From the Shelf

Greetings Faithful Readers,

It's time to take a quick glance at the bookshelf and let you know what I am currently reading...

1) Mad Church Disease - Anne Jackson - Status: FINISHED - Rating 4.5/5 - I was a little afraid to start reading this book because I thought it was going to bash the church...that the church was the bad guy and I was the victim. Fortunately I was wrong. Anne does an amazing job at presenting a realistic look at a life out of balance. The beginning of the book reveals the trials of her life and how it drove her to write a book about burnout. After just a few pages you realize that she is more than qualified to lead her readers from the land of "I can relate to that" to a place of healing. Pastors and leaders like Bill Hybels, Craig Groeschel, and Perry Noble are interviewed and quoted throughout the book to support Anne's claims. I think the point that I took away was that it isn't church that causes burnout (although there are many elements contained therein that could)...it is a result of poor choices, lack of barriers and boundaries, the human elements of ministry, and a general unspecific tendency to drift away from disciplines we know we need. Thanks Anne for stepping out and writing about something that many deny publicly but battle in the trenches of their minds and hearts.

2) Killing Cockroaches - Tony Morgan - Status: CURRENTLY READING - A cool book on leadership written by a guy that has lived it out. I love the title...and when you think about why it's called Killing Cockroaches...it makes you want to follow Tony further down the rabbit hole. As a city manager, Tony was called in by someone who needed a bug killed in her office. He got up and did it...and then thought about it. Why did he get up and do that? He was the "CEO" of sorts... Was that the best use of his time and leadership? Was he leading out of the urgent..or did he need to lead more stratigically? Was he putting out fires or moving forward? Sound intriguing...then dive into this collection of cool leadership thoughts and strategies with me and let me know what you think.

There's a few others that I'm wrapping up as well and I will post reviews soon. Topics run the gambit from children't fiction (Kingdom Keepers 2) to Web 2.0 (33 Million People in the Room) to a re-read of a book for our Internet Campus book study (Traveling Light).

See you in the bookstore cafe,
BV