Books

Most pastors have discovered that teaching alone, even outstanding preaching, is not enough to empower and release people into leadership. In today’s era, both discipleship and leadership development happen best through relationships that we intentionally create and sustain. That’s the sweet spot for this new book with an unusual title, Amplified Leadership: Five Practices to Establish Influence, Build People, and Impact Others for a Lifetime.

Pastor, author, activist and strategist, Dave Gibbons, is a world reknown "game changer." In his first book, The Monkey and the Fish: Liquid Leadership for a Third-Culture Church, Dave has challenged an entire generation of leaders to embrace our culturally diverse world with relevancy and compassion. Calling it "The Third Culture," masterfully details how adaptability in our churches and organizations can create the ultimate environment to grow relationships with Christ. Take a moment to get a quick glimpse into Dave's reading and writing.

How to choose what to read? In this short video, author Mike Bomen, of In Pursuit of Great AND Godly Leadership shares his insight.

Charles Lee is one of the best idea guys I know. Better than good ideas are ideas that lead to impact - a hallmark of Charles' life. Charles' new book Good Idea: Now What? is a hands-on resource that will serve you as an "idea coach" helping you to move your great ideas to implementation and most importantly to major impact.

In this short video, author Mike Bonem responds to the question, "What is your favorite quote from In Pursuit of Great AND Godly Leadership?"

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...