Scott Cheatham’s Weblog

Leveen's Book

A few years ago, I picked up Steve Leveen’s book “The LIttle Guide to Your Well Read Life” at a local bookstore.  As an avid reader, I was intrigued that someone had written a new book on more effective reading.  In a day when reading seems to be dropping to all time lows, it was refreshing to see this book published.

Leveen’s book relies heavily on one written many years before; Mortimer Adler’s “How To Read A Book” is considered by most bibliophiles to be the best written on the subject.  The thing I liked about Leveen’s work is that while leaning heavily on Adler’s theories, it also takes into account new mediums for books such as the growing audio book market.  It also made for easy reading as it was broken down into manageable chapters and yes, it is available as an audio book as well.

The book begins with Leveen’s own background into his reading passion before providing practical advice on how to take notes on what you are reading, organizing your bookshelves for more effective reading, how to get more books into your life, and how to share your love of books though a local book club.  I read the entire book over a weekend while relaxing on my back porch in the summer of 2005.  I recently “read” the book again in audio form to prepare for this review.

After reading this book, you will be well on your way to more fruitful reading in the years ahead.  It’s a fun, easy guide on getting more life from your books and is readily available at many libraries if you’d like to check it out.

Reading is essential for growth.  Whether you read more print books or formulate a way to include audio books into your life, the lessons learned from effective reading are priceless.  If you’d like to learn more, pick up “The Little Guide to Your Well Read Life” and begin your journey today!

ESV Study Bible

Those who know me know that my bible of preference when teaching or preaching is the English Standard Version.   I use different translations in my study but if I had to pick one, the ESV would be it.  I am quite excited about the upcoming release of the new ESV Study Bible.  I’ve been hearing about this study bible for two years now and have been impressed with the pre-publication reviews of this resource.  The publishers of the ESV, Crossway, recently released it’s own blog, youtube video, and a full PDF preview of the book of Jonah to help promote this edition of the scriptures.  From all accounts, it looks like this will be a fine study bible.  I plan on buying copies of it for those on my staff who preach as a year end gift.

The ESV comes in some great editions and most are available online.  The “Literary Study Bible” released last year is available as a digital resource for a very reasonable one-time price.  The new study bible, to be released in October, will be available at no cost online for purchasers of the text edition.  I’ve used the Literary notes extensively in my research and the online study helps offered by third party vendors with permission from Crossway make available many fine commentaries and study notes.  I have no reason to believe the online edition of the ESV study bible will be anything less than five-star.

All in all, this will be a standard for study bibles in the future.  The beautiful illustrations, full notes, and single column readability will rival any others I’ve used.  The quality bindings available will also make it last so your investment will be worth it.  As this text’s popularity grows, more materials are being made available for it.  One that I highly recommend comes from a pastor I admire greatly, Randy Sawyer.  HIs “Regaining Balance” book is a wonderful devotional that you could use for a sermon series or an entire church campaign.  Of course, if you just want to use it for your own personal quiet time, it’s excellent for that as well and it uses the ESV text as it’s base for the devotions.  Okay, shameless plug for the book over now!

When I receive my copy of the ESV study bible, I’ll give you a full review here  but from what I’ve seen in the PDF previews released, you’ll want to put this one on your Christmas wish list if you’re in the market for a new bible.

A Solid Resource

Do you have an intentional plan to grow as a leader in the coming year? As the summer winds down and fall comes upon us in a few weeks now is a great time to consider this question. A year ago, I purchased the “One Year Personal Growth Plan” resource from the Church Leader Insights website. For many in business and ministry, the fiscal calendar begins with back to school. My own personal planning runs from September 1-to-August 31 each year. I usually take the month of August to begin planning goals, ideas, big-days, and special events for our church family. Last year, I added the practices from this resource to my calendar. I listened to this resource again earlier this month and set in motion my plans to continue growing in the 2008-09 year.

This audio training, running about 70 minutes, features Nelson Searcy and Roy Mansfield from the “Journey” church in New York. In that time, they share with you a complete system of growth for the next 12 months. They do this in four areas: Annually, Monthly, Weekly, and Daily. All four areas are important and in each, Searcy and Mansfield give you tips for incorporating growth strategies into your year.

Personal growth may sound a bit egotistical but it’s not. I believe that as a leader, I must continue to grow each year if I expect God to grow our church. It’s no accident that healthy churches have excellent leaders and those leaders didn’t develop their skills by chance. They came as a result of a focused effort to improve. This resource gives you the tools to do just that.

You can download this training for $20 from the Church Leader Insights online store. I do not work for them nor do I benefit in any way if you purchase this. I do believe in passing along great tools and this is one of them. Get this now so you can listen and plan over the next few weeks to grow as a leader in the year ahead. I’d like to connect with anyone who has used this and find out how it’s helped them. As always, you can comment below.

Anyone who knows me personally knows I’m an avid reader. Finding good books to read is an endeavor I think that will last me the rest of my life. Very few books are written these days suggesting good reading material much less that of a Christian nature. Today, I want to share with you one of the best. “Take & Read” is a book about spiritual reading. It’s author, Eugene Peterson, is best known for his paraphrase of the bible titled “The Message”. Peterson’s works over the years have been a blessing to me. This one highlights several types of reading lists and suggests books that many of you probably have never heard of. I know I had not heard of some of these books until reading about them in Peterson’s lists.

Take & Read begins with a call to deeper spiritual reading. So much of what is on bookstore shelves these days is quite shallow and does not require much work to digest. The books on this list, however, will give you pause to think. One of the first books I read from the suggestions in this volume, John Cassian’s “Conferences”, was an amazing read though it took a while for me take it all in. The book is hundreds of years old (yes, even over a thousand years old) and read like a modern day book of pastoral work. There are other great suggestions here for you to consider. Most of the books are classics and many are available for free through the internet if you know where to look! There are some modern day works recommended though. Peterson does not limit his choices to just those books that are hundreds of years old.

There’s much great reading out there that is considered classic literature that you will never find on the shelves of ANY bookstore. These are books that are crying out to be read in our modern day. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this book and begin making your own lists. Then, enjoy the reading!

For those who speak in their churches each week, I ask this question: How many of you take the time to plan your messages out more than a month or so in advance? Not many I’m sure. When I first started preaching on a weekly basis, I wasn’t prepared for the grind of putting together fresh, relevant messages each week. In 2002, I stumbled across “Planning Your Preaching” by Steven Rummage. I’m glad I made the decision to purchase this book. It seems there are countless volumes in print on how to preach but scant few on developing the tools needed to plan what to preach.

For starters, this book takes into account many different styles and traditions of worship. It’s rooted in the more traditional calendar of Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening services but it can be modified and used with great profit for those who only preach once a week. For example, you could modify the templates here to incorporate your mid-week bible study, small group calendar, or youth calendar. The tools provided allow for plenty of flexibility if you’re willing to invest the time needed to make them work.

In the beginning of the book, the author starts by sharing the benefits of advance planning and how to develop a strategy of preaching. From there, he gives you the “nuts and bolts” of planning and developing a one year calendar of preaching. He includes such topics as special days, ordinances, and even using a lectionary if that’s your style. Also covered are topics like doctrinal preaching and how to make sure you cover the whole of scripture in your preaching. In the end, he gives you some final tips for execution (There’s really no need to go through all of this if you don’t take steps to make it happen) and gives you some reproducible templates to help you on your way. I’ve used his “sermon starter” sheet many times when I’m stuck for ideas on developing my messages. In the end, if you’ve taken the steps the author asks of you, you’ll have a nice binder of message ideas and perhaps even some starter outlines to begin a new year of preaching.

I prepare my church year from August to July so I’m in the process of using these next few months to prepare for another year. Included in that is some time off for preparing my preaching calendar. Now is an excellent time for you to pick up this book, read it, and begin the fall season with some fresh ideas for preaching. For me, the months of June and July are planning months. I use them for developing my own personal growth plan, my preaching calendar, and outlining goals and objectives for the new year. As a pastor, nothing is more important than the preaching of the Word of God. Giving myself to this time of planning is imperative if I expect the Word to change lives in the coming year.

Rummage’s book is a goldmine in a sea of preaching books that never touch this topic. For about $15, you can have a text that will give you solid ideas and inspiration for the year ahead. As the summer months come upon us, I wholeheartedly recommend this book for your reading this season!

I first read “The Fifth Discipline” by Peter Senge when I was taking a college class on problem solving in the Spring of 2006. I recently finished listening to the audio book version of this work a few weeks back. This time, I was able to listen more intently to the ideas in the book rather than survey it for a college paper.

The book’s focus is to encourage a new kind of thinking in organizations. One that involves systems as a means to being more productive and to minimize future problems. If you are new to systems thinking, it is merely a way to see the “long range” effects of decisions that may take weeks, months, or even years to materialize.

A simple example of this would be to make a decision to invest in leadership training for a group of people with the real goal being to address a multi-level management problem within your organization that needs to be addressed at least a year in advance. While other pressing needs may seem to be more important, if the training does not occur, disaster could result from having a poorly educated leadership base trying to address future problems that are not apparent now but will be a real issue in the future. That will make the current need, though still important, a moot point if action isn’t taken now to address the potential system flaw that needs to be corrected.

Of course, there’s much more to cover here than just systems thinking. Systems are simply the “Fifth” discipline of the learning organization but there are others. Using examples drawn from many sources, including scripture, Senge proceeds to lay out his master plan of growth and harmony within organizations by addressing the other four disciplines as well. These include: Personal Mastery, Mental Models, Shared Vision, and Team Learning. He then goes on to discuss some simple prototypes in the end portion of the book. These are all vital areas to consider as you move your organization forward. All are covered well here but it would be wise to consider other works that address each of these areas in more depth and detail depending on your position and your organization.

From a ministerial perspective, the book has several solid applications for churches. I believe God organized the church to operate in systems as well:

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
(Ephesians 4:15-16 ESV)

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
(Ephesians 2:19-21 ESV)

These verses speak to the variety of systems needed for healthy growth. Our God given bodies are made up of various systems that sustain us. If one of those is not functioning properly, it can affect the entire body. In much the same way, our church body can be affected when systems aren’t functioning at their best.

On Monday evening, I’ll share more about the systems in a church and point you to a few free resources that can give you a jump start in this way of thinking. For now, I would recommend that you pick up a copy of “The Fifth Discipline” either at the bookstore or library and read it for yourself. There is plenty of good information there for you to glean whether you are a pastor, volunteer leader, or business executive. After listening to it again, I’ve marked it as one of those “must reads” for leaders in our church and those who I get the chance to visit and share ideas with.