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Wild Goose Chase

I'm about halfway through Mark Batterson's Wild Goose Chase and I'm really enjoying it. I've been a fan of Mark's teaching and leadership since I attended the first conference NCC put on a couple of years ago. His previous book, In a Pit with Lion on a Snowy Day, was used in a lot of ways around Schweitzer. I imagine that the same will be true of Wild Goose Chase. Along with the book Mark has written a 10 steps to help with setting goals available at www.chasethegoose.com. 

I think it's pretty rare for a book to both convict me and have it be something I really want to read. I sat down last week at Asbury during a few breaks from class and managed to get halfway through the book before I decided I had to stop carrying it with me - I was reading it instead of doing work required for my course. I wish I'd have taken it on the weekend fishing trip to Cumberland because I'd have both finished it and had something to read.

I haven't had a lot of time to process my thoughts about the book yet, but here is my initial take on it. I really do agree with Mark that oftentimes our lives are boring because we play it safe. The book is built around six cages that we tend to put ourselves into rather than living freely in God's spirit. I think my life most often reflects ordinariness. It's pretty hard for me to break out of the day-to-day, week-to-week routine. 

I can't wait to get the chance to finish the book. I can already tell that some of the ideas are shaping my thoughts. It's probably one of the few books I'll read, put on the shelf, and then read again in a few months. 

Leadership Summit 2008

I've spent the last two days attending the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. It's a great event most every year. Usually there is at least one session that really makes me think, challenges my assumptions, causes me to pray more, and leads to reevaluating how and why we do ministry in the local church. Willow almost always puts together a great slate of presenters and interviews.

I was going to take notes and post them about each session. I had been taking notes for my own use at the start of yesterday, but I discovered that Mark Meyer was taking and posting exceptional notes and that Mark Beeson was posting almost transcripts of the sessions. My note taking stopped and I just let myself soak it in.

My favorite sessions this year:

• John Burke & Efrem Smith  (pastors)
• Craig Groeschel (pastor)
  
• Catherine Rohr (CEO of Prison Entrepreneurship Program)
• Brad Anderson (CEO of Best Buy)

Leading Change

I'm getting ready for my last class of the summer and I'm really excited about it. I've read through all of the articles and most of the books already. I've got two books to read this next week. It's a leadership class about managing change and transition. This is the second class I've been able to take that directly relates to what I'm doing in ministry and these classes are a lot more fun than the others. Like my June class this is a week-long intensive class. It's being taught by Tom Tumblin who is certainly qualified to teach this sort of content.

If you're looking for some books about leading change here's the reading list for the class.

• Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within by Robert E. Quinn
• Diffusion of Innovations by Everett M. Rogers
• Leading Congregational Change by Jim Herrington, et al. 
• The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World by Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk
• Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change by William Bridges

We're in the process of making some changes at SUMC and launching several new ministries. It's been helpful to have real world examples of the situations described in the books. I also like the fact that the reading list includes articles from Fast Company which I've thought was a great resource for a long time.

The class involves doing some interviews with church leaders that have gone through a major change iniative recently. I've got a couple of ideas of leaders to interview. What are your thoughts?