[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXHne2QjPlM&feature=player_embedded#]
So, if you’ll remember several months ago I won a book from a drawing on Twitter.  The book was Tony Morgan’s Killing Cockroaches, and other scattered musings on leadership.  I love reading.  Especially good books.  Even more so when they are free books!  So, if you have any free books that you think I should read, send em my way!  But anyway back to it…  This was a great read.  It was definitely scattered in thought… If you are expecting a logical progression of thought from start to finish you won’t find that.  What you will find is short brief, few paragraph, progressions focused on a certain aspect of leadership, or church life.

There are several topics that really resonated with me, here are a few:

• Compel them to come in:  Are our church services compelling?  Is there more value attached to what we are doing than going to Starbucks and sipping coffee, playing golf, or sleeping in?  Great thoughts, provoking questions…
• Evangelistic Enemy?: “I wonder if we’ve inadvertently designed our ministries to isolate Christians from the places where God really wants them to be.”  Are our programs keeping our church from having a greater evangelistic influence in their communities?  This one will make you think.
• Gunky Build Up: “Sometimes I believe the life that the more I do, the more valuable I am to the team.  The reality is that I’m not being effective if I’m busy doing the wrong things.”  What kind of gunk is building in my life that is keeping me from being the best possible leader I can be ?  Great thoughts…
• Marketing Mistakes:  First off, the biggest mistake is thinking that the church shouldn’t market!  But beyond that Tony has several great thoughts here.  These two are my favorite.

• thinking other church’s are your competition.  “We are competing with todays culture.  That means that other churches are on your team!”
• Publicizing church programs that compete with one another.  “Figure out what you do well and what God is using today to reach people for Jesus— And do that!”

This book is a great read… I would highly recommend it.  Don’t read it if you don’t want to think.  Don’t read it if your not ready to make some potential changes, don’t read it if you think that your church has totally arrived and is perfect.

Read it if you want to be more effective in whatever ministry you are doing…

That’s my prayer…

~Peter