jeff VanVonderen

My friend Laina loaned me this book and I’m only in the first part. It’s honestly a lot to think about. Because the truth is…it happens and people are harmed by people whom they give spiritual authority to. If you are a leader of people in a spiritual position it would be good to read this to heighten your senses to the subtle ways that we can unintentionally hurt those whom look to us as leaders. I hope that as I process this, I’ll be given insight into how I need to repent!

Lastly…

Organizing Genius
by Warren Bennis

I just picked this off of my friend Al’s bookshelf and it seems appropriate for the season that Jen and I are in. We are starting to look at recruiting for the future and this book is all about how to collaborate with other people and ‘manage’ talented people…which is an aspiration of mine. So we’ll see how it goes!

From the eyes to the ears…Music I’m listening to…

Brandon Grissom - Brighter Ep

Brandon is an acquaintance whom I met in Paris years ago when he was passing through. He’s a worship leader for a ministry called Axis in Chicago. This album seems to be written with corporate worship in mind…as he is a worship leader. I have to say…this album is a refreshing departure from standard worship tunes but is still catchy enough to be able to sing along with. If you are looking for worship songs that are musically good and have good lyrics…then check this out. It’s a welcomed breath of fresh air in the oft-boring and cheeseball worship music that is marketed well enough to make it ‘bigtime’…gosh I’m jaded. Another good album in this vein is Travis Taylor’s You Have Loved. 

Copeland - You Are My Sunshine

I just bought this today (and Brandon’s album) thanks to my friend Rachel hooking me up with an iTunes gift card! I am half way through it and I love these guys…it’s kind of head bobbing pop-rock with good instrumentation and percussion…check ‘em out! 

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

Jen discovered these guys back in March and it is easily my favorite album of 2008. The cat is out of the bag about these guys and they are kind of blowing up in the Indie scene. I got to see their show in Amsterdam and they blew away very high expectations. I think that a lot of Indie bands try to hard to be ‘artsy’ and come across as pretentious and contrived. Bon Iver is a band of people that seem the exact opposite. They genuinely seem to be surprised at their success and seem to just love playing…and they should because they are brilliant…

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Howl

Thanks to my buddy Tim who is putting together a pretty amazing list of albums on his blog, I found out about these guys…and they’re just good. 

Jon Foreman - Season EP’s 

That’s not the real title of Switchfoot frontman’s albums…but it works for me. Jon Foreman has put out four EP’s entitles Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring…each one with a bit different vibe to it. I’ve really be into them. 

Ok…that’s enough for now…I hope that you will enjoy any and all of these things I’m enjoying…

9 Things You Simply Must Do

Published
by
Justin
on March 30, 2008
in Books
. 1 Comment

I’m reading this book and I really like it. Good for me to check out at this juncture. I hope that after I discover these 9 new principles that I’ll be whole…kind of joking. Kind of not. I should really get back to reading.

I’m going to be adding this book to my ‘bookstore’ if I haven’t messed up the code for it. 

Thoughts on leadership and more books to help me think about my thoughts

Published
by
Justin
on January 5, 2008
in Books and Leadership
. 0 Comments

The other day Jen and I got to meet with a few of my favorite leaders of all time…Christian Associates’ very own Linus and Sharon Morris. Needless to say, we left challenged, loved, heard, and inspired. So I went to Powell’s Books on Burnside in Portland to pick up a couple of books I’ve been wanting to read on…dun, dun, dun…leadership.

The truth is I really want to understand how leadership fits into my life…or should I say influence? (wink wink to Dr. Maxwell..I was paying attention even to the 203rd law of leadership). The idea of leadership has been tainted so much with misuse of power and selfishness (by me) that it seems a bit scary. With all the talk of organic church and simple church I’ve wondered how leadership as we’ve known it will morph…hopefully evolve…into something less. There was the CEO type of leader. Then the servant-leadership craze. The team leadership. And thanks to the Starfish and the Spider, there is power in ‘leaderlessness’ (secret, so whisper: that was only a hook to get you to buy the book…they never say that there are no leaders, they just hide and give away what they can). But I really don’t think that leaders or leadership (have you ever noticed how the word ’ship’ is tucked into the word leadership?) will ever disappear.

But anyway…I can admit that I want to be a good leader. I want to be a positive influence for others as so many have been for me. I hope that after all the screw ups I’ve made that I’m at least learning something. I don’t have a weird and self-focused idea of the concept (anymore). I just hope that if leadership ever lands on me again that I can do my best to be a good steward of it. So…I read books to prepare for when people may be fooled again…I mean…ask me to lead in some group in some way. Here are the titles of the two books that I’ve picked up:

The Making of a Leader by Dr. J. Robert Clinton (Linus recommended this to me a while ago and I’m finally going to read it)

Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor, & Chaos by Tim Keel (This book just sounded good and mentioned chaos in the subtitle…that is a theme that I resonate with)

And of course you could check out my bookstore above to go see these on Amazon!

PS…I write on here too late at night.

One of My Loves…

Published
by
Justin
on December 7, 2007
in Books
. 0 Comments

Books. I love them. I only went to four years of college (and even then, I didn’t read) so I am always trying to read to pretend like I’m smart…or at least let the stack of books next to my bed make me appear smart…wait…why would anybody see a stack of books next to my bed?

Anyway…

I’ve added a link up at the top called ‘Bookstore’…And it is…you guessed it! A link to a little bookstore. Amazon.com has this cool thing where people can attach mini-stores to their sites, so I did it. I’ve put a bunch of stuff on there that I like and that I would want others to enjoy reading. So…if you do happen to buy something through my little link, I get a little somethin’ somethin’. Which I would probably reinvest in more books to stack next to my bed for everybody to see.

A Few Books I’m Reading…

Published
by
Justin
on December 5, 2007
in Books
. 3 Comments

Since being in the States I’ve had a fair share of time on my hands to study and whatnot…here’s a list of them..

Made to Stick was a great follow up to ‘The Tipping Point‘ as it unpacked how ideas actually stick with people. As a communicator, arm-chair sociologist, and ‘creative type’ I really enjoyed the book. If you are in a place in life where you need people to not only remember, but also to trust your ideas, this book will give you a good amount to think about.

On a completely different note…Disciplines for the Inner Life is a book that few friends use and highly recommend for a personal study book. I’ve only been going through the book for a few days, but I can already see that this is a book that will continue to challenge me on the road ahead. The title alone got my attention as I am a die-hard believer that true and lasting change comes from the inside out.

This is one of the latest ‘churchish’ books I’ve been reading and to be honest…one of the best I’ve read in a while. A lot of time ‘organic’ is talked about, but that word is the only vocabulary to use to describe what ‘organic’ really looks like. “So what’s the difference between organic and organizational?”, somebody asked me. I was like, “Well, organic is more…you know…organic. Like things just naturally grow and progress on their own and stuff.” I know in my heart that I desire for a more ‘organic’ approach to life and to ministry, but haven’t really had a language to talk about it until reading this book. So if you wondered what/how/or why ‘organic thinking’ is important, then check out this book.

I’ve wanted to read this book forever, but always found myself reading different things…now I have it, thanks to Kent and Wendy P, who gave me a copy! I think that this is a book that anybody who is asking, “Is this all there is to church?” should read. Be warned though, because Shane brings the pain (i.e. truth) and doesn’t let go. It’s not so much that what he says is so radical…it’s the fact that he is actually taking following Jesus seriously…this isn’t this type of book to pick up to look for new ideas, or new ways to be mad at ‘institutional church’ (whatever that means). This book will either challenge and inspire, or offend you. It calls us to a new/old way of living that is beyond the talk.

I’m thinking about trying to create a page to just continually add books to that I like or that I’m reading…I think it depends on how nerd I want to go with this. Regardless…’readers are leaders’ *wink* and you should read books that give you new vocabulary, new ways of thinking, and new ideas to chew on…because the point is grow up and books help us do that…if we let them.

The Shack

Published
by
Justin
on November 19, 2007
in Books
. 0 Comments

I just finished reading a book called ‘The Shack‘ by William P. Young. It’s a novel about a man who has a family tragedy that leads him to an encounter with God.

I don’t want to explain too much of the book because I would recommend giving it a read. I’ll say this about it…it gave me great insight into how God relates with his people in order to restore things to the way He intended. This book is part theology, part spiritual devol0pment, and part first-aid kit for people frustrated with God.

I especially appreciated the dialog about forgiveness, how God’s judgment is described, and how clearly God desires reconciliation…good stuff.

I say check it out…I’m going to be reading it again for sure.

A lot on my mind…

Published
by
Justin
on March 15, 2007
in Books, Leadership, Life and Movements
. 3 Comments

I realized today that I haven’t posted on here in a while…It’s certainly not because there’s not much going on in our lives or because I don’t have anything to say…I’ve probably had too much on my mind and too much to say to put anything worth reading on here.

Here’s what fresh on the top of my mind…

A book was recommended to me called “Leadership and Self-Deception” and at first was like, “I’m not self-decieved…I know my weakness.” This should be proof in-and-of-itself that I needed to read a book with this title.

I have to be honest about this. Within pages I was already learning A LOT about how I am self-decieved…not to mention how I treat others as objects and not people, betray myself, justify my own perceptions, and how all of this leads me to be emotionally distorted in my view of my world.

Over the last few weeks, and even months, I’ve been doing a lot of processing about my life. After reading this book I realized that most of my processing has been based upon the hidden assumptions that the way I see the world is the way that it really is. How I view people is how they really are. How I see ideas as they really are…but all along I was certainly seeing thing more out of focus than I thought was. This is what self-deception does.

I can’t even begin to describe the freedom that learning this has brought. Sadness over how ‘grey’ the created world in my head was and how I began to view people that I love. But now I am free to see things more for how they really are…and grateful for the grace that is given so that I can start over every day.

This realization is helping me answer some of the larger questions that I’ve wondering about for a while. Questions about leadership, influence, personal loneliness, being misunderstood, not being able to communicate the way I used to, and some others. This has been helping see ways where I have even began to see Jesus’ teachings in ways that fit with my views…Which has lead me to being further from the real Jesus, even though I thought that I wasn’t, and His good intentions in my life. This is the type of thing that self-deception can do over time.

There is a radical reorientation going on in my head…it makes me feel dizzy sometimes, but I know that in the end I’ll be planted more firmly on the ground.

If this post has made you think at any time “I should read this book.” Do yourself a favor and listen to yourself!

When a book is loved…

Published
by
Justin
on January 28, 2007
in Books, Leadership, Missional Church, Movements and Theology
. 2 Comments

TheforgottenwaysI got this book in the mail from Amazon.fr two weeks ago and I’ve not been able to stop reading it. Two pages into it I decided to not write in the margins or do the underlining thing because I know that I’ll be reading it again…I wanted to save the graffiti for round two. I am already somewhat anal about books, so I was taking especially good care of this one…Then last week a group of us guys went down to Invalides and played some American football in the rain and mud…this resulted in ruining my quest to keep this book in pristine condition. The rain penetrated my bag and found it’s way to my book. Now the crisp pages of The Forgotten Ways are extra crisp and have a nice wave to them….this book now looks very loved and it’s just the beginning. There are many marks, underlines, drawings of my own (i’ve not seen a book with this many graphs and illustrations in it since my high-school trigonometry book!), and notes to come.

So about the book: I didn’t think that Alan could have much more to say after The Shaping of Things to Come, but he has plenty to say…and plenty that is extraordinarily beneficial to my passion for the Church (and anyone else’s for that matter) and our work in Europe. Have you ever wondered what made the 1st century Church so potent, or are wondering why the underground Church in China is growing and the Western Church declining? Then you should read this. Alan does great Biblical and scholarly study while using his own experience as a narrative. He would claim that this is not a ’scholarly work’, but this book is text-book-worthy material on how God has called His earthly expression, the Church, into mission and how mission is the identity of the Church. This book doesn’t just talk about how things may work in theory, it gives both historical and current examples of how the Church can regain it’s influence by allowing the mDNA (missional DNA) that lies within each believer to be lived out again.

I can’t recommend this book enough as it has already greatly inspired, encouraged, and challenged me. Thanks Al for your work…a gift to the Kingdom.