Fields of Gold

I finished reading the small but potent book today called Fields of Gold by Andy Stanley. It's a book about giving and it's one of the best books on the subject I've ever read. It's a quick read, but extremely powerful. In typical Andy fashion, the book includes moving illustrations and begins with THE best story related to why we should give that I've ever heard. (you have to wait all the way to the epilogue to see how that story gets resolved, and it's a real gem if you do!).

So, I highly recommend this book. Even if you are a long-time giver or tither, you would still benefit from it.

It's available in paperback or for your Kindle, and you can get it be clicking here.

When I read, I underline, highlight, dogear pages, make notes, etc. Here are a few of the notable quotes (for me) from Fields of Gold:

* I already mentioned the opening story, beginning in chapter 1 called "Dust in the Wind" and resolving in the Epilogue. Don't miss it. It's awesome.

* "...doesn't that make it irrational to trust God for your eternal destiny, yet decline His invitation to direct your finances?"

* "When you give away something valuable, it feels like a loss. You had something. Now you don't. And that can be a tremendous disincentive to give more. But Paul (2 Cor 9:6-11) puts this concept in a completely different light. He says that giving to God's work is not giving something away. It's an investment, not a loss. The farmer who sows doesn't lose seed. He gains a crop." What rational farmer would say, 'I'm afraid to sow my seed because then I won't have the seed anymore? What will happen if I need this seed?' Any farmer knows that if he wants a crop, he's got to sow his seed. It doesn't benefit him to stuff his pockets full. Neither does it do any good to pray, 'Oh God, please give me a crop. I'm not sure I'm ready to sow any seed, but God I'm trusting You to get involved. And I'm holding onto my seed just in case.'"

* "True wealth is having everything you need when you need it. And God is able to give you all things, at all times - all that you need."

* "The fact is, God can be sitting on the sidelines watching you struggle financially, or He can be actively involved as your financial partner. It all depends on what kind of steward you are....I think you already believe that God can intervene directly to change your financial picture. Here's why I think this. As a pastor...I've never heard anyone pray: 'God, as You know, I've withheld from You all these years while I followed my own plan. And sure, I've gotten into this financial catastrophe while on my plan, but I still think my plan can work. So I'll figure things out here on my own, and You can go help somebody else.' No. When the bottom drops out, we suddenly what God involved in our finances.

There is a LOT more that is notable here, but hopefully this has wet your appetite. Go get the book and read it!

Finished Book 1: QBQ

I had gotten this book at the conference I attended in Tennessee a couple of weeks ago (see my post at http://tinyurl.com/3ftkw8m). It looked intriguing, had an unusual title and it came from an organization I highly respected - they GAVE it to me, so I figured it would be helpful to read it. Plus it was very small - a quick read.

QBQ (which stand for the Question behind the Question) is a book all about personal accountability. It forces you to take a hard look at yourself - your behaviors, attitudes and thoughts - so that you ask questions that will prompt solutions, not endless complaining and fingerpointing. It's basic premise rests on a 3 legged stool:

1) Your questions should start with What or How, not who or when. Instead of asking 'who's fault is it that this wasn't completed' or 'when am I going to get the budget I need', the QBQ would ask 'What can I do to help resolve this' or 'How can I be a part of the solution'.

2) Your question should always contain an 'I'. How can I help. What can I do.

3) Finally, your questions should always contain an action. Words like do, solve, help, tackle, overcome, contribute, make the team better, make it happen, achieve the goal, accomplish, etc. are all a part of the QBQ.

There is no single QBQ. There are lots of examples of them, though, that John Miller poses in a helpful chapter near the end.

I found the book a helpful reminder of my personal responsibility for my own life, my leadership, and my circle of influence. It was a little choppy, not particularly well written and lacked some continuity. It WAS helpful, but if it had been much longer, would probably not have been worth the the read.

As it was, with only 2-3 hours of reading time, it was a worthwhile investment, especially since it was free.

Guess that wasn't a rousing endorsement, huh?

Tribes

A couple of weeks ago, I finished reading Seth Godin's book, Tribes. A short book, but packed with really great help for leaders who are passionate about doing something significant in our techno-savvy world. It was really helpful to see how the role of leadership is to help connect people who share a common cause or vision. It was a new way of thinking about leadership for me. A few notable quotes include:

"If you’re not uncomfortable in your work as a leader, it’s almost certain you’re not reaching your potential as a leader."

"finally you begin to realize that the safest thing you can do feels risky and the riskiest thing you can do is play it safe."

"So great leaders don’t try to please everyone. Great leaders don’t water down their message in order to make the tribe a bit bigger. Instead, they realize that a motivated, connected tribe in the midst of a movement is far more powerful than a larger group could ever be."

"Settling is no fun. It’s a malignant habit, a slippery slope that takes you to mediocrity. Managers settle all the time. They don’t really have a choice because there are too many competing priorities. Heretics don’t settle. They’re not good at that. Managers who are stuck, who compromise to keep things quiet, who battle the bureaucracy every day—they’re the ones who settle. What else can they do? The art of leadership is understanding what you can’t compromise on."

(these are just a few, I had many!)

I recommend Tribes to anyone who is a leader or wants to be a leader.

Wild Goose Chase

I referred today to a book that I finished reading recently. It's called Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson, who is the founding pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C. I highly recommend it, and I think we may use it as the foundation for a series in 2010.

Batterson's basic premise is that we don't live to the full potential that God has in mind because of 6 cages: responsibility, routine, assumptions, guilt, failure and fear. Here are some notable quotes from the book:

• If you would describe your relationship with God as anything less than adventurous, then maybe you think you're following the Spirit but have actually settled for something less—something I call inverted Christianity.

• …too often we take people out of their natural habitat and try to tame them in the name of Christ. We try to remove the risk. We try to remove the danger. We try to remove the struggle. And what we end up with is a caged Christian.

• You cannot simultaneously live by faith and be bored. Faith and boredom are antithetical.

• pursuing a God-ordained passion, no matter how crazy it seems, is the most responsible thing you can do.

• But more often than not, faith doesn't follow signs. Signs follow faith.

• The way you overcome spiritual inertia and produce spiritual momentum is by making tough decisions. And the tougher the decision, the more potential momentum it will produce.

• One of the greatest acts of worship is keeping a good attitude in a bad situation.

• Faith is trusting God more than you trust your own assumptions.

• If you stay in the cage of your assumptions, memory will overtake imagination. If you chase the Wild Goose, imagination will overtake memory.

• In my experience, God loves using us before we feel like we're ready.

• Guilt has a shrinking effect. It shrinks our dreams. It shrinks our relationships. It shrinks our hearts. It shrinks our lives to the size of our greatest failures. Grace has the opposite effect. It expands our dreams. It expands our relationships. It expands our hearts. And it gives us the courage to chase the Wild Goose all the way to the ends of the earth.

• If you feel like you're stuck in a tragedy, here's my advice: give Jesus complete editorial control over your life. You have to quit trying to write your own story. And you need to accept Jesus not only as Lord and Savior but also as Author.

• We need people who are more afraid of missing opportunities than making mistakes. People who are more afraid of lifelong regrets than temporary failure. People who dare to dream the unthinkable and attempt the impossible.

• Some of us have the opposite mode of operating: perhaps the Lord won't act in our behalf. We live out of fear instead of faith. And that lack of faith results in a lack of guts.

• Faithfulness is not holding the fort. Faithfulness is storming the gates of hell.

• lack of goals is lack of faith. The Bible says, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for.” But most of us are more sure of what we're afraid of than what we hope for.

• ...ultimately it's not about you. It's about the One who wants to write His-story through your life. A world in desperate need can't do without what you will bring when you become part of something that is bigger than you and more important than you: the cause of Christ in this generation. The stakes could not be higher. And like the first-century disciples, we have the opportunity to turn the world upside down.

Hope you enjoy reading Wild Goose Chase.

No Perfect People Allowed

Guest blogger Beth Brawley serves PCC as the Director of Creative Arts. Following are her thoughts about John Burke's book No Perfect People Allowed.

Recently I took a few days away to do some reading and recalibrating.  Often, the pace of work at PCC is incredibly intense.  I've built into my schedule some study break time that allows me to do some long-range planning and programming. It's become a valuable asset in my striving to be and do all that I am called to in this season of life.

On my most recent break, I read several books (and reviewed each one on my blog, which you can visit here).  Brian had handed me a copy of John Burke's No Perfect People Allowed with a few encouraging words (something along the lines of, "Hey. You need to read this book.") So I did.

It was a great read, full of grace-filled stories that made me cry more than once. Burke is the lead pastor at Gateway Church in Austin, and as he writes about the role of the church in society he shares some incredibly compelling tales about his own experiences.

I took a minimal notes because I was drawn into the book more holistically than I expected. Initially I was underlining passages with glee - until I remembered that the book belonged to someone else (my pastor). I hope he doesn't mind that I wrote all over the first chapter in his book.  Oops.

Here are a few salient points from my reading - they impacted me greatly for reasons having to do with my personal process as a Christ-follower, as well as reasons having to do with the mission of Powhatan Community Church:

• Burke quotes Barna in a profound statement about the church's role in today's world: "(...the role the church must play is) that of a loving, authoritative, healing and compelling influence on the world." Boy, I love that - loving, authoritative, healing and compelling. Sounds a lot like Jesus.
• Truth has become relational. That's why our stories matter so much. Jesus manifests His presence through His work in people's lives.
• We are dealing with a generation of chaos, often a result of a lack of trust. So many people have been damaged by families and relationships - how can they easily trust in God?
• People resist arrogance - one of the questions they will ask when they look at Christians is, "Do I want to be like you?" If the answer is no, we have a problem.
• Burke says "Nothing has been more difficult for me than to watch people react in destructive ways to brokenness." Acting out of brokenness - even as a believer - can destroy you. The church must be a lighthouse of hope.
• Burke says, "Statements like 'Christ died for your sins' and 'God so loved the world' have been leached of all meaning for today's seekers." They won't believe it until they experience it from those who claim to follow Him.
• "To create a culture of grace, a leader must first experience grace - then give it out liberally." (Excuse me for a moment while I thank God for this, which has been my experience and which has been the impetus for my present situation. For which I am thankful, and by which I am overwhelmed....)
• Give up trying to fix people. Accept and love them in order to reconnect them with God.
• In order to lead others, you have to willingly follow God.

The book's most compelling section is titled Mental Monogamy: Creating a Culture of Sexual Wholeness. It's a fascinating, honest look at the way culture interprets and internalizes sexual behavior. Burke quotes Mike Starkey, who says, "Ours is a culture crying out for intimacy, but only able to conceive of accessing it through sex." It's a great discussion of why God's wisdom and ways bring life, and how that applies to our sexuality. Burke focuses on helping people become rightly related to God and truly willing to follow Christ, then guiding them to the freedom of following his ways. He says, "If we try to force people to morally approximate the gospel before they have the source of life-giving water, we spiritually dehydrate them." It's a great examination of why and how God's plan for sexual wholeness comes with the mandate for sexual intimacy to be within the confines of the marriage bed, and how the church can create a culture for restoration and sexual wholeness so that God's spirit can change hearts and heal lives.

Good stuff; lots of inspiration here for ministry, for our church, for the future. Burke's book is incredibly moving, with powerful stories from real people who were turned off by Christians and by the church, but drawn to into relationship with Jesus once the cultural clutter was cleared away.

Brian asked me to post here in order to do to you what he did to me.  If you're passionate about PCC; if you're part of the Core group of leaders; if you want to better understand how the church can most effectively function in a post-modern world, take it from me:  YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK.

Click here, order it from Amazon and enjoy.  And let us know what you think.