Book Summary
This book sets forth a model for Christian parents to follow in raising their sons to be men of God. This book is focused particularly on boys, although large parts of it could be applied to girls as well. The book covers various character traits that we want to see developed in our sons at a pace of one per chapter (e.g. the title of chapter 5 is “Leading a Boy to Be a Man of Grace”, chapter 10 is “Leading a Boy to Be a Man of Discipline”, etc.). In each chapter the author shows the biblical necessity for the character trait and then gives practical advice about developing this type of character in a young boy so that he will own it when he becomes a man.
Book Review
Overall, I would recommend this book because I think that it correctly focuses on character formation. This is important. So much is written about behavior and how to get children to act right and grow into good citizens. Character formation takes care of behavior.
There were a few drawbacks to this book. I’ll just mention one. I think what was written in 220 pages could easily have been scaled down to a more manageable 130-150 pages. There’s just a lot of extra stuff in the book that didn’t need to be there. This is not a big problem.
Let me leave you with a few quotes that were memorable for me.
“Wisdom does not suddenly overtake our sons.” – p. 45
“We need to remind our sons, every day of their lives, how much we love them. We must convey that they are wonderfully and fearfully made. They are created in His perfect design, in God’s very image. They are significant just on the basis alone.” – p. 64
“Church is the hub of our social life and we made it clear to our children that church was important to us. Please hear me loud and clear parents: If you make church a priority, your children will see that priority and come to understand its importance. If you yourselves whine about it or try to make excuses for not attending, so will your children later on in their lives.” – p. 116
Monday, January 19, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Sanctity of Human Life Sunday
This Sunday we will consider what the Scripture says about the plague of abortion. 10am. Don't miss it.
Our text will be Proverbs 31:8-9.
Our text will be Proverbs 31:8-9.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Book Review - The Tipping Point
***click link on right for the 2009 reading list
Book Summary
This book is a study of how epidemics are started. The title “The Tipping Point” comes from the idea of what causes something to “tip” from being a localized phenomenon to a large-scale movement. The focus of the book was to discover how epidemics (disease, social, ideological, behavioral, etc.) are spread in hopes of gaining insight into the ability to purposefully start your own epidemic for your product, idea, etc.
The discovery was that word-of-mouth epidemics are highly dependent upon just a few critical types of people: connectors, mavens, salesmen. Word-of-mouth epidemics are not initially about how many people you can tell, but about who you can tell. A connector is a person who has relationships with large numbers of people (“that person knows everybody”). A maven is a person who collects large amounts of information and wants to pass it on to others because he or she likes to be helpful (think about the person who loves to tell you about good shopping deals). A salesman is a person who has the ability to persuade others to certain action. These three groups of people are key in starting word-of-mouth epidemics. You want to get your message into their hands.
Book Review
I had seen this book recommended by several pastors and thought it might be a good read. I like to mix some business books in with my other reading because all truth is God’s truth. Many business books have excellent application for ministry leadership.
I was not, however, particularly impressed with this book’s usefulness for general ministry purposes. I loved the stories and data and examples and research…all very interesting. The idea of the book is that we need to find the few who will start a word-of-mouth epidemic. For the Christian church we are not looking for the few who can spread the word, but we want everybody to be spreading the word.
That said, it could be useful for ministry if we were desiring to have a large event or start some huge ministry and wanted to spread the news by word-of-mouth. It was a good read but not so useful for day-in and day-out ministry.
Book Summary
This book is a study of how epidemics are started. The title “The Tipping Point” comes from the idea of what causes something to “tip” from being a localized phenomenon to a large-scale movement. The focus of the book was to discover how epidemics (disease, social, ideological, behavioral, etc.) are spread in hopes of gaining insight into the ability to purposefully start your own epidemic for your product, idea, etc.
The discovery was that word-of-mouth epidemics are highly dependent upon just a few critical types of people: connectors, mavens, salesmen. Word-of-mouth epidemics are not initially about how many people you can tell, but about who you can tell. A connector is a person who has relationships with large numbers of people (“that person knows everybody”). A maven is a person who collects large amounts of information and wants to pass it on to others because he or she likes to be helpful (think about the person who loves to tell you about good shopping deals). A salesman is a person who has the ability to persuade others to certain action. These three groups of people are key in starting word-of-mouth epidemics. You want to get your message into their hands.
Book Review
I had seen this book recommended by several pastors and thought it might be a good read. I like to mix some business books in with my other reading because all truth is God’s truth. Many business books have excellent application for ministry leadership.
I was not, however, particularly impressed with this book’s usefulness for general ministry purposes. I loved the stories and data and examples and research…all very interesting. The idea of the book is that we need to find the few who will start a word-of-mouth epidemic. For the Christian church we are not looking for the few who can spread the word, but we want everybody to be spreading the word.
That said, it could be useful for ministry if we were desiring to have a large event or start some huge ministry and wanted to spread the news by word-of-mouth. It was a good read but not so useful for day-in and day-out ministry.
Book Review - The Shack
***click link on right for 2009 reading list
Here's my first book review of the year. It's will also be the shortest review of the year.
I won't be posting a review. I will be discussing The Shack on Sunday night, Jan. 11th.
We start at 6:30pm. See you there.
Here's my first book review of the year. It's will also be the shortest review of the year.
I won't be posting a review. I will be discussing The Shack on Sunday night, Jan. 11th.
We start at 6:30pm. See you there.
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