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Summer Reading 2009

Now that my classes are finished for the spring I've got a bit more time to do some reading for both professional development and fun/relaxation. Several of these books have been on my shelf for months. Several of them I've started, but never finished because other things were a higher priority. I read Story when I was an undergrad, but thought a refresher might be good. I had meetings late yesterday night, so I took part of the afternoon to get started on the summer reading plan. Right now I don't have any fiction on the list and I need to add some. Got any suggestions?

Right now my summer reading list includes:

• Killing Cockroaches, Tony Morgan
• Church Unique, Will Mancini
• Flickering Pixels, Shane Hipps
• Intuitive Leadership, Tim Keel
• ReJesus, Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch
• Tribes, Seth Godin
• Story, Robert McKee
• In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan
• My Stoke of Insight, Jill Taylor
• The Unlikely Disciple, Kevin Roose

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. 

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? 

Pop Goes The Church

I had the opportunity to read an advance copy of Pop Goes The Church, a new book by Tim Stevens, and make some review comments. I thought I'd share with you what I've gotten out of this book. It's seriously going to challenge church leaders in the way we relate to the culture aroud us. I've been quietly (or not so quietly) beating this drum around Schweitzer since I came on staff. My initial thought about the book is that I'm buying a copy for everybody on the staff. It's that good. I figure if our senior pastor can pass books out to everybody why shouldn't other people?

The book includes an outstanding collection of examples from churches of various size, age, and location. It includes practical steps for any church evaluating how it relates to pop culture. Tim tells his own compelling story including his very first movie experience. Pop Goes The Church is incredibly well researched and it presents a balanced view about the church's relationship to the culture around us and the dangers of connecting inappropriately with the culture. Ultimately Stevens wants the church to engage pop culture, but the approach is Biblically sound and cautions about embracing culture for the wrong reasons. I'm incredibly excited to see what happens as this book gets released and church leaders read it.

The Blogging Church

When I ordered The Blogging Church from Amazon I screwed something up and it shipped normal ground rather than with the two day shipping for my Amazon Prime account (which is a great thing), so it just showed up yesterday. The timing was actually really good though. My illness has made me worthless for anything but sleeping, reading, and watching TV. I opened the box this morning and have already read three chapters.

So far I'm incredibly pleased with what I'm reading. It's directly in line with the conversations I've been having around Schweitzer about why the leadership of our church should be blogging. There seems to be a fear in our leadership about this type of technology and the authenticity it helps facilitate. I think it's mainly because we've had some former staff behave badly when it came to things like myspace, xanga, etc. Jim, our youth pastor, has a blog, but he's only posted once. He gets this book when I'm done with it.

I'll write a more thorough review after I've finished the book. 

Junior League Cookbooks

I'm a huge fan of Junior League cookbooks. I think they contain some of the best recipes available. They also contain great examples of regional food. I try to pick one up anytime I'm travelling someplace new. When we were in Savannah, GA a few years ago we got Southern Style which is the Savannah Junior League cookbook. It kicks things off with a punch recipe that measures ingredients by the gallon - alcoholic ingredients no less. I don't think I'll have occassion to make a spiked punch for 200, but if I need to the ladies of Savannah have given me the recipe.

It's starting to feel like fall here in Springfield and the raininess of Sunday made me think of soup. One of my favorite soups is the Stuffed Spud Soup from The Bess Collection - the Independence, MO JSL cookbook (named for Bess Truman). This soup is amazingly easy it consists of butter, green onion, frozen hashbrowns, cream of chicken soup, milk, and then is served with fresh parsley and cheddar cheese. Matt & Meredith brought a salad to go with the the soup and fresh bread. We enjoyed dinner and the Amazing Race season premier. Good times. 

 

French Cooking in 10 Minutes

Sarah got me this 1930 Edouard de Pomiane book for Christmas. I highly recommend it. I say this without having cooked anything from the book, but it looks great. It comes with a recommendation from MFK Fisher, so it has to be good. The general notion is that with proper planning (and simple menus) it is possible to cook a multi-course meal in just 10 minutes. Meals that would be appropriate if you came home for lunch. A lot of the recipes are for one, so you would need to adjust if cooking for more people, but who says you can't make yourself French food for lunch.

Here is a sample menu:
- Velout soup with tarragon
- Chicken sauted with mushrooms
- Green salad
- Cheese
- Cream puff

There you have a five course meal which theoretically could be prepared in 10 minutes. The recipes all include tips for speedy preparation.

The book is also well suited for those of us living in areas where fresh produce is not available year round (there are only a few things I think ship well enough to eat out of season) because in 1930 if something wasn't in season it wasn't available fresh. The recipes call for canned goods, many of which can probably be substituted with frozen if you so desire. I'll let you know how some frozen substitutions go.