Top 10 Most Ministry-Impacting Authors
Media Survey Results: Part 2
Have you ever noticed how a new author can appear on the Christian leadership scene and cause such a wave that soon every title he or she produces is simply 
“must reading”?
On the other hand some writers have transcended beyond being “the latest thing”; their writings seem to speak powerfully to every generation.
When The Leadership Centre Willow Creek Canada recently conducted an online survey of Christian leaders, we were eager to discover which writers were creating such buzz among leaders. Here’s what we found.
Which 3 AUTHORS, Christian or secular, are currently having the most impact or relevance to your ministry?
Here, in order, are the top 10 results (clicking on the author’s name will take you to their website where you can get more information on the author, their books and other resources available);
Note that this is not a scientific survey; it serves only to give you a quick snapshot as to what authors have been making an impact on Christian leaders in Canada in 2011.
In total there were 55 authors who made the list. To see the complete list click here. (Note that responses deemed statistically insignificant are not included.)
To see the previous survey results, Top 10 Books, click here.
Our survey included other forms of media and resources. I was fascinated to see that, after books, the media which was gaining the most traction with Christian leaders was podcasts.
Which podcasts are most popular? Check back soon to see.
What authors would you add to this list?
Top 10 Most Ministry-Impacting Books
Media Survey Results: Part 1
Wherever Christian leaders gather, it isn’t long before the topic of conversation turns to the question, “So, what are you reading these days?”
Leaders don’t ask this to make idle chitchat. Leaders are readers. In addition, leaders value their time as a precious commodity; they want to know that the 
next book they pick up (or load on their Kindle) is likely to have an impact. They can’t afford to start reading a new book, only to find out after half a dozen chapters, that it just isn’t delivering what they need.
With all this in mind, The Leadership Centre Willow Creek Canada recently conducted an online survey of Christian leaders in Canada, and the first question we asked was:
In 2011, what were the 3 most ministry-impacting BOOKS you read?
Here, in order, are the top 10 results (clicking a title will open the publisher’s website where you can get more information on the book);
- Sun Stand Still, Steven Furtick
- Radical, David Platt
- The Power of a Whisper, Bill Hybels
- Surprised by Hope, NT Wright
- Humilitas, John Dickson
- Prodigal God, Timothy Keller
- Sticky Church, Larry Osborne
- Disappointment with God, Philip Yancey
- Leading on Empty, Wayne Cordeiro
- Simple Church, Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger
Note that this is not a scientific survey; it serves only to give you a quick snapshot as to what books have been making an impact on Christian leaders in Canada in 2011.
In total there were 49 books that made the list. To see the complete list in alphabetical order click here. (Note that responses deemed statistically insignificant are not included.)
Interestingly, the next question we asked was to find out which authors were having the greatest impact. To our surprise, the list of authors did not always match the list of books!
Check back soon to see the list of top ministry authors.
What books would you add to this list?
4 Measurements Leaders Need to Weigh, not Count
Leaders measure.
It’s part of what we do. It’s in our “DNA”. We want to know how many, how much, how often, how far and how fast.
These measurements tell us how much progress we’re making and how much distance we still have to go before achieving the goal.
But effective leaders also know that in addition to these metrics which require counting, there are also vital indicators that require WEIGHING.
They know that while counting tells you some important information, that’s often only the beginning. The complete story is only found when you take the time and invest the leadership effort required to weigh less tangible data.
Here are four scenarios that call for weighing, not just counting.
1. When you need to rally support around a cause
Counting may tell you how many are “on board”, but effective leaders will want to know WHO is on board. “Do I have the influencers on side?” In other words, effective leaders measure the weight of the voices.
2. When you need to reverse a trend
Counting may tell you which way the trend is heading (giving is sliding, attendance is plateauing, etc). But effective leaders want to know who is leaving (and who is coming), and who has stopped giving (and who has increased giving). These are questions of weight.
3. When you need to respond to criticism
Counting may tell you how many complaints have been received. Effective leaders, though, want to know where those complaints are coming from in order to determine how much validity they might carry. They want to weigh the source of the complaints.
4. When you need to know “who has your back”
Counting may tell you how many senior staff showed up for work today, or how many board members make up a quorum. Weighing, though, tells you who you can count on when the going gets tough. Effective leaders weigh levels of support among key stakeholders.
Is counting important? Absolutely. Just be sure your measurement doesn’t end there. If you really want to understand what’s going on behind the numbers, learn to develop the ability to weigh, not just count.
Because very often “who” is more important than “how many”.
What other areas do you find necessary to weigh, not simply count?
Ever Been So Mad You Felt Like Leaving Your Church?
In the past 24 months I’ve switched my home cable provider three times.
A grocery store opened closer to our house last year, so we’ve switched to that store.
I discovered that a different credit card would help me accumulate travel points quicker, so I switched to that card a few months ago.
All of us are so accustomed to moving our business from one place to another that perhaps it’s inevitable that we sometimes bring the same thinking to our local church.
As a church elder, people will seek me out from time to time to have one of those “I’m thinking of leaving our church” conversations. I had one this week.
My response is always the same. I ask, “Are you angry at the community or the company?”
The baffled look on their face prompts me to explain. “Look, the church is really the community; you know, it’s you and me. It’s all of us. It’s all the ‘one another’ stuff in the New Testament.
“The company is different. That’s my term for the staff, the budget, the facility, the utility bills, the governance structure; all the stuff the community puts in place to help us along the way.”
Then I add, “It sounds to me like you’re really mad at the company, not the community.”
You see, almost always when someone is mad at “the church”, they’re really mad at the company; that organized part that makes decisions, distributes resources, and so on.
Once people see that distinction I ask, “So, if it’s the company you’re mad at, why would you want to respond by punishing the community?”
Then I take them right back to 1 Corinthians 12 and hit them with verse 18: “God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.”
Let’s face it. Life in the local church can be a bumpy ride, and along the way you may indeed find yourself pretty upset at decisions, directions and policies.
However you choose to respond, remember that when you’re mad at the company, don’t take it out on the community.
Because “God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.”
What do you do when you’re mad at “the church”? What is an appropriate way to respond when we’re angry at church decisions?
3 Questions to Help Advance Rick Warren’s Bold Twitter Vision
Rick Warren recently shared a vision that has tremendous implications for the local church. With half a million of his own Twitter followers, Warren stated, “I want pastors to dominate Twitter. We don’t want celebrities dominating these things; we want pastors using this for the Good News.”
But amidst the thrill of this vision, a note of caution must be sounded. There is a course correction some of us may need to make in order to see Warren’s thrilling vision become reality.
When we tweet, we need to be sure we’re not perceived as “posturing” when we intend to be “proclaiming”.
I’m as guilty as anyone in this regard.
It’s not the intent, but with 140 characters or less, if we’re not careful, our tweets can be misconstrued as posturing.
And ultimately this could diminish our social media impact.
But I believe we can avoid the appearance of posturing if we ask 3 questions when we tweet;
Question #1: Could the “heart” of this tweet be misunderstood?
An example would be when we state something like, “So grateful for the 5,000 new people who showed up at our church last weekend,” or “Humbled to be able to baptize 12,000 people in a single service,” etc.
Even though we may not be intending to grandstand it could be perceived that way. We need to be careful.
Question #2: Does this tweet tell the whole story?
Twitter is not the place to air our church’s dirty laundry. But sometimes it can appear that nothing ever goes wrong in ministry.
Perhaps for every tweet that begins, “Pumped for…”, “Stoked by…” or “Excited to…” we need the occasional tweet that begins, “Concerned about…”
Question #3: Am I tweeting about God’s activity beyond my ministry?
It’s only natural that the front row seat God has granted each one of us will be reflected in our Twitter feed. But without intending to, we can be leaving the impression that we’re not aware of, or enthused about, God’s activity beyond the scope of our own church.
We might get more long-term mileage out of Twitter when we leverage it to tell a broader Kingdom story.
Bottom line? Let’s always be mindful of the limitations of 140 characters, and strive to ensure that our message reflects our intentions.
Because when it comes to Kingdom advancement via social media the potential is huge! So with wisdom, discernment and boldness, let’s go for it!
How to Turn “Silos” into a Culture of Conversation
Is your church truly unified in mission, vision and strategy? Or are you, as Bill Hybels once said of Willow Creek Community Church, “a loose federation of ministries orbiting around the central church?”
If you suspect that this “siloing” effect has taken root in your church here are three small but important steps you can take today to replace silos with a “culture of conversation”.
1. End the practice of inter-office email
In the large church where I served as executive pastor we implemented this 3-step plan, starting with “no more inter-office email” without first walking over to their department.
2. Replace “All Staff” emails with staff meeting conversations
I was shocked in my first weeks at that church how many emails circulated daily to all staff. (“Email to all staff: Has anyone seen the 3-hole punch?”)
In place of these manifestos I insisted that such “news” be shared face to face in our staff weekly meetings.
3. Model the discipline of face-to-face dialogue
Throughout my day as questions arose I kept an ongoing “log” with each staff person’s name. Next to each name I would jot down a list of questions as they popped up. These would include items of a personal nature, such as remembering to inquire about the status of a sick loved one, etc.
Then twice a day, usually 9:00 am and 3:00 pm, I would “make my rounds”. I would visit every corner of the campus and find myself in conversation with staff from every department and every level, from department heads to grounds-keepers.
Invariably I wouldn’t bump into everyone I wanted to see, and in those cases alone I would follow up with an email. But I would start such notes by saying, “Sorry I missed you…Please call or drop by, I’d like to discuss…”
My goal in all this was to replace what I termed “the emptiness of email” with “a culture of conversation”.
And it worked.
If you suspect that over-reliance on email has contributed to silos in your organization, give these steps a shot.
Perhaps a “culture of conversation” is just what your team needs.
How have you tackled silos in your organization?
A “Bible Through the Year” Plan That Might Work for You
If this is the year you commit to reading the bible through cover to cover, you probably know there are dozens of plans from which to choose.
Several years ago, after labouring through bible plans that seemed ponderous, I put together my own that has breathed new life into my personal daily bible reading for more than a decade.
Here are the principles on which I built my plan:
1. Jesus’ story needs to be read…often.
Early on I realized that I want to revisit the life and ministry of Christ throughout the year. My plan places the four gospels in each season of the year.
2. Naming the elephant in the room – Some parts of the bible are boring.
Ploughing through some sections of the Law or the minutia of genealogies can suck the life out of bible reading. I intersperse these sections with regular “bursts” of Psalms and Proverbs.
3. The Prophets come to life when they’re matched with their history.
I like to provide context for the major and minor prophets by positioning these readings as near to their corresponding history book as possible.
4. Grouping the Epistles creates context and texture.
I love working through the Pauline epistles, taking a “gospel break” then tackling the other letters a bit later in the year.
5. Wrapping up the year with John
I’ve always had a special appreciation for “the disciple Jesus loved”. I end the year with John’s gospel, followed by his epistles, then the Revelation.
John Ortberg has rightly observed that while getting through the bible is good, getting all of the bible through you is what really matters. That’s very true. Reading the bible all the way through is not in and of itself spiritually significant. But the discipline of spending time in scripture can yield marvellous results.
If you want to check out my plan click on the graphic above or click here.
Whatever plan you use, stick with it, and watch as God’s Spirit breathes His life into you through His Word.
Repost – When to Push Your Leadership “Amp” Up to 11
Every leader wants their organization to perform at “10 out of 10” effectiveness. But great leaders I’ve known have a skill that tells them when it’s time to punch it up to 11.
Fans of the classic comedy film This is Spinal Tap know exactly what I’m talking about.
This “mock-umentary” about an aging British rock band features a hilarious scene in which the lead guitarist (Nigel, played by Christopher Guest) tries vainly to explain the extra power contained in his guitar’s amplifier.
“You see, most blokes will be playing on 10…where can you go from there? Nowhere! Exactly…But what we do, if we need that extra push over the cliff, what we do is we go up to 11. One louder.”
This week our ministry’s lead team tackled two projects where “10” would have been acceptable. But I thought that one of them needed that extra push. We needed to go up to 11. It would require extra effort and it would introduce added complexity, but I believe the payoff would be well worth it for those we serve.
How do you make that call? Here’s what I’ve learned from effective leaders. If you allow your organization to cruise along at “10” all the time, you’ll lose energy and atrophy will set in. But if you recklessly push it to “11” too often you’ll establish an unsustainable pace and you’ll burn out your people.
To navigate these dynamics here are questions I’ve learned from effective leaders;
1. If we continued to simply cruise along at “10”:
a. what would it cost us in terms of long-term momentum?
b. what could be the gains in terms of sustainability?
2. If we pushed it up to 11 for a while:
a. what would it cost us in terms of staff and organizational burn-out?
b. what would be the gains for the organization?
If your organization is feeling strained to the breaking point, perhaps it’s time to pull it back down to 10. But if you sense a lack of energy and momentum, it might be time for that little extra push over the cliff; it may be time to go one louder, up to 11.
How do you know when it’s time to go up to 11?
Repost – A Few “How-To’s” for Achieving Inbox Zero
As a church leader in Canada, your mission is too important for you to consider your time as merely a commodity to be managed. Your time must be viewed as a powerful weapon to be wielded.
But in very practical terms, many leaders continue to have the sharp edge of this weapon dulled by the inability to stay on top of email.
Here’s a plan I’ve followed for years for achieving “inbox zero”. It’s a process based on a triage system I follow with ruthless discipline:
- Delete
- Move
- Respond
During the day I rarely respond to emails as they arrive. Instead, I set aside the final 30 to 40 minutes in the office every day where I push everything aside and apply “delete, move, respond” to each of the 100 or so emails which have accumulated in my inbox that day
1. Delete
The majority of emails require no action or response. A simple glance will glean the information that’s pertinent. These emails are immediately deleted. Total time: about 5 – 10 minutes.
2. Move
I find that about 1/3 of emails will require some sort of acknowledgement or follow up within 24 hours. Using Outlook, I physically drag these emails out of my inbox and place them in a strategic slot in my calendar the following day. Total time: about 10 minutes.
3. Respond
The end of the day will see me then left with a handful of emails that call for a timely response. Total time: about 15 minutes.
When I arrive in the office the following morning, I’m immediately on mission, on the offensive, not endlessly reacting to the agenda of others.
If you’ve been losing ground in the email wars, try giving this a shot and reclaim your time as an offensive tool in your leadership arsenal. Your mission is too important for your time to be merely a commodity to be managed.
How do you achieve inbox zero?
