7 Habits that can make you a success

Book Review: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Group success is helped when the members begin using the same language. Dr. Stephen R. Covey has given us a language that will help move the group toward success. This best selling book has been very useful in helping establish work groups. While the title of the book  is The 7 Habbits of Highly Effective People, they can  also apply to Teams. [See my blog on Team Development].

This book has been used in various contexts including youth development and leader development. This books will be a valuable tool in your tool box.

These habits are live changing:

1. Be Proactive - don't wait for things to happen, make things happen.

2. Begin with the end in mind - make a plan and work the plan.

3. Put first things first - prioritize your efforts and focus on them.

4. Think win win - remember that we are all in this together.

5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood - let others know that you value their input - we need each other.

6. Synergize - we need others strengths to balance our weaknesses.

7. Sharpen the saw - Continually renew the physical, spiritual, mental, social, and emotional parts of our nature.

Covey's follow-up book  gives us an eighth habit of effective people that can also be adapted to teams.

8. Discover your voice and inspire others to discover theirs - voice is a person's unique personal significance that lies at the intersection of our talent, passion, need, and conscience.

Covey is a true scholar and there is much more in these books than the habits of effective people. Both books would be a great addition to any development library.

• Covey, S. (2004). 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Kindle ed.), NY: Rosetta Book.
• Covey S. (2004). The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness. NY: Free Press.

What are among your "must reads"?

Leave me a comment below on these books or your favorite.

Is "doing church" too complicated?

I have found few books more helpful than "Simple Church" (by Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger) for helping churches stay on track. I suppose that when I was pastoring I felt that ministry should be complicated to be successful. I didn't consciously say this to myself, but I sure went about pastoring like it was complicated. After reading this book, I  admit that I was guilty of making ministry more complicated than it should be. 

The message of this book is "simple" yet profound. Simple is in. Complex is out. That mantra keeps running over and over in my mind as I coach pastors. It is something that all church workers should be aware of.

Simple Church is defined as a congregation designed around a straightforward and strategic process that moves people through the stages of spiritual growth.

The process is simple:

Clarity  >>> Movement >>> Alignment >>> Focus

"Focus" is the area that I struggled with while I was pastoring. Focus is the commitment to abandon everything that falls outside of the simple ministry process. Leaders tend to get involved in many things that pull them away from the ministry in which they were called to do. 

"Simple Church" is an easy and straightforward read and is worth adding to any church worker's tool box.

Rainer, Thom S. & Geiger, Eric. (2006) Simple Church (Kindle ed.) Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing group.

What book or books do you consider essential for your ministry tool box? Please let me know...leave a comment below and subscribe to this blog so that you will not miss any of my updates.

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Crisis in American Churches

Is the Church Really in Crisis?

Book Review: The American Church in Crisis

David Olson, in The American Church in Crisis writes  an intriguing essay about the state of the church in America. Although written in 2009, it feels relevant and timely as ever. If you are interested in statistical numbers about the condition of the church, this book is for you. He also provides ample charts for the visual learner.

Olson provides interesting nuggets of fact such as "Fast-growing churches...were more likely located in zip codes where the population growth was higher than the national average. If a church declined or was stable, it was more likely  located in a low-growth zip code where the population growth was lower than the national average." This seems to indicate a direct correlation between church growth and decline and population growth and decline.

This book has four sections. In the first section, observation, Olson looks at the many statistics collected over the many years. After collecting and analyzing the data and trends, Olson makes many good observations and draws some good conclusions such as:

A denomination lays the foundation for its future by (1) each year planting quality new churches, equal to at least 2 percent of the number of congregations in the denomination, (2) creating synergistic systems of health and growth between both new and established churches, and (3) reinvesting the assets of closed churches into the planting of multiple new churches.

Not satisfied with merely communicating the state and challenge for the church in America, in the last section, Olson relates the message and mission of Christ for the church. The message is what Jesus spoke about, what He did for man, and the mission is what Jesus came to act out for man. Solutions are most profitable when churches align their behaviors and resources with their missional values. This book will challenge church leaders to take a hard look at their churches and denominations.

Olson, David T. (2009) The American Church in Crisis: Groundbreaking Research Based on a National Database of over 200,000 Churches (Kindle ed.) Zondervan,