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Book Reviews plus Five Reasons Why Leaders' Need To Read

Feb 29, '08 4:45 AM
for everyone

I have decided that instead of doing an annual review of the top books I have read in the year - I'd just chronicle the books I have read every 2 months.

In chronicling the books of January and February - I thought it might also be a good way to give some reasons why leaders (particularly Christians) should read. So here goes:

1. The Best Question Ever - by Andy Stanley. Excellent read for leaders. The book is all about wisdom particularly in the area of decision making. One of the must reads in this list.

2. Just Walk Accross the Room - by Bill Hybels. This book will stir up your passion to reach people with the Gospel. More importantly it shows you how simple it really is. The book is filled with real life stories and practical ideas how to enage people.

3. The Power of Praying Together - By Stormie Omartian and Jack Hayford. For leaders who need inspiration to pray. Stormie unveils the prayer lessons she learned from her long time pastor, mentor and friend Jack Hayford. Tons of nuggets on prayer.

4. The God We Have Forgotten - by William Girao. One time senior pastor of Diliman Bible Campus CHurch for 17 years - Girao is a leading Filipino Christian writer. A pocket book on the attributes of God. Its like reading a shorter version of AW Towzer. Good old solid theology in a few pages.

5. In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day - by Mark Batterson. My favorite among the 10 books I've read so far. Baterson will make you laugh, pray, shout - then he will inspire you get out of your comfort zone and do the greatest, craziest, most challenging, most adventurous things for God. In one word: FAITH. If there are any 3 you need to read this one of them.

6. The Dip - by Seth Godin. Written by best seling author of marketing books Godin hits this one again (a purple cow from the author of Purple Cow). This tiny book is full of out of the box ideas about how to stick to projects that seem to not be going anywhere. It also helps you understand when it is time to quit on a project.

7. A Long Obedience In The Same Direction - by Eugene Peterson. Written by the author of the Message Bible. This book deals with what discipleship looks like in a society that is engrossed with instant gratification. Peterson sites the relaity of constant change yet he is quick to point out that there are some things (particularly in the Kingdom of God) that will never change.

8. Making Vision Stick - by Andy Stanley. this tiny book is a great reminder to stay focused. It gives practical advise on how to get your team and the people you lead fixed and focused on the vision. Gives you ways to discern what is worth keeping or if a project, program, plan or idea is a distraction.

9. The Big Moo - by the Group of 33. A book that has 33 authors. The best ideas on how to build a remarkable business, career, product or life from an all star team of out of the box thinkers that include - Malcolm Gladwell, Tom Peters, Giy Kawasaki, Mark Cuban and others.
This book is filled with revolutionary ideas. GREAT!

10. Changing How the World Does Business - by Roger Frock. A gift given to me from my son David, 2 years ago. Finally decided to read it. The book is the inside story of FedEx - the company that has changed the way the world does business. Fantastic. The idea was to build a company that could deliver packages overnight from city to city all accross America. Everybody said it could not be done. And in the the early years it did look like it couldn't be done. Now 30 years later on a typical day FedEx delivers about 6 million time critical packages all over the world.

And now for some of the reasons why a Christian leader should read:

1. You get the wisdom, insight, ideas, practices of the authors.

2. You are inspired by the stories and experiences of the writers.

3. It reminds you of things you already know and reinforces things you believe becasue it is presented from a different perspective or point of view.

4. You exercise your brain. Our brains are an important "muscle" and needs constant exercise much like our physical bodies, so READ.

5. We live in extraordinary times. In the old days one does not have to read a lot in order to lead. Can't imagine Genghis Khan, Cronelius Vanderbilt or even father Abraham reading up on FedEx. Even Philippine business tycoons Henry Sy and Lucio Tan probably did not have to read as much to lead. But they were exemplary business leaders. No doubt these leaders had a penchant for learning but did not necesarily have to read as much.

Today however, we live in extraordinary times and one of the marks of having a desire to learn is reading. For the era we live in reading is a discipline every leader should develop.

Here are some real life applications for Christian leaders:

If there's a n ything I've learned over the years - one of the best ways to discover somthing revolutionary is to go and find the best thing in a certain industry and then find a way to apply it to your industry. Those id eas and practices may be common place in that industry but could be revolutionary in yours. If FedEx can ship 6 million packages a day - is it possible to have 6 million engage meetings and encounters a day? And if so, is it possible to turn an entire city to Jesus? And if so, why not the world?

I recall a time I finsihed reading The Walmart Triumph - and the idea about focusing on the core competence of the organization hit me like a truck. Just because they sold millions of t-shirts doesn't mean they should manufacture them. Conventional business says expand into manufacturing t-shirts and increase your profits (first of all life is not all about profits), undertsanding your core competence says: stay in the retail business - that's your core competence. Instead of di-focusing into manufacturing - they focused on their strength which was retailing and sold more umbrellas, watermelons, steaks, car tires, prescription glasses and even gasoline.

It was from this industry that we have been able to define and focus on the 3 valuable functions of the local church (Worship Services, Discipleship Ministry and Pastoral Ministries). Why because our business is simply "Make disciples".

The book the Disney Way helped us realize the i mportance of working as a team and that every single detail matters. It taught us the value of being able to defin

e your mission/vision in one word. In the case of Disney their word is "Fantasy". Every member of their staff from administration to those who sell pop corn do just one thing - create fantasy. So when a child drops her coke in a theme park everyone is trained to appease and pacify her. The store clerk offers her a trinket or toy, the pop corn vendor replaces her coke and offers more, even Mickey and Cinderella get into the act. All because everyone knows their one word - FANTASY. And in a fantasy world children don't cry. Our one word: Discipleship.

The id ea of preparing the message together was something we got from McDonald's. The secret to the consistency of what they fed their customers was a centralized comissary complete with bakery, meat processing and was able to prepare condiments. It was also from them that we got the need to stay focused and avoid "false expectatons". McDonald's does not promise good food, it promises fast food. All too often churches are unclear about their promises. When they are people define their expectations. When they are not met come offenses, gossips, bickering and church splits. The key is be clear about the promise - our promise: We will make a disciple out of you.

The most

recent ideas we have gotten was from a book entitled "The Starbucks Experience. It is here where we got the idea of suprise and delight which we are currently practicing in our worship services and leadership group meetings. The practice of embracing resistance also came from this book. Your best ideas may yet come from people who don't agree with you.

Bottom line: READ.

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34 CommentsChronological Reverse Threaded

Comment deleted at the request of the author.

markweena wrote on Feb 29

joeybonifacio said

5. It's a discipline that every leader needs to develop.

i agree. great leaders are good readers.

robjonfire wrote on Feb 29

thanks for the post....this is a habit I NEED to develop...I will make sure I get these books

davidabc13 wrote on Feb 29

joeybonifacio said

3. It reminds you of things you already know and reinforces things you believe becasue it is presented from a different perspective or point of view.

might i add, that reading also demolishes some things that you already believe yet should NOT believe...

i'm super super happy, like smile to the ears happy... because i just got a FREE copy of the book "The Bondage of the Will" by Martin Luther!!!! FREE copy!!! hahaha!!!!

dennis128 wrote on Feb 29

great great blog - so I know what to read next

ice0439 wrote on Feb 29

Great idea for you Pastor to share your list!!Thanks

vdaswani wrote on Feb 29

i agree pastor joey! let's all read more :-)

emphas1s wrote on Feb 29

Loved this blog... reading is a passion of mine...
Thanks for sharing what literature has been good to you... it's interesting to see what leaders read to inspire them... I believe life is too short to read bad books...

keithtower wrote on Feb 29

Great blog. Thanks for the suggestions. I read almost everything that you recommend, so I will hit the ones on this list that I have not yet read. I like the idea of transferable principles between industries. Thanks.

rmagsaysay wrote on Feb 29

great idea pastor joey!!!!

blindsided wrote on Feb 29

thanks for this blog pastor joey. i am actually a slow reader having a different type of reading habit. apart from the Bible, i have 3 books which i "read" at the same time. often, ideas from each book are juggled to produce a new idea. the three main categories for the 3 other books run along these lines: marriage, business/finance, leisure/travel/culture

alanjean wrote on Feb 29

thanks for all the tips, will try to look for these books...

enxym wrote on Feb 29

Yeah! I'm addicted right now in reading text books. haha! (lol)

pageman wrote on Mar 1

Great post! I've asked my students to read a book a week and post at least 3 chapters of their book review check it out here. It's mostly on Ethics thoug :) I'm reading a lot of books now also! :)

r2rzntz wrote on Mar 1

Pastor,

Nice of you! Good idea, I'll follow your suggestion. Thanks.

romanalo wrote on Mar 1

Wow, Pastor Joey, you sure are a fast reader! Have read three of the books you mentioned. Can't wait to read the rest. Great blog!

alvinsupan wrote on Mar 1

you read 10 books in 2 mos.! those are aside the bible. wow! thank you for inspiring me to read more.

jonjav wrote on Mar 1

Good blog. thanks for sharing your list & your thoughts.. i hope to read as much books and as fast as you do.

joeybonifacio wrote on Mar 1

keithtower said

I read almost everything that you recommend, so I will hit the ones on this list that I have not yet read. I like the idea of transferable principles between industries.

hi keith - kinda figured you would ahve read most of the titles i have mentioned. been wanting to pay you guys a visit but the church is at flood stage - the local church at fort bonifacio sunday services attendance went from 7000 in january to 8,300 in the last week of february. i think the combination of various things and the tweaks in the last 2 years is responsible for this momentum.

think toyota, honda, apple, spam - i think we can glean something revolutionary in each of these. is the underground disney tour happening anytime soon. that's one tour i would like to go to. give my regards to the family. thanks for taking care of my sister, jay and their fam. see you soon. kevin york arives on wednesday to do strategic planning with all of us.

wendygep wrote on Mar 1

Thanks! Very encouraging blog!

issaytanabe wrote on Mar 1

joeybonifacio said

It taught us the value of being able to define your mission/vision in one word.

I like this..one word came to my mind for mine..I hope and pray I'll stay faithful to it.

issaytanabe wrote on Mar 1

joeybonifacio said

Bottom line: READ.

Yes :-) reading is like eating..a good book is like a really really good meal. thanks pastor joey for the reminder.

kevinmixan wrote on Mar 1

Pastor Joey, Thanks for the list. I have two books I would like to send to you 1.Leadership and Self-Deception 2. The Shack. Have you read either? Please send me your mailing address and I will send these to you. God Bless.

joeybonifacio wrote on Mar 1

kevinmixan said

I have two books I would like to send to you 1.Leadership and Self-Deception 2. The Shack. Have you read either? Please send me your mailing address and I will send these to you. God Bless.

i have not read both books and would appreciate receiving them - will send you my address in a personal message. thanks. greet the belangdals for me.

alexvh wrote on Mar 2

Is that book about Starbucks the same as Pour Your Heart Into It by Howard Schultz.He is the chairman and ceo of Starbucks.Met in a party here in Manila.He is a great guy and gave me a signed copy of his book.Thanks for this blog Joey.

rosemendoza wrote on Mar 2

thanks for the recommendations. ung mga binabasa at hinuhunting kong mga books ngayon ay galing sa dati ninyong blog. malamang isunod ko tong list na to =D

lamumar wrote on Mar 2

im glad my mom "forced me" to read.

joeybonifacio wrote on Mar 2

lamumar said

im glad my mom "forced me" to read.

one wise woman your mom - when do you get back? saw macy todaya the service.

joeybonifacio wrote on Mar 2

alexvh said

you met howard schultz in manila - well what do you know - the book i mentioned in my post is a different one - The Starbucks Experience by Joseph Michelli - the book is published by McGraw Hill - its more like a management textbookmof sorts - Pour Your Heart Into It is also a good book - read that several years ago - has lots of nice stories.

kevinmixan wrote on Mar 2

joeybonifacio said

greet the belangdals for me.

I spent a good amount of time with Joel and Nick today as we had a birthday party for a child at the church. Joel and Tina are doing great. We look forward to you coming for a visit.

junleediamond wrote on Mar 2

Thanks! Will try to read the books you recommend.

joeybonifacio wrote on Mar 2

junleediamond said

Thanks! Will try to read the books you recommend.

are you still in nu yok? what's the plan? send me a pm.

malentalusan wrote on Mar 3

ive learned a lot from working at fedex and im still applying those in my work now. thanks for inspiring us to read

randellt wrote on Apr 2

Fantastic applications. I'm very new at VCF but I often tell Pastor Chinkee Tan that I am awed at the way this organization is being run.. very much like a well oiled multi-national company. Now I know why.

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