Here is a summary:

We live life in high definition all the time. We surround ourselves with 1080P, LCD, Plasma, and other such devices. We focus in on the things we place around ourselves so we can feel we are right in the midst of the action coming from the screen. What if we were to see Christ that way? Meet Bluray Jesus!

Bluray Jesus is a modern approach to bringing the Gospel into real life, especially in our modern culture. We are surrounded by media & technology all the time and we spend a lot of cash on devices that help us “upgrade” to the newest and best thing out there. This cultural phenomena is what spurred the creation of Bluray Jesus. We have already embraced technology, so let’s allow technology to teach us a thing or two about Christ.

Excerpt: “I believe there is a higher definition Jesus out there. It is not the perfect picture of Him, but it is so much closer than anything we have ever encountered before. I do not believe that Jesus is summed up in just a few short books concerning Him in the New Testament, but that there is an ongoing high definition, clear picture, depth of color Jesus that needs to be discovered and played out in our lives–Bluray Jesus. If you caught a glimpse of Bluray Jesus you would be captivated. You would not be able to move from your position in the aisle of life because you would be fixed on the highly tuned definition of love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness that shines from His unimaginably bright screen.”

No matter where you are in your faith this book can help you hone in your experience of Christ in a personal way. Whether you have been thinking about your relationship with Christ or if you don’t have one yet, Bluray Jesus discusses things that every modern person should wrestle with.

Take a look at the website by visiting www.tinyurl.com/meetblurayjesus or snag it here on amazon. It is currently available for download for Kindle only. If you don’t have a Kindle that is no problem. All you need is an amazon account and to download Kindle for Computers (PC or Mac) which is free. The book will be automatically transferred to your device or computer. It also works great on the iPhone or other smartphones.

Why?

Check this out. It ought to be reason enough.

Leaders are learners. They read.

Successful people are learners. They read.

So maybe you should read. Something. Anything. Here are a few books I’d recommend to start with:

• Good to Great, Jim Collins
• The Dip, Seth Godin
• Guerrilla Lovers, Vince Antonucci
• I Dare You To Change, Bil Cornelius

And if you already do read, but you get in a rut and only read from your “approved author list” as I used to do, I’d recommend that you read something from someone you despise. You’d be surprised how much it can rock your little reading world.

You’re welcome.

To make it worse, if you are a “lion” personality or A-type as many church planters are, you simply do not have what it takes to manage the financial side of your church on your own. The first step to growing a healthy church is to admit that you can’t do it all.

What’s the second step? Buy a book that just came out called “Funded and Free.” Casey Graham and Joe Sangl have teamed up to release this rocket style approach book that will help you become a funded church, free of financial worry.

I have been working with Casey for over a year now and there is no doubt that Revolution Church is reaching people because of his coaching on biblical financial management principles and funding techniques.

I called the approach of the book “rocket style” because each chapter is no longer than two pages and gets right to the meat of what you need to know. This is MY KIND OF BOOK. No fluff. No puff. No junk.

Here are just a few topics in the book that have helped Revolution the most:

• Leverage digital giving (Number 1 help at Revolution!)
• Fix the summer slump (HUGE!)
• Create an obstacle and opportunity fund
• Connect life change to giving
• Haste makes Waste
• Fund life change – not the squeaky wheel
• Develop a generosity brand

There are 50 chapters total, each hitting an important topic with super practical and simple advice.

If you click here you can buy 5 books for $50 now. I recommend getting one for everyone on your staff and reading it together. Or, buy 5 books and give one to each church planter that your church supports. Seriously, this stuff ought to be REQUIRED reading for any church planter.

Trust me. The two pages on “fixing the summer slump” alone are worth thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. We have grown both financially and numerically through the summer just by praying our guts out and applying these simple principles.

One more thing. I know Casey Graham. I know his heart. This is the best part of this book. Casey has been in ministry and truly has a heart to see people meet Jesus in churches all over the world. This book isn’t about making money. Its about the Gospel. I tell every church planter I meet that dollars equal people you can reach. This book will increase your dollars so that you can reach more people. Its ALL ABOUT THE KINGDOM.

Don’t be prideful. Don’t be dumb. Get at least one copy of this book NOW and DEVOUR it.

15. People who love people are the most powerful people in the world. -Trappstr

Wow! Never thought of it that way…probably because of all the thoughts that cross my mind when I hear the word power.

We live in a time of war, terrorism, immorality, and death; a time where violence, sex, drugs, hate, lust and greed have become normal fanfare. It almost seems like wrong is the new cool at times.

Burt Bacharach that, “what the world needs now, is love, sweet love! Its the only thing there’s just too little of…” Since my sophomore year in high school I’ve always had this deep sense that my life is to be all about people. So I asked God to break my heart for what breaks His…people! I’ll never forget the first time I read Mark 12: 28-31 which says, “One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him “Of all the commandments, which is the most important? ‘The most important one,’ Jesus answered, ‘is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.’

Dang. Burt Bacharach had a lot of wisdom when he wrote that song. We need a love revolution. We need desperately to be more powerful as the church because of our LOVE.

16. The number 1 thing holding most people back is their dislike for reading. -Trappstr

YES YES YES! Why do kids leave our public schools hating reading so much? Something has to change. As a parent I think much of it is my responsibility.

I will admit that I have to set goals and sometimes MAKE myself read. This year I set a goal to read 40 books. I have actually read 728 books so far this year (yes, I’ve counted.) I won’t lie; 706 of those books have been library books that I read to Couper. We read 2 or 3 per night. Each one takes about 5-10 minutes. I guess those don’t count.

Of my 40 book goal, I think I’ll knock out 30 by the end of the year. Not too shabby, but not my goal.

Bottom line is this: I read a lot with my son, Couper because I want him to love to read and I read a lot for myself because I never want to stop growing in my leadership.

17. You only have a hand-full of truly good friends in this life. -Trappstr

Why is this? I think because of two things: trust and forgiveness. Both are essential to true friendship. And both can be incredibly difficult for us to muster up these days.

We all need someone that we can trust and share our lives, thoughts, feelings, and frustrations with. We all need a place to share our deepest secrets and struggles without worrying that those secrets will end up being spewed into the public.

Real friends also forgive one another where there has been an offense. We live in a culture often unwilling to forgive. Its hard for us to forgive someone. The true friends I have are those who I’ve had to forgive (or be forgiven) from the worst offenses in my life.

Want some true friends? Spend lots of time with them, build trust and return grace the grace that Jesus Christ gave us all by forgiving!

This week, Steven Furtick at Elevation Church challenged his staff to read the entire Bible in 90 days…they are calling it the B90X plan. Check it:

“B90X is a revolutionary system of intense, truth-absorbing, brain-busting Bible reading that will transform your understanding of Scripture from intro to nitro in just 90 days! Your personal trainer, Ruach “The Breath” Yahweh, will drag you through the most intense infusion of His vision that you have ever experienced and you won’t believe the results!”

Pretty challenging if you ask me. I’m in…are you?

To download a PDF of the reading plan that will help you stay on track click here.

If you twitter, for accountability, tweet that you completed the daily reading each day with hashtag #b90x

Bring it on…the entire Bible in 90 days. AWESOME!

So, I’m thinking about selling ALL of my books that I have read on Amazon and buying a Kindle or at least using the library for a change.

What do you think? Should a pastor keep all of his books? Do people think you have some sort of credibility because there are a bunch of books on a shelf?

Or can a “ditch the clutter” freak like me get rid of all his books and be just fine?

Books take up an awful lot of space, especially for something that you really only use for a few months and then store for years. I haven’t missed owning hard copies of albums on cd, tape, or vinyl. Why would I miss my books?

How can I justify my desire for compact, organized living when we have so many little rectangular objects taking up shelf/closet/floor space in my home?

Share your thoughts.

I wish Amazon had a trade in program of some kind where you could send in all your books and get Kindle copies of them…

The book was “Mad Church Disease: Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic” by Anne Jackson.

Anne’s book gives a real confession and information to help the reader diagnose burnout. She starts by sharing her own story of a long road towards burnout and how she prayed as a sixteen year old telling God that she would desert the church forever if He did not use her to unify it.

The book uses comparisons to mad cow disease and shows us how “mad church disease” can knock anyone out of ministry–not just pastors. Burnout affects all church staff and even volunteers at times.

Anne shares five principles of recovery and then takes the reader through some paths to recovery that include spiritual health, physical health, emotional health and relational health. The book is also full of practical exercises to help readers work through burnout and “second opinions” from others in ministry such as Bill Hybels.

You can click here to read a free sample chapter of MCD. Anne Jackson currently serves on staff at Cross Point Church and lives with her husband who is a musician, in Nashville, TN. You can also follow her blog at www.flowerdust.net.
Here are a few hard hits from the book at knocked me down:

• “Since I had allowed spending time with God to be replaced by spending time doing things for God, my spiritual tank had been sucked dry.”
• There is no if or when. Satan is trying to destroy you no matter what.
• The successes, failures, joys and pains are all wonderfully woven together to make you who you are at this point. Don’t regret the bad stuff.
• Creating boundaries isn’t selfish. It’s necessary.
• “Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.” -Leo Tolstoy
• Self-reliance quietly whispers to our souls, “You don’t need rest. You don’t need to refresh. You can do everything on your own. God is helping you, right?” (Not true)

Book 3 of my 2009 Reading List was “Killing Cockroaches” By Tony Morgan.

(Click here for a quick summary)

Killing Cockroaches is an absolute must read for any Church leader. If you read Seth Godin’s “Tribes” and enjoyed it’s mini-chapter format, you’ll love this book. Its perfect for someone like me who thinks all books should be less than 120 pages and have the fluff cut out. Killing Cockroaches has NO fluff.

Tony’s style of writing is quick and to the point. Never before has there been such a good book for church systems and strategies.

The book is an easy read; you’ll want to keep a copy on your shelf as a sort of church systems reference guide. There is no doubt that I’ll be referring back to Killing Cockroaches for years to come.

Bottom line: Read this book if you want to be challenged to stop wasting time on different things and to think more creatively on others.

And, whatever you do, stop killing cockroaches. God has great plans for you!

This guy is a genius when it comes to leadership, marketing, and awesome random thoughts on other subjects. You can check out his blog here…its easily THE BEST business blog out there today.

Just to illustrate to you how badly you need to read this book, you need to know that I read it twice. Back to back. That’s how much it impacted me. The second I finished it, I flipped right back to page one and started reading again.

Here are some quick hits. This IS NOT a summary of the book. GET IT. READ IT.

• The rush from stability is a huge opportunity for you.
• Leaders don’t care very much for organizational structure or an “official blessing.” They use passion and ideas to lead people as opposed to using threats and bureaucracy to manage them.
• Three steps: motivate, connect, leverage.
• “Everything I did was for US, not for ME.”
• A crowd is a tribe without a leader or communication. Most organizations spend their time marketing to the crowd. Smart organizations assemble the tribe.
• Defending mediocrity is exhausting.
• True leaders have figured out that the real win is turning a casual fan into a true one.
• The idea that wins is the one with the most fearless heretic behind it.
• Great leaders focus on the tribe and only the tribe.
• Change isn’t made by asking permission. Change is made by asking for forgiveness later.
• The ONLY thing holding you back from becoming the kind of person who changes things is this: lack of faith.
• Leaders who set out to give are more productive than leaders who seek out to get.
• “Everyone will think it’s stupid! Everyone says it’s impossible!” Guess what? Everyone works in the balloon factory and everyone is wrong. (You’ll have to read it to see what the balloon factory is all about.)
• Everyone believes that what they’ve got is probably better than the risk and fear that comes with change.
• Isn’t it sad that so many of us have a job where we spend two weeks avoiding the stuff we have to do fifty weeks out of the year? WOW!
• The secret is being willing to be wrong.
• The posture of a leader is this: if you hear my idea but don’t believe it, that’s not your fault; it’s mine.
• Change almost never fails because it is too early. It almost always fails because it is too late.
• How do you be sure to get credit for an idea? Real leaders don’t care. Credit isn’t the point. Change is.

Main idea in Tribes? If you think leadership is only for other people, you’re wrong. We need YOU to lead us.

Get it. Read it.

I want to remind you of this awesome tool to manage, track, and trade your books. Go check it out.

He is also a monster…guy must be like six foot five inches tall.

Wild Goose Chase was somewhat similar to Batterson’s first book “In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day.” I loved every page of it and couldn’t put it down. I have a joke with people when I recommend a Batterson book to them: as I make the recommendation, I always say “don’t read this unless you are ok with quitting your job and going after a crazy dream that is destined to fail!” That is exactly what this book will move you to do.

Batterson is INCREDIBLY motivating…I believe the Holy Sirit is using him to propel many people to take action; and not just any action but reckless actions that can only be inspired by God Himself. He shares and references a ton of Scripture throughout the book.

Some quick hits from the book:

• Batterson covers six “cages” that keep many of us from roaming free with the Holy Spirit as God destined for us to.
• Cage one: Responsibility. Our God-ordained passions tend to get buried beneath the day to day responsibilities of life.
• Without even knowing it we start to practice “irresponsible responsibility.”
• “I’m not convinced that your date of death is the date carved on your tombstone. Most people die long before that. We start dying when we have nothing worth living for.”
• Instead of making a life, many of us are just making a living.
• Why ask God to do something for us when it is within our power to do something about it ourselves? There are some things you don’t need to pray about.
• Some of us live as if God is going to say “well thought” or “well said good and faithful servant.” But He isn’t. There is only one commendation He will use and it is the byproduct of pursuing God-ordained passions: “Well DONE, good and faithful servant.”
• Faith doesn’t follow signs…signs follow faith.
• If you want to see God move, you need to make a move!
• Cage two: Routine. Routines are good, but sacred routines become empty rituals that keep us caged.
• Once a routine becomes a routine, we need to disturb it.
• Don’t wait to worship God till you get to the Promised Land; you’ve got to worship along the way. THIS IS holy ground. Take off your sandals now.
• Cage three: Assumptions. As we age, we stop believing and start assuming.
• We have stopped living out of right-brain imagination and started living by left-brain memory. That puts 8 foot ceilings on what God can do.
• The smartest people are NOT the people who know the most. The smartest people are those who know how much they DON’T know…those who make the fewest assumptions.
• The more faith you have, the fewer assumptions you make.
• Faith doesn’t ignore reality. It just adds God into the equation!
• Cage four: Guilt. Satan uses guilt to get us to focus on what we did in the past. This steals your energy to dream God-sized, Kingdom dreams.
• If you want to impact someone’s life, love them when they least expect it and least deserve it.
• Cage five: Failure.
• Sometimes our plans must fail in order for God’s plans to succeed.
• Cage six: Fear. We have to quit living life as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death.
• The world needs more daring people with daring plans.
• We need to be more afraid of missing opportunities than of making mistakes.
• The will of God is NOT an insurance plan…it is a DARING plan.
• We have to get out of our comfortable Christian ghettos and invade some hellholes with the love of Christ.

Bottom line is this: The Bible says that faith is being sure of what we hope for. BUT, most of us are more sure of what we are afraid of than what we hope for. Get out there and have some smart courage. Count the costs, assess the risks/rewards, and practice due diligence…don’t be mindless, be mindful. But then, do the RIGHT THING regardless of the circumstances.

This great read discusses the 5 key leadership principles that have transformed the ordinary experience of coffee into an extraordinary experience.

Some quick hits from the book:

• “We are not in the coffee business serving people, but in the people business serving coffee.” This goes along with something Cole says that has always resonated with me. Cole says, “We don’t teach the Bible to people, but we teach people the Bible. Its all about people.”
• Be knowledgeable, love what you do, and share your knowledge with others.
• Listening is just one part of creating a connection. We also need to discover each person’s specific needs and and unique situation and then find ways to help meet those needs.
• EVERYTHING MATTERS.
• It is just as important to create a great experience for employees as it is for employees to create an experience for customers.
• A company’s brand is nothing more than the sum total of the individual actions its people take.
• EVERYONE MATTERS.
• Retail is detail. Missed details produce dissatisfied customers who go elsewhere.
• A small detail is often the difference between success and failure. (A 7 cent valve helped Starbucks become a publicly traded company!)
• These details live in both that which is seen AND unseen by the customer.
• You CANNOT hide poor quality.
• Customers want a consistent and predictable product with the occasion prize or extra surprise thrown in. (Like when Cracker Jacks started inserting prizes in 1912. Today’s examples are cell phones with cameras, cars that talk to us telling us when to turn, etc.)
• Your efforts to surprise are a contagious force.
• When breakdowns occur, businesses can still delight customers by making things right.
• Delight is the result of an unwavering commitment to creating a comfortable and trusted relationship
• EMBRACE RESISTANCE.
• Nothing in nature grows without facing limiting forces.
• While it’s natural to avoid contact with detractors, much can be gained by welcoming them into the early stages of problem-focused discussions.
• When the concerns of critics are allayed, those critics can often become your most ardent supporters.
• It is essential to correct misinformation swiftly.
• When errors are made it is important to take direct, unequivocal responsibility and follow up with corrective action.
• LEAVE YOUR MARK.
• Successful business leaders realize that a key part of their success is leaving a powerful and positive mark on their communities.
• The value of a business’s brand is 100% linked to the trust people place in the company to do what it says it will do.

Overall I recommend it. There is TONS of stuff that Churches could apply particularly to their greeting and cafe ministries in this book. You could literally build your entire “frontline framework” from it by gleaning what it means to be welcoming, be genuine, be knowledgeable, be considerate, and be involved.