While I tend to agree with many pastors that business books can be dangerous when you try to apply the principles of running a corporation to a church, I also think that there are many good things we can glean from reading books that make businesses successful. This book is not so much a business book as it is about communication; regardless of the work environment.

The authors, brothers Chip and Dan Heath, have isolated 6 principles that help make an idea ’sticky.’ What I loved about the way they explained the principles is they used urban legends as many of their examples. There are reasons that urban legends get passed around and tend to stick no matter how much information is on the web to the contrary. If you could communicate real ideas, stories and principles in a way that cause them to stick like an urban legend, then you would get your message across. The book is filled with real examples as well.

In Made to Stick you will find the 6 principles and examples illustrating those ideas. Not every sticky idea will contain all 6, but the more you can communicate using the 6 principles, the stickier your communication will be.

What are the principles? Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional and Story. SUCCESs is used as the trigger to help you remember these principles.

Simple: Find the core of what you want to communicate. This has to do with the idea you want to share more than the way you share it. Sometimes an elaborate story can get the message across in a more sticky way than just sharing the core. Therefore, Simple is about the message, not necessarily the way it is delivered.

Unexpected: At the end of the story did you expect that the person was going to wake up in an ice-filled tub having had his kidney’s stolen? Giving examples of how you want your sales staff to meet the customer’s needs is much more sticky than saying, “Take care of the customer.”

Concrete: Help your audience work through the thought process instead of just teaching them the bottom line. An example is how students learn math better when they think through adding members to make up a baseball team as opposed to just telling the students that 3+6=9.

Credible: Being credible is not just being able to spout off statistics that no one will remember. Credibility can come through showing an example of a person going through a similar problem and how they are dealing with it. Better yet, have that person become your spokesperson. Real people dealing with real issues.

Emotion: Help people see themselves either experiencing the problem or being a solution to the problem. Instead of asking the crowd to give money to support all the missionaries in South America, I should help you understand that if you support my ministry in Argentina I will be able to share the Gospel of Christ with a deaf boy in La Plata who may never have another person love him enough to teach him the Bible. By sending $50 a month you can help my family do just that.

Story: Take any opportunity you have to illustrate with a story as opposed to just giving the facts. In the book they say that the story and the moral are both important. However, if you just tell the story the listener can figure out the moral. But if you only have the moral (the facts) then the listener has no clear understanding of what the moral means nor a good way to remember it.

I have to say that this is probably THE BEST BOOK I have read in a long time. While I borrowed this copy from the local library, I will be on the lookout for a copy of my own. This is a book that I could easily read several more times and go back and reference often in the future. I think it is a great book for missionaries and pastors as well as anyone who needs to communicate a message.

Made to Stick. Chip and Dan Heath. Random House, 2007. 291 pages.

I got a chance to chat with Mr. Beardsley at length. He was signing books and chatting with the crowd. Because I was a volunteer there I was able to catch him when there was no one around. I really enjoyed my 10 minute conversation with him. I bought the book he wrote several years ago titled Staying The Course: A Runner’s Toughest Race.

Staying The Course is an autobiography of his running career and his involvement with and recovery from addictions. The first half of the book takes the reader through that famous Boston Marathon while the second half leads you through his spiral into substance abuse. Unlike Duel in the Sun though, this book has a much more satisfying conclusion. While Dick Beardsley’s story is not yet over, this book concludes with an air of certainty of where his life is headed. At the end of Duel in the Sun I was not sure that Beardsley had gotten in control of his addictions. Staying the Course removes my doubts.

If you ever get a chance to meet Dick Beardsley you will find that he really is as upbeat and positive as his book portrays him to be.

As I was reading the book I was struck by how much I enjoyed reading a man brag about his accomplishments. Of course he has to tell about what has taken place in his life, but you don’t feel like he is bragging. The man makes his living by going to races and talking about himself. He has learned how to talk about himself so that the audience does not feel he is being braggadocios. Therefore his memoir is readable and not boastful.

The writing style did not flow very well at times. Some passages had to be read over to understand what was being said. However, when I was reading those same passages out loud to the family, they seemed to make more sense. I think some of the writing was probably just a transcription of speeches he has given. It sounds good to the ears, but sometimes hard to read for the eyes and brain. People talk about being conversational in your writing style; this book may be a bit too conversational.

The book contains some swearing, which was a big reason I did not like Duel in the Sun and considered taking it back to the store. But the amount of foul language in this book was minimal. And, unlike Duel in the Sun, it was limited to direct quotes.

I highly recommend this book. My opinion of the book may be skewed because I have met the author and had a good experience with him, but that is part of the “Dick Beardsley Package.” How could I have a bad opinion of the man who indulged me enough to sign my New Balance running shoes?

Staying The Course by Dick Beardsley. 2002. University of Minnesota Press. 203 pages.

Running
My goal was to run 1000 miles again in 2009 like the goal was for 2008. I missed it both years. 2009 was thwarted by starting the year with a stress fracture in my left foot. I was able to recover and was doing well by the middle of the year. However when I ramped up my mileage for marathon training in August, I went too far too soon. I had taken the first half of the year too easy and the longer miles caused another stress fracture in the left foot by the end of September. That slowed me down once again.

It was a learning year. I now know to respect the 10% rule a bit more (10% rule=no more than 10% more miles from week to week or month to month). I did not train for any half marathons in 2009. I went from no specific training goals to marathon ambitions thinking that I was physically as strong as I was the year before. I take more experience and wisdom into 2010 because of this.

I also had a goal of 2 half marathons and a full. Since I was injured I scrapped the half marathon plans and just went for the full. That was a mistake. I also planned to set a 5K PR. I only ran one this year and it was on an injured foot, so I did not even try to race it. Only enjoy the experience.

Total mileage for 2009 was 525 miles in 138 runs. That means I averaged a run every2 to 3 days (once every 2.6 days). Which means I ran fairly consistently, but my average run was fewer than 4 miles.

Reading
The goal was to read at least 800 pages a month and not have any month drop below that number. I did not do too poorly on that goal. I struggled a couple of months, but most months I exceeded the goal. Starting in August I somehow fell off the bandwagon of keeping track of my books and pages read. October through December I read so many books that I just had trouble remembering which ones I read to even write them down. If I missed any 800 page months I probably made up for it in those three months. In a 2 week stretch in December I know I read more than 900 pages. I need to do a better job of keeping records this year.

2010?
I am still working on my 2010 goals. I will try to get something written down and shared here in a few days.

The book’s premise is that a good spiritual leader will smell like his flock just as any shepherd would smell like the sheep he is pastoring. In fact, the sheep would probably just see the shepherd as one of their own who happens to be able to walk on two feet and protect them from danger.

It was a well outlined book and would make a great text to teach from for church leadership.

The book did not focus on just pastors either. It was about leadership in the church at any level. He even made the point that a church leader could possibly be someone who has not had any official authority appointed to him. If one will simply find an area in which to serve others he can be a spiritual leader.

My favorite quote from the book went something like this “We need to follow Jesus’ leadership style. He recruited 12, graduated 11 and focused on 3.” I really like that attitude. While some people may be able to effectively “pastor” 50 or 100 people, it is fine to put a greater effort into a few.

My one caveat about the book is the way he handles the last couple of chapters. He goes through some detailed word studies in the final pages. I loved his conclusions, but have great reservations about his process. He details how that some words in the Bible are interpreted wrongly by pastors and leaders, but in so doing questions the translation of God’s Word into our language. It would be easy for a reader to fall into the trap of wondering if we really do have the Word of God preserved for us today, or if every word in our translations have to be scrutinized for their accuracy.

I do not at all think that the author is claiming that we can’t know what God’s Word is, but I think he leads the reader down a dangerous path with the way he questions translations.

Though that is a strong warning, I really enjoyed the book and think it is spot on to where we need to be as church leaders. I also agree with his conclusions on how God’s Word has been interpreted incorrectly by many in the past.

They Smell Like Sheep: Spiritual Leadership for the 21st Century, Lynn Anderson, 248 pages, Howard Books, 2002.

The book is about running. It is presented by sharing a story involving an indigenous Mexican tribe in the Copper Canyon that is made up of extremely gifted athletes. The point was that we can learn their secrets and become better runners as well. The use of a great narrative made a potentially dull book about putting one foot in front of the other much more interesting.

I did not read the book, but rather listened to the audio-book version while I was driving around in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago. I have to admit that I was very engrossed in the story. I did not have any close calls by not paying attention, but I did get wrapped up in it a couple of times enough to have to wipe the tears away when certain events were portrayed. Even though I already knew the outcome of some of the races that were described in the book, I was still on the edge of my seat waiting to hear how it would unfold.

My standard disclaimer has to be said here though. I cannot really recommend this book for young people. The language in it was appalling. As I have said before, I know people really talk like that, but that does not mean I want to read (or listen to) all the foul language.

Well written book, but I cannot give it a full recommendation because of the language.

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, 2009. Christopher McDougall, Knopf publishing. 304 pages.

If you have not read The Shack it might be quite shocking to you. Give the book an honest read, even if you have to be critical the whole way. In a nutshell the book talks about having a real and personal relationship with God. While I have some problems with the theology in the book, the concept of seeing God as a real friend who can help individuals on a personal basis is well presented. Do I believe God interacts with us in the way the book depicts? No, I don’t think He does. Could He? Sure He could.

Apparently the book has been quite controversial. I have intentionally not looked into some of the criticisms of the book. I chose to read it as a fiction book and not put any stock in its theology. I do see it as a great concept of how God wants to have a personal relationship with us. Furthermore, I believe that He can be as personal as the book presents.

The book came highly recommended by a few friends. It certainly was well written. I don’t know if I could give a general recommendation of the book to everyone. I think some people are mature enough to see it for what I believe it is–an encouraging way to show God’s desire to have a relationship with man. However, some of my friends would not see it is such and therefore would probably not benefit from reading it.

The Shack, William Paul Young, Windblown Media, 2008, 256 pages.

The first thing that caught my attention was its format. It is a small book. While it is hardback, the format was more like a trade paperback size. At fewer than 160 pages, it is also very quick to read. The second interesting thing about the book is that there are no chapters. I love reading books with lots of chapters. The shorter the chapter, the more I enjoy the book. I like to read a chapter in each sitting if possible. This book was even better. Instead of chapters he just had sections that ran together only separated by a bold section title. Some sections were a couple of pages while others were only one paragraph. Most were somewhere between the two.

The concept behind a tribe is that you, as an individual, can gather/motivate/assemble a group of people with a common interest and lead them to accomplish a task. While you are a leader you will not have to be the one doing the work if your tribe has people with common interest and goals. They will be just as motivated to get the job done as you are. You, as the leader, may not need to do anything more than be the person that causes the tribe to assemble in the first place.

Godin is a philosopher. This book was not so much about the tools that make tribes work. Rather, it explained why tribes work and gave a set of principles to help you understand the concept of them. By doing so you can make a tribe work in your favor with many different tools. He gave specific examples using tools available today, but with the principles of the book you could make a tribe effective for you even if these tools don’t exist 5 years into the future.

A tribe does not have to be led from a position of authority. A person in the mail room of a company can see something that needs to be done and assemble like minded people to accomplish the task. You don’t have to be the boss to be a leader. He does not think that everyone needs to have a tribe assembled around them. But, if you do have a desire to lead, you can. Right now. You don’t have to wait until you have the authority to be a leader. Be one where you are today.

Why is this book popular? I think it taps into the reason social media is such a hit today. As a podcaster one can become a leader of a tribe. Bloggers can lead their own tribe. Twitter and Facebook allow us to assemble our friends and share information that may help us accomplish a task. You don’t have to be the leader of a tribe of 400 people. If you can gather 5 like-minded people around you then you can lead a tribe and accomplish a task.

As a missionary this is a great concept. My goal is one that is shared by millions of people around the world. We want to get the story of Jesus Christ to the masses. However, I can’t reach everyone. I also can’t motivate every church member to pray for me and my ministry. But, if I can inspire 3 people in each church to take a personal interest in my ministry and to connect with others who share the same goal, then I can lead a tribe that will uphold my ministry in prayer. What missionary doesn’t want that?

It is definitely a philosophical book. Some people are going to read this and not get it. They want to follow a formula. There is none presented in the book. But if you can wrap your brain around the concepts of the book you will be well on your way to leading your small group of people. Or, 6 groups of people for different purposes.

It is a book about leadership that I can highly recommend.

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, Seth Godin, Portfolio Hardcover, 2008, 160 pages.

The book is titled Mentoring and Modeling: Developing the Next Generation by Dr. Mark Rasmussen and Dr. John Goetsch. I am not sure exactly how I would define mentoring, so I had no prejudice as to what the book should contain.

Not until I got 2/3 rds. of the way through the book did I start to understand what the authors meant by that word. Their definition could easily be called “a good teacher.”

I thought the book was well written. It was very practical towards the end of the book. They moved from theoretical teaching to practical application. It was in the practical application section of the book that it became clear as to what was meant by being a mentor. They gave great tips on how a teacher could change their attitude and actions in the classroom to help their students move forward.

There were a couple of things I did not like about the book, both of which could probably be helped by having a professional editor look over the material. There seemed to be an inconsistency in the layout of the book. Sometimes the authors had some long quotes that apparently were supposed to be block quotes in the book. They ended up just being paragraphs that looked like the authors’ own words. It was hard to know where the quote ended and the writers were speaking again.

The book lacked the chapter titles at the top of the pages. While this is certainly not necessary, it is helpful in a book like this. The chapters dealt with specific principles. Looking up at the top of the page to get a reminder of which principle you are studying each time you picked up the book would have been helpful.

I was impressed with the authors’ general style. As I said, I knew Dr. Goetsch several years ago, but had never read anything by him. He (along with Dr. Rasmussen) is a great writer.

The book itself had some good reminders for teachers on how to engage their students and pull them into the lesson. It also talked about how teachers should look for teaching moments. With practise these moments can be found all around you.

This was definitely a book for teachers. I read the book because it was offered to me, but if I had picked it up looking for tips on being a good mentor, I am not sure I would have found what I was looking for. While I agree that teachers should be mentors, this book seemed to be specifically for teachers in a classroom. I don’t have a clear definition in my head as to what I think a mentor should be, but certainly a mentor is not limited to 4 walls and a chalkboard.

I have started to see the difference between books that go through a large publishing company and one that is put together by a smaller outfit. If this had been run through a larger organization it probably would have something about teachers in the title and the formatting would have been more consistent. In the notes I wrote about the book as I read it, I jotted this down: Well written, poorly presented. I don’t think I can improve on that simple statement for this book.

Dr. Goetsch is a great preacher and writer. I look forward to reading more of his work in the future. I just hope that the production quality improves.

Mentoring and Modeling, Dr. Mark Rasmussen and Dr. John Goetsch, Revival Books, 2000, 192 pages.

Riding Outside the Lines is a book of stories during his international travels on the bike. As I have said in my other two reviews about his books, he is a great writer. For that, I know I have benefited from reading his work.

Once I got into the book I had trouble putting it down. He is such a compelling author that even though I very much disliked the contents in this book, I still could not bring myself to walk away from it. I had moral conflicts with just about every story. The level of cursing in this book was much more than appropriate. There were many references to marital relationships that took place outside of marriage. Many of the things he talks about in this book are things that I know take place in the world, but I would rather not fill my mind with. Most every story went against how I am attempting to raise my family.

I cannot recommend this book.

When Joe Kurmaskie puts out another book I will eagerly find myself a copy of it. His style of writing is fresh and enjoyable. I would not call it easy though. While he pulls you along in the story he also makes you think about his words and references. You can tell he spends plenty of time reading other great authors as he make allusions to many works of literature.

Try again Joe. I know you will sell many books. But this one I have to suggest that people skip.

Riding Outside the Lines, Joe Kurmaskie, Three Rivers Press, New York, 2003, 254 pages.

The goal is to run 1000 miles for the year which means 83.3 miles a month or 19.2 miles a week. In February I ran 66 miles with 2 weeks of hitting my goal. I should be able to make up the lost miles by the end of the year if I stay healthy.

Reading
My goal is 800 pages a month and I read 869.

The only significant book I read was The World is Flat. An interesting book on understanding how the global job market and economy are changing.

The book is about the heartaches and victories that Rex’s mom experienced while trying to raise and train Rex up to this point in his life. He was born with a growth in his brain that caused blindness and autism. At 2 years old he was given a piano keyboard that became the magical door to open his mind to the outside world. He has grown to be a musical savant.

That is the part of the story I already knew. What I did not know about was the struggles that Rex’s mom had to endure to deal with his limitations on a practical level as a single mom. Also about the battles she faced just getting him into school and keeping him there.

As someone who has worked with the Deaf I have seen these same types of conflicts play out in the lives of many parents. There is always the feeling that, as a parent, you might have done something different to change the outcome. Or that you should have done more (or less) along the way to help, protect, guide or encourage your child in their development.

Ms. Lewis is careful to praise good teachers and scold bad ones. Some of the stories she tells in the book remind me of what took place in the early days of special education where the special ed teachers were not properly trained for the individual need, but were just teachers pulled from the standard classrooms to fill a position. However, this is not a story of a boy growing up blind in the 1950s, it is a story of a boy who is currently in the system. Some of these stories happened within the last couple of years.

The writing seemed a little flowery at the front of the book. It took me about 60 pages to “get into” the story. I don’t know if the writing got better or that I was finally drawn into the emotion of what was taking place, but it was certainly easier to read. By the time I hit half way through the book I had trouble putting it down.

This book is published by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a Christian publishing house. I expect that their books would have a clear religious bent. I finished the book wondering whether Rex’s mom really has a relationship with Christ, or just found psychological comfort in going to church.

It is a good book if you are looking for an emotional story. I feel like I know Rex in a small way. I am very excited about following him as he grows up.

Rex, Thomas Nelson, 2008, 242 pages.

The book is written for pastors and churches so that they can know how to choose which missionaries and ministries they will support with their missions money. It is also an excellent book for missionaries to read about what churches expect of them.

Dr. Amsbaugh used a questionaire to petition information from mission board directors. These questions revolved around how missionaries should do their work and present their ministries. While there was good consensus on all the questions there was one area in which I found myself in disagreement with his conclusions. And I was not the only one. The book was published in 2002. I am curious to talk with him and see if his position has changed since then.

He discussed topics such as the missionary’s prayer life, his relationship with pastors and others on the field as well as the missionary’s vision, separation and commitment. The one issue in which I disagreed had to do with contentment. In a nutshell he wrote that missionaries should be content with a low socio-economic standard to be able to reach the nationals. While I agree the missionary should be content if that is what it takes to do the work, but it has been my experience that the missionary is expected to live at least a little better than the national. That does not mean that he should live in a mansion with 10 servants while the people around him starve and die from poverty. The consensus of those answering the questions agreed that the missionary did not have to live in poverty to reach the nationals.

That one issue aside, I think this is one of the best books I have read on the subject. I would like to have a copy of this book handy to pass out to missionaries along the way. There is so much a missionary can learn about what a pastor expects from those they support.

Dr. Amsbaugh is a gracious preacher. He has a way of making people feel comfortable in his presence even though he is a busy man in a large ministry. If you live in, or visit, the Columbus, Georgia area, I invite you to visit his church.

I was not able to find any on-line sources for the book. He probably just sells them directly from the church office. You can contact them through their website (WARNING: it works almost exclusively in IE).

Keeping the Mission in the Missionary, Jeff Amsbaugh, 2002, self-published, 230 pages.

Running

I would like to run at least 2 half marathons this year and 1 marathon.

I also want to set a 5K PR. I have a race coming up next week that I might actually be able to make a shot for the PR. Though I have not been running as many miles, I have been working on my endurance and lactate threshold. I believe I am much more capable of pushing my body further than I have before. The only thing that may hold me back is the fact that I just have not been able to put the miles in the last several weeks.

Reading
This is also going to be the same as last year. While I am pleased that I averaged almost 800 pages a month last year, the goal was not to average that. Rather, it was to read consistently. With some months going well over 1000 pages and one month under 300, I did not really achieve the spirit of the goal. I don’t mind reading more than the 800 pages a month, but I am making the goal to not go under 800 pages in a month.

Blogging
I don’t really have a blogging goal that I want to define for the whole year. I will work with that on a month to month basis. I want to be consistent. I may do a few months where I blog every day like I did in November.

Personal
I have some personal goals for the year that I am still defining, but probably won’t share here.

I also have some mini-goals that I want to work on. I have gained about 10 pounds since coming home to the US. Part of that is definitely muscle mass. I have been visiting the gym consistently over the last 6 weeks. But, all in all, I am up about 15 pounds from where I would like to be. It should not take me all year to get 15 pounds off. If I work hard I can do it within 3 months. I just have to stop snacking so much.

There’s my goals for 2009. Now time to sit down and make them happen. They won’t happen over night since they are long term goals. Just like a marathon, I have to plug away at it one step at a time.

Running
I ended the month with very little mileage. This was due to an injury to my foot in November. I only logged 19.6 miles for the month. That brought me to a yearly total of 883 miles. The goal was to reach 1000 miles. I missed it by 117 miles. I ran the whole year as if I would not have an injury. The plan was to run consistently to the end.

While I did not make my goal of 1000 miles, I did run 262 miles further than I did in 2007.

My best running month for 2008 was September in which I ran 104 miles.

Reading
I finished my reading for the year very strong. I read 1005 pages for a total of 9533 pages for the year. Though my goal was to read 800 pages a month and not necessarily average 800 pages, I still averaged 794. That is pretty close.

My best reading month for 2008 was January in which I read 1345 pages.

This book is about a summer trip he took with his two boys. They traveled 4,000 miles on a bike, a trail-a-bike and in a bike trailer. Though it is not strictly a journal, author Joe Kurmaskie weaves the events of the summer into a narrative of the highlights of the trip.

Because of the nature of the book, he was not able to draw on the vast number of experiences that he used in his first book, Metal Cowboy. At times this book dragged a bit just to bridge from one story to the next. Some stories were merely props to give background information for a later story. Where the stories in his first book were each a winning essay in itself, this book, necessarily, had some slower parts.

This book had much more cursing than the other book. I was pretty disappointed with that.

Though the writing style was as good as the first book, the stories were not as strong. That and the excess cursing causes me to say this is a book that could be skipped. I will probably re-read Metal Cowboy some day, but this one will be donated to the local library as I have no interest in reading it again.

Momentum Is Your Friend: The Metal Cowboy and His Pint-Sized Posse Take on America, Joe Kurmaskie, Breakaway Books, 2006, 318 pages.