Books

In this short video, author Mike Bonem responds to the question, "If leaders only had time to read one chapter of your book, which would you recommend?"

As another pivotal election approaches, there is no shortage of articles on the question of whether pastors are legally allowed to speak out about politics, such as this insightful overview by Jim Garlow. It seems we can.

No one is better at stimulating discussion about this question than Patrick Johnstone, editor of six editions of Operation World, and now compiler of The Future of the Global Church: History, Trends and Possibilities.  It’s a massive 240-page project, six years in preparation, and richly illustrated on every page. It has almost as many graphics as text. You can spend hours studying it, and then come back another day and spend more time, learning even more. I know because I did, benefitting immensely.

There's got to be more to church than this. Barefoot Church shows us how today's church can be a catalyst for individual, collective and social renewal in any context. Author, Brandon Hatmaker, is pastor of Austin New Church, co-founder of Restore Austin and a missional strategist with Missio. Take a look behind the curtain with Brandon's thoughts on reading and writing.

Hugh Halter (author of The Tangible Kingdom and AND) has written a new book called Sacrilege (you can find all these titles here). Most of the books in the Leadership Network series are written specifically for church leaders, but Sacrilege (published by Baker, and part of the Shapevine Missional series) will appeal to a much broader audience. In fact, Hugh forwarded an email to me that I am excepting below, describing what Sacrilege is all about. Hi friends, Today marks the opening bell for the release of my latest book called Sacrilege. On blogs, articles, and other public comments, I try to avoid any “self promotion,” but on this one, I’m going to take the risk because I believe it will be of immense help if you are a Christian leader or unpaid saint. If you know me personally, you’ve probably heard me say that I hate to write…but even more, I feel incredible frustration and pain over the state of the church and what may happen to our story of faith if things keep going the way they are...

Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture, by Brandon Hatmaker, is now available at most online retailers. Below is a series of video interviews where Brandon talks about why he wrote the book, and what he hopes people will take away after reading Barefoot Church.

Leadership Network is happy to announce a newly updated edition of A Work of Heart: Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders is now available. First published in 2000, the updated edition includes a new preface from author Reggie McNeal, sharing his 10-year perspective on the landscape of spiritual leadership. The book also includes questions for discussion or reflection in your personal spiritual leadership journey.

Various people contact our department through .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and my team fields those replies. Here is a recent one that I think a lot of people would be interested in: Q: I was reading a magazine article that quoted you speaking about the growing trend in healthy church mergers. I was looking into the possibility of finding another church to merge with in my area. How should I begin? A: Here’s the entirety of what I wrote: First step would be to decide whether your congregation would be the “joining church” or the “lead church.” Either way, praying for guidance at each step, the most typical path is to work through the relationships with other church leaders you know. If you’re in the joining church role...

Pioneer - that's Larry Osborne. When I think of the pioneers of yesteryear I think of individuals that were willing to venture into the unknown while at the same time being fully aware of the realities of each step of the journey. They were high risk leaders with real life sensabilities. That's Larry Osborne. I first met Larry about 8-9 years ago as Leadership Network was launching its first Leadership Community for Multisite Churches. His pioneering work in the development of video venues was, and is, shaping a significant stream of the multisite movement. In his book, Sticky Church, Larry tells the story of the DNA of his church, Northcoast Church in Vista, CA. In this interview, Larry talks about reading and writing. Enjoy!

Earlier this week, we posted a 3-question poll, asking readers to, "Please list up to 5 books you have read recently that had direct application to your ministry or leadership." The responses have varied greatly, so here are all the books people have read, in alpahbetical order. (The books listed in bold were mentioned by more than one person.)