Category: Book Reviews

by Anne Graham Lotz

• Sometimes the deepest wounds are by those who also call themselves God’s children. 

• If anyone could understand, it is our Savior. He was despised and rejected by those He came to save. 

• When they hurled their insults at Him, he did not retaliate. He did not respond to the threats. He charged it to His Father.

• If anyone had a right to respond, retaliate and react, it was Jesus. 

• Don’t let anyone rob you of the greatest treasure, which is a personal and passionate relationship with Jesus.

• Don’t reject the God of those that are rejecting you.

• Hagar was wounded by the family (Abraham and Sarah) by which came the heritage of our Jesus.

• Sarah was wounded because she could not have a child, and was probably looked down upon as a result. But now this wounded woman became a wounder to Hagar. 

• Sarah, an exemplary woman in the Bible, wounded another person. 

• After being wounded, if we think on it and live in it, we can easily slip into becoming a wounder. 

• Hannah was mocked because she couldn’t have a child, but she chose to pray and talk to God instead of retaliate. 

• Although a wounded person might not get over their hurt easily, you still should still ask forgiveness. 

• Wounds can be contagious. Families and countries have taken sides and began wars and fights over past hates. 

• Hagar did what seems to be the easiest when hurt, she ran. Though running may be the easiest answer, it doesn’t solve the problem. 

• Instead of having imaginary conversations with your wounders, you must forgive or you will not heal. 

• Place your eyes on the Healer rather than the scars of your wounders. 

• Wounds have a way of festering if you don’t let them heal. 

• As did Hagar, there must be a time to stop crying and start crying out. 

• God told Hagar to go lift up her son Ishmael after she ran away. It doesn’t seem to make sense that lifting a person during your own turmoil can relieve your pain. Yet God seems to use that method. Who can you lift up? Who is your Ishmael, one that needs your hand?

• Allow God to use this valley to open your eyes. Don’t let the pain or hurt blind you from what God wants you to see.

• God opened Hagar’s eyes to see water. Had the water been there the whole time?

• The hurt can broaden your heart, deepen your compassion, refocus your purpose and draw you nigh to God. 

• God can give you a vision in your valley. 

• You can not move forward by looking backwards. 

• Look up and look ahead. You cannot move forward by looking backwards.

• When Jesus was on the cross, He said, “Father forgive them.” How could you not forgive those who wounded you? 

By Mark Batterson 

• We feel so unqualified for tomorrow’s circumstances that we quit before we even start. 

• Let go of dead yesterday’s and unborn tomorrow’s.

• Focus on the inputs more than the outcomes. 

• Win the day, and tomorrow will take care of itself. Do that enough days in a row, and you can accomplish almost anything.

• Break the bad habits by doing good habits.

• We are so fixated on the past, and anxious about the future, that we miss out on the present.

• Most people think eternity starts in the future, but it starts right now.

• The expiration on manna was every day. The deadline on anger was before sundown. God’s mercies are new every morning. We are told to take up our cross daily. We are told to rejoice today. The 24-hour rule is everywhere you look. 

• You might not think you can do something for a month or a week, but you can do it for a day. 

• Unleash the power of 24-hours. 

• God will use things in your past to prepare you for tomorrow. 

• It might take a Goliath-sized giant to bring out the David within you. 

• Some people say they succeeded in spite of bad situations, but most likely they succeeded because of those bad situations. 

• You don’t get to choose your past, but you do get to determine what your future will look like. 

• There’s nothing wrong with asking God to change your circumstances, but God might be using your circumstances to change you. 

• Sometimes God saves us from suffering, but many times He saves us through suffering. 

• If you want to do what no one has done, you need to do what no one is doing. 

• If you do not like what is happening in your life, take responsibility and change it. 

• If you will do little things like big things, then God might do big things with those little things 

• Sometimes our Plan B is God‘s plan A.

• Today is the day. If you wait until you are ready to do it, you will never do it.

• We need an holy urgency. Not the kind that is born of nervousness, but the kind that is born of a righteous passion.

By Thom S. Rainer 

• When leading to make a change, start it with prayer. Beginning in your own power, confidence and cockiness is a big mistake. 

• When leading to make a change, you must asses unintended consequences. There will almost always be reactions beyond the change itself. 

• When leading to make a change, make sure to always communicate. You cannot over-communicate!

• When leading to make a change, deal with the people issues. Get buy-in from others, especially key people. 

• When leading to make a change, model the right attitude in leadership. 

• Five kinds of unmovable church members

1. 1. 1. 1. The Deniers. Some will just live in denial, but it is the fastest way to death. 
         2. The Entitled. Those who expect what they want. They don’t want anything that upsets their way of doing church.
         3. The Blamers. They would rather blame than take fault. They blame everything on culture, community and others. They resist change. 
         4. The Critics. They find fault in everything and everyone. 
         5. The Confused. Many times they are good innocent people, so they resist change. 

• The following is a roadmap for leading change in your church: 

1. 1. 1. Stop and Pray. 

Successful and sustaining change does not occur without prayer. 

Start with prayer. 

Ask for wisdom. 

You cannot see the future, but God can. 

Pray for courage. Pray for strength. 

1. 1. 2. Confront and Communicate the Urgency for Change. 

Look at the statistics and face the reality. 

Get outside eyes and ask them to be blunt with you. 

Openly and honestly share the feedback and facts with your congregation. 

1. 1. 3. Build an Eager Coalition. 

Find the influencers, get them on board and keep them in the loop. This will help to communicate to the rest of the group or congregation. 

1. 1. 4. Become a Voice and Vision of Hope. 

Hope begins and continues with God. 

You lead in hope by reading the Bible daily, communicating that hope to others, and finding low hanging fruit to share with others. 

Hope has to accompany vision. 

1. 1. 5. Deal with People Issues. 

Change is all about people. 

If you don’t deal with people issues, you will fail in the change. 

You have to love people more than you love change.

1. 1. 6. Move From an Inward Focus to an Outward Focus. 

First, you must be an example of focus as a leader. 

You cannot lead in change without embodying change first. 

Outward focus begins with you.

1. 1. 7. Pick low Hanging Fruit. 

What are some things you can do right now? 

Find, create and point out victories. 

1. 1. 8. Implement and Consolidate Change. 

If you’re not careful, the change becomes more important than what you are going to do after the change. The means becomes the end. 

The number one reason for complacency is unclear and unstated vision. 

We do not change for change sake, but for the Gospel sake. 

We live in urgency because the gospel is urgent. 

• There are always resistors, and many hesitant ones as well. What seems slow to you as a leader is likely too fast for those in the congregation. You need wisdom and discretion.

• Leading in change begins in prayer, but you must continue in prayer as well. 

• We do not want to change people, we want God to change people. 

By Spencer Johnson 

This book is a short, must-read book. It is on my yearly list, and I highly recommend it to you. It is a short story of four of four mice: Sniff, Scurry, Hem, and Haw. The four mice live in the maze, and are accustomed to the cheese always given to them. When the cheese is one day is no longer there (cheese being a metaphor for anything in life that one desires), two of the mice go running off looking for more. Two of the mice stay and begin to picket, get mad, and live in shock that someone has taken their cheese. The big lessons, for me, were:

1. Expect change because it will happen whether one likes it or asks for it. 
2. When the “cheese” is moved, you have a decision to make: get mad and let it ruin your day and life, or move on to find more cheese.
3. Don’t allow entitlement to dictate your life.

By Jason K. Allen 

• To be an effective leader, you probably need to do less, not more. 

• Leadership boils down to one word: stewardship. 

• A few principles that do not change in leadership: 

1. Lead where you are. The most important job you have is the one that you have right now. Leadership is not just for your future, it is in your present. In leadership, you must lead in your present area. Locationally, your job right now is more important than your job in the future. 

2. The Providence of God. 2+2 can be 7 when God is with you.

3. Credibility follows you. When a politician’s past is brought up, his credibility is doubted and it could be his end. It takes years to accumulate and take seconds to end. 

4. It takes a Team. 

• You must know what you believe, and why you exist. You must know your purpose.

• A mission statement help you as an organization and those you serve.

• The mission statement clarifies what you do and why you do it. It not only clarifies what you do, but it also clarifies what you do not do.

• Midwestern seminary has the vision statement “For the church.” It clarifies everything they do.

• A vision statement needs to be no longer than one sentence. It is better to have no vision statement than an unclear one.

• Vision leads, so communicate it regularly.

• Vision rusts over time, so we need to hear it over and over again.

• The leader might carry the vision, but the vision will also carry the leader. 

• Trust is needed for leadership.

• Trust requires authenticity, logic, and empathy.

• Trust is slowly learned, but quickly lost. It takes off in a sprint, but comes back in a crawl.

• Every hire matters. Never casually hire someone.

• When you’re going to hire, start with the C’s:

1. 1. 1. Character
      2. Calling — are they doing this for the money? 
      3. Conviction
      4. Culture – do they align with your organization’s culture?
      5. Competency — Will they strengthen the team or debilitate it?
      6. Capabilities – do they add value?

• Believe your team, and believe in your team. 

• Keep short accounts with your team.

• At the end of every meeting, it should be clear who is going to do what and when.

• Insufficient accountability results in a lack of progress.

by L. David Marquet 

• The leader–leader philosophy is different from the leader–follower model. The leader–leader philosophy empowers others to lead.

• Leadership is not something that some people have and other people do not. It is within every human and we all must do our best to lead well.

• What is your commitment like? 

• When was the last time you walked around to hear the good, bad, and ugly about your management?

• Does leadership in the organization take control or give control?

• Are your people trying to achieve excellence or just avoid mistakes?

• Do you take more time critiquing errors than celebrating success?

• Do you work at minimizing errors without making it the focus of your organization?

• Allow others to give input and make decisions. Ask what they think. Instead of asking you something, let them say, “I intend to” and you can accept or not. This will turn passive workers into active leaders. 

• In the leader–leader concept, you should discuss and act before giving an order. This is much harder than the leader–follower concept where the leader just tells someone what to do.

• Control without competence is chaos.

• Stop briefing and start certifying.

• Do the guiding principles in your organization help people to make decisions?

• Are your guiding principles known and understood by others?

• Give immediate recognition, do not wait.

• Do you want obedience or effectiveness?

• Build a culture that has a questioning attitude instead of blind obedience.

• Don’t think short-term, think long-term.

• Specify goals, not methods.

By William MacDonald (summary by Jeffrey Bush)

• Jesus is not looking for those who will give their spare evenings to Him, but rather commit their lives to Him. 

• To be His disciple, we must walk as He walked – John 15:8

• The way we use material possessions speaks of our spiritual stewardship. 

• A disciple cannot be divided between two worlds. He can love God or mammon, but not both. This passage (Matthew 6:24) was written to disciples, not to lost people. 

• The disgrace of the church today is that there is more zeal in suicide bombers and cultists than amongst God’s children. 

• God is looking for people completely controlled by the Holy Spirit. 

• No one has ever trusted God in vain. 

• Any disciple that decides to walk by faith can be assured that his faith will be tested. 

• Since faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, the disciple should desire to saturate himself in the Scripture. It is his lamp and light, his chart and compass. 

• Prayer that cost nothing is worth nothing. 

• The way of unity is through humility. 

• The Bible is center in world evangelism. 

• More can be accomplished for God by a few dedicated disciples then by a great army of self-satisfied religionists. 

• To be a true disciple is to be Christ’s bond slave.

• A Christian either leaves his fortune upon death, or he goes to it in Heaven.

• A Christian can make money as long as he doesn’t fall in love with it. 

• God is not seeking power from us rather weakness. 

By Gracia Burnham 

• There are two things things that are for certain, that there will be trials and that he has overcome them John 16:33

• Less than 1/4 of the world sleep in beds. The majority of the world are sleeping in hammocks, on the floor, on the dirt, or on something else.

• When life spins out of control, we find out who we really are. 

• What defines us is not what we have but who we are.

• Anger doesn’t help. Anger in the face of trouble is common, but that does not make it productive.

• Impatience is another way of saying I am important, what I want should happen, and it really doesn’t matter what anyone else needs. 

• A fruit of the Spirit is patience. God‘s timing and God‘s way is always best.

• Sometimes God calms the storm, and sometimes God calms you.

• Our only hope is God‘s grace.

• When we are weak, He can be strong. When we are shattered, He can put us back together again. When we are disputed, He can infuse us with His joy.