Earlier this week we kicked off Book Nerd Christmas: that time when the literary lovers start the summer by peering into each others beach book bag.

In that post, I gave you ten titles that I’ve read over the last year that I’d recommend to you. But now it’s time for my list. As I was assembling these titles, and theme emerged: I realized that almost 2/3 of these books are by folks who wrote some of my other favorite titles, so I’m returning to their Amazon author’s page to crack open another one.

Here’s my reading plan from Memorial Day to Labor Day:

All of Grace, Charles Spurgeon. A return trip to Spurgeon because … well … Spurgeon.

Be the Dad She Needs You to Be: The Indelible Imprint a Father Leaves on His Daughter’s Life, Kevin Leman. Leman has walked me through all types of marital and parental situations over the years. I’m trusting this will give me a kick in the britches at the dad to a 15 year old (!).

Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential, Tiago Forte. I for one welcome the presence of our robot overlords.

Fans First: Change The Game, Break the Rules & Create an Unforgettable Experience, Jesse Cole. The Savannah Bananas are a seemingly unstoppable force. Since my first SB game a few years ago, I’ve been fascinated at their take on customer service and experience.

Holy Is the Day: Living in the Gift of the Present, Carolyn Weber. Weber’s Suprised by Oxford is one of the best memoirs I’ve ever read. I’m looking forward to this devotional-style reader.

Leading Leaders: Developing the Character and Competency to Lead Leaders, Mac Lake. Lake’s The Multiplication Effect in how we think about raising up volunteers, so adding this one to the library was a no-brainer.

Long-Distance Grandparenting: Nurturing the Faith of Your Grandchildren When You Can’t Be There in Person, Wayne Rice. Merriem and I are entering into a new season this summer (more on that next week), so this is especially timely. (I hope it comes with a box of tissues.)

Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy, Mary Roach. The inestimable Mary Roach is the best kind of science writer: wickedly smart, yet delightfully funny. I loved Fuzz and Stiff; this is her latest.

Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work, Liz Wiseman. I’ve taken countless leaders through Wiseman’s Multipliers. Count me in as a learner for this one.

Tar Heel Traveler Eats: Food Journeys across North Carolina, Scott Mason. Some have the spiritual gift of evangelism. Others, teaching. Me? I make (mostly) great food recommendations. I’ll use this to beef up (#didyouseewhatididthere) my own knowledge.

The Book Of Lost Tales, Part Two (History of Middle-Earth 2), J.R.R. Tolkien. Yes, I know what I’m getting into here. Lost Tales is no Hobbit or Lord of the Rings, but it also ain’t quite the chew of Silmarillion.

The Book of the Dun Cow, Walter Wangerin. This year I’m slowly working through Wangerin’s The Book of God, a dramatic retelling of the story of scripture. This one looks really interesting.

The Haunted Mansion: Imagineering a Disney Classic, Jason Surrell. On the heels of my Imagineering Story kick, I figured why not deep dive into a fun ride?

The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams, Daniel Nayeri. Nayeri’s Everything Sad is Untrue rests solidly in the top three memoirs I’ve ever read. The Many Assassinations is a children’s book, and I’m 100% here for it.

Unreasonable Hospitality: The Field Guide, Will Guidara. Long-time readers know my love for Unreasonable Hospitality. This was one of the few books I’ve ever pre-ordered, going out on faith that it would simply be that good.

The good folks over at the FTC want me to tell you the following: if you order a resource from a link on this page, I may receive a small affiliate commission from Amazon. If that bugs you, feel free to bypass my link and buy from a vendor of your choice. But still: buy it. I only promote items that have benefitted me and that I believe will benefit you.

This week officially marks the beginning of Book Nerd Christmas: that time when the literary lovers among us kick off the summer reading season by peering into each others beach book bag. (You don’t have a beach book bag? For shame.)

Later this week, I’ll post what I plan to read this summer, but for today, here are the top ten titles I think you should consider cracking open. Some of these were on my own reading list last summer, or my “top ten” post for 2025, or have made it to a Top Ten Quotes post, and I think they’re worthy of a spot in your beach book bag.

Authentic Ministry: Serving from the Heart, Michael Reeves. An incredibly short, yet incredibly rich book that hits your soul even if you’re not in full-time vocational ministry. (See the Top Ten Quotes post.)

A Certain Idea of America: Selected Writings, Peggy Noonan. Whether you’re Team Semiquincentennial or you’ve been calling it the Bisesquicentennial before Sestercentennial was cool, this summer marks America’s 250th anniversary. And one of my favorite writers delivers a collection of essays that take us back to a more patriotic time.

De-sizing the Church: How Church Growth Became a Science, Then an Obsession, and What’s Next, Karl Vaters. (See the Top Ten Quotes post.) Fun fact: I had the opportunity to grab breakfast with Karl earlier this year, and he proved to be just as wise and insightful in person as De-Sizing led me to believe. No matter your church size, this book will give you much to chew on.

The Imagineering Story: The Official Biography of Walt Disney Imagineering, Leslie Iwerks. (See the Top Ten Quotes post.) If your vacation plans are taking you to The Happiest Place on Earth, this incredibly deep dive into how the magic is made will be a fun companion on a plane ride or two (or 12, because it’s not a short read.)

Insight: The Surprising Truth About How Others See Us, How We See Ourselves, and Why the Answers Matter More Than We Think, Tasha Eurich. A friend calls this “the best book on self-awareness I’ve ever read,” and I think she’s on to something.

A Non-Anxious Presence: How a Changing and Complex World will Create a Remnant of Renewed Christian Leaders, Mark Sayers. (See the Top Ten Quotes post.) If you fancy being a more faithful leader in a time of near-total insanity, Sayers says what we need to hear.

Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West, Andrew Wilson. Listen, I love Andrew Wilson’s writings. But this is not the short-and-easy style of God of All Things or It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (the endnotes and index easily take up a quarter of the nearly 400 pages). He goes all in on what went down in ’76, and how that shaped our worldview even today. Another good read for your semibisesquisestercentennial celebration.

Respectable Sins, Jerry Bridges. (See the Top Ten Quotes post.) If you like your summer reading to have a healthy dose of kicking you in the pants, this book’ll do it. Bridges helpfully and pastorally walks us through those seemingly-small areas of compromise in our lives, and calls us higher.

The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple, Jeff Guinn. This was an absolutely fascinating history of the rise of a cult leader and what ultimately led to the Jonestown Massacre in 1978. Fair warning: the book is solidly PG-13 content, because for a guy who claimed to be God, ol’ Jimmy had a potty mouth, zero morals, and was not, in fact (spoiler alert!), God.

We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance, David Armine Howarth. One of the most page-turning books I’ve read in the last year, this is an epic tale of the lone survivor of a skirmish in Nazi-occupied Norway. Plus, the arctic conditions will be a mind-bender while you’re soaking up the sun.

The good folks over at the FTC want me to tell you the following: if you order a resource from a link on this page, I may receive a small affiliate commission from Amazon. If that bugs you, feel free to bypass my link and buy from a vendor of your choice. But still: buy it. I only promote items that have benefitted me and that I believe will benefit you.

Most churches and church leaders don’t struggle due to a lack of vision. They struggle because systems and culture drift apart.

They’re friendly, but not always intentional. They see first-time guests, but too few return visits. They struggle to recruit and retain volunteers, move values from a rallying cry to real action, and create a common language that ties it all together.

These struggles are what our One-Day Workshops are designed to address.

This year’s Workshops combine three practical topics into three back-to-back days to make travel planning simpler. Attend one day or all three, and choose the combo that best fits your church and your team.

Our 2026 lineup:

• Tuesday, October 6: Guest Services. You’ll learn how to build a thriving Guest Services ministry, create a culture of intentional hospitality, and navigate the systems and challenges surrounding first-time guests, parking, seating, and more.

• Wednesday, October 7: Guest Services 2.0. Take your hospitality beyond Sunday mornings into every layer of church life, from staff culture and hiring practices to volunteer leadership, communication, and member engagement. (Previous attendance at our Guest Services One-Day is a prerequisite for 2.0.)

• Thursday, October 8: Volunteer Culture. If you struggle with finding them, training them, keeping them, motivating them, or even firing them, you’ll discover some new ways forward as you equip the saints for the work of the ministry.

All One-Day Workshops are 8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., and held at The Summit Church’s Capital Hills Campus, located in Raleigh, North Carolina.

What you’ll walk away with:

Every One-Day Workshop is designed to move your team from ideas to implementation. You’ll get:

• A forum to bring your staff team or high-capacity volunteers, to multiply the impact
• Workshop manuals to help with notes and brainstorming
• Proven resources and templates help you get started (or improve what exists)
• Group discussion and targeted Q&A sessions
• Breakfast, lunch, and snacks (so many snacks) throughout the day
• New friendships with peers from churches across the country

Since 2016, hundreds of church leaders from across the U.S. and Canada have participated in these Workshops. Many return year after year, bringing additional staff and volunteers with them.

Individual registration:

• Early Bird (through July 15): $99
• Standard (July 16-September 16): $129
• Late (September 17-28): $149

All prices are per person, per Workshop

Team registration:

Bringing a team? Groups of five or more get our best available rate:

• $99 per person, per Workshop through September 16

Discounts are not stackable: you’ll automatically get the lowest available rate!

What others are saying:

• 5 stars isn’t enough. Over the years I’ve brought three different teams to these Workshops.” – Jenny Klein, Generations Church, Southport, NC

• “We left feeling energized and equipped to move our entire church culture in better directions.” – Paul McDonald, Autumn Ridge Church, Rochester, MN 

• “The Workshop is a MUST for churches who want to steward their congregations with excellence!” – Jayda Fisher, Redemption Church, Mobile, AL
  
• “I came away with incredibly practical and actionable ideas. The value you receive for the price is outstanding.” – Clif Kapka, The Well Community Church, Argyle, TX
  
• “Truly transformative. If you’re passionate about advancing the kingdom of God by serving guests in your church, this Workshop is a must.” – Jordan Potter, Eastlake Community Church, Moneta, VA

photo credits: Austin Franks, Tally Schiro, Charlie Martin

Not long ago our staff team read through Michael Reeves’ Authentic Ministry: Serving from the Heart. I was first introduced to Reeves a few years ago through his Delighting in the Trinity, which is – well – delightful. And my latest interaction proved to be the same.

Authentic Ministry is a book you can technically read in one sitting…it clocks in at just 122 pages. But you don’t want to do that. It’s so rich and thought-provoking, you’ll want to leave space to put it down and ponder a while.

Here are my top ten favorite quotes:

• …our ministry must flow out of an enjoyment of him. It cannot move on from an enjoyment of him.

• …when Christians define themselves by something other than Christ, they poison the air all round.

• Do not settle for small prayers to a small god.

• …people will seek to put you on a pedestal. Will you let them?

• Seek to do excellently, but not to out-do brothers and sisters.

• …pride spoils community, but community can also help quell pride.

• …we’re brought into Christ bruised and bruising. “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

• If we forget that we are justified by faith through grace, every trial becomes a double trial; we increase our suffering as we wonder if God hates us.

• There are brave and faithful saints who have been kept through adversity. And there are foolish failures, just like us. There’s Noah the drunk: the Lord helped him finish. There’s David the adulterer: the Lord helped him finish.

• Brothers and sisters, don’t settle for a letter race, a race towards a fickle and uncertain hope.

Order Authentic Ministry

See all posts in the Top Ten Quotes series.

Disclaimer: FTC watchdogs will probably want you to know that the authors represented did not ask for this endorsement, nor did they provide me with free swag in order to do so (unless specifically mentioned otherwise). I’m just a really satisfied customer who wants to let you know where you can get some great products. So there. Further, if you order a resource from a link on any “Top Ten Quotes” page, I may receive a small affiliate commission from Amazon. If that bugs you, feel free to bypass my link and buy from a vendor of your choice. But still: buy it. I only promote books that have benefitted me and that I believe will benefit you.

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In the last post, we tackled the hard-hitting questions that actually aren’t all that hard hitting. Or even questions at all. Because they are things that your first-time guests aren’t really asking.

Sure, at some point people will want to know more about your doctrine, what you offer, and how they can get involved. But for the vast majority of previously-unchurched people, that’s not their starting point.

No, for true first-timers, they are often asking a series of questions that seem so obvious to us, we can’t imagine they’re asking. Because we have the curse of knowledge, it doesn’t occur to us that our guests are simply trying to figure out what any newcomer would need to know.

The following five questions may not be spoken out loud – or phrased exactly this way – but I guarantee you the sentiment is there.

1. Where and when do you meet?

Seriously, friends: check your website, all your digital properties, and your physical church sign. I never fail to be surprised at the number of Redemption Churches (or First Baptist Churches, or Life Churches) websites that don’t list a city or state. Or they list their office address but not their meeting space address. Or that information is so buried that it takes a forensic specialist to find it.

The same goes for your service time(s). I’m less than 24 hours removed from a guest who showed up at the right location, but at the wrong time, because he glanced at our website, saw the service times for one campus, and assumed those times applied to all campuses. And this happens to us way more than I’m comfortable admitting to you.

2. Where do I go?

Few things heighten a person’s anxiety more than feeling like they’re in the wrong place. That’s why every college professor starts every semester by saying, “This is Econ 101. If you’re not in Econ 101, you should go find your real classroom right now.” (Not that I have personal experience with slinking out of said classroom.)

Your signage matters. Your parking setup matters. Your outdoor greeters matter. Your handoff from guest services to kids matters. What’s familiar to us is often foreign to our guests.

3. What about my kids?

Certainly, this question won’t apply to all of our guests, but it’ll apply to a large percentage of ’em. If they have an infant, what happens if when they disrupt the service? If they have preschoolers or elementary schoolers, what do we offer them (and how would they know)? If they have middle- or high-schoolers, how early can they drop them off and can they pick them up once they hit adulthood? (I kid. Mostly.)

These are questions that should be answered on our website, at our first-time guest tent, by volunteers, and as a part of the service.

4. What do I do?

Let’s pretend that we nail #2. Signage and volunteers and traffic flow is on point, but we can’t stop at the auditorium doors. We need to plan every service with the guest in mind. We need to know when to speak to our guests (and when not to). We need to explain ourselves as we go.

Giving clarity to what we do – and what our guests are invited to do – is a kindness.

5. What does this mean for me?

This question is one a guest likely won’t articulate, but if you answer it, it’ll mean the world – and likely a return visit. Connect the bigger picture of the gospel to their life and marriage and kids and job. Help them see how the church speaks to those issues and come alongside them. Invite them back the following week to continue to be a part of the bigger story.

This week, I encourage you to take a look at the questions you’re answering. Are they the ones your guests are asking?

photo credit: ChatGPT

When a first-time guest (FTG) shows up at your church, there are a lot of questions they tend to ask: the standard, obvious ones. Questions that seem so obvious to us, the fact that they’d ask them doesn’t land on our radar.

And we’ll get to those questions…later.

But before we do, it might be helpful to take a look at the questions our FTGs usually aren’t asking. Some will. But most won’t, especially on day one. The only problem: these are often the questions we try to answer – even when no one’s asking:

1. What is your full doctrinal playlist?

(I don’t know if “doctrinal playlist” is a thing, but it felt right.) I’ve discovered that most FTGs don’t care where you stand on codified anthromentality, whether your Pelagianism is semi or full strength, or the pros and cons of consubstantiation. In fact, most FTGs don’t even have a category for what those things are, or whether I just made it up (spoiler: codified anthromentality is totally made up).

What many FTGs will feel intuitively is whether the service or the preaching squares with their concept of church. If they grew up in a legalistic environment, the concept of boundless grace may take time to sink in. If they’ve never been in church, there’ll be a learning curve on who God is, how Jesus fits in, and why it even matters to their present day life.

2. How many ministries do you offer?

I’ve never heard a guest ask that on their first visit. You have never heard a guest ask that on their first visit. But what do we often do on their first visit and in their first-time guest bag? We load them down with every ministry offering that has been offered in the history of ministry offerings: Sunday School! Small Groups! Thursday Morning Men’s Bible Study! Cat Walkers Support Group!

…we shove the menu down their throat without ever realizing that too many options mean they won’t choose anything.

3. What can I offer here?

This is the flip of #2, and can be alternatively worded “Here’s how you can get involved.” I’m sorry: get involved with what? I just showed up. I’ve been here five minutes; I’m not signing up to lead the eighth-grade boys’ Sunday School class.

4. What is your long-range plan for my growth as a disciple?

Should we have a long-range plan for maturing as a disciple? We certainly should. Do we need to lay that out on day number one? We certainly do not.

Let’s state the obvious: many FTGs won’t have the language to understand what you’re talking about. They may or may not have a history in church. They may or may not have a relationship with Jesus. So rather than focusing on their ten-year plan, let’s focus on the first ten minutes.

5. What’s my next step?

For many FTGs, it took everything in ’em just to build the courage to get in the car and drive to a strange building full of strange people. Their first day is about survival. They are not often thinking about what is to come.

And they certainly aren’t thinking about the 25-30 “next steps” you have in mind for them (see points 2-4 above). So give them one: come back next week. We can’t wait to see you again.

Those are five things your guests probably aren’t asking. In the next post: five questions they likely are asking.

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I’ve never been accused of (a) being a sports fan, (b) being all that knowledgeable about sports, or (c) having the ability to use a sportsing illustration as a jumping off point. So the following experiment should be … uh … interesting, to say the least. Go team!

In my limited knowledge of the professional sports world, there are four types of people who sit in the stands, stand on the sidelines, or bum around in the bleachers. And these four types have a not-so-surprising correlation to the types of leaders we often find in church world:

1. Cheerleader

At a game, the cheer squad has one job: to hype the players and the crowd. Working from a set list of cheers and routines, the only game commentary they offer is one of encouragement. They are way more rah rah and way less real-time feedback.

2. Faithful fan

Found in most pro sporting events, the faithful fan has a closet full of team gear. They may have season tickets. They know that players and coaches come and go, but their enduring fandom lives forever. They’re committed to the organization through the good years and bad, and they will freely offer their unsolicited opinion and obligatory adoration, depending on which year is which. They might be loyal, but they’re often inconsistent.

3. Professional critic

I would argue that the professional critic is a paid version of the faithful fan, just with more skin and salary in the game. They don’t have the luxury of being a fair-weather fan, their job depends on the latest hot take on the new recruit or the aging quarterback or the worn-out coaching staff, and how if x team would just do y, that would fix all the problems. In other words, they assume that their worlds move worlds.

4. Coach

Here’s the thing about the first three types of sideline people: they don’t really matter. I’m sorry, cheerleader, fan, and critic, but you don’t matter. Not in the moment, anyway. There’s one voice that should rise above the cheers and jeers, the ooohs and boooos, and that’s the voice of the coach. The players should look to and hear from the one voice that can move the needle, who is gunning for their best interest, who is watching all the moving parts on the field or the court and reacting accordingly.

So here’s the question for us, church leaders: which of the four types of sideline people are we? Are we a cheerleader, with a preset list of unfounded attaboys? A faithful fan, who knows that volunteers come and go and the organization can ebb and flow, and we endure no matter what? A professional critic, who simply seems to exist to point out the problems?

Or are we a coach, who truly wants what is best for the players and the organization? Who can slap ’em on the back or get up in their face, depending on the day or the moment? Who sees all the pieces and all the players and isn’t just looking for points, but for progress?

Here’s the difference between a coach and those other three: the coach brings proximity and accountability. Because when the game is over and the stands are empty, there’s one type of leader heading to the locker room, climbing on the bus, and starting it all over at the next day’s practice. Not just showing up for the event, but investing in a life.

So the question: which leader are you?

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Q:

Do you empower volunteers to lead your guest services training or do you only have staff do that?

[Question submitted in a recent One-Day Workshop]

A:

This is a question I receive fairly often, whether we’re talking volunteer onboarding, a newcomers class, a team huddle, you name it. The sentiment is, what must we own, and what may we offload? Let me give a case for each, and some cautions for both:

The case for a staff-owned teaching role:

There is something to be said for getting the download from the Grand Poobah of the ministry. In most cases, they should be the chief visionary, the resident expert, and the go-to person for all things fill-in-the-blank. Hearing from the leader means you’re hearing their heart. You’re picking up their nuances. You’re getting to know them and their expectations as you step into a volunteer role.

Add to that, hearing from a staff member helps you to enter into (or continue) that pastoral relationship, so that foundation is built as they shepherd you in the future.

If there are cautions, a staff-owned role means that a staff member is tied up for the hour or so of onboarding and can’t do other things. They are not equipping the saints for the work of the ministry. They become a bottleneck to momentum.

The case for a volunteer-owned teaching role:

Some of our best onboarding facilitators have been those who don’t do it because of a check, they do it because they love it. Hearing from a fellow volunteer means you’re hearing from someone who has sat in your seat. As a potential volunteer, it’s easier to see your future self reflected in them. They’ve felt your initial butterflies, they’ve progressed in their skills, and now they’re leading others.

If there are cautions, it’s that a volunteer may be called upon to answer questions that are outside of their wheelhouse or area of expertise. They may or may not have a teaching gift (something that can certainly be true of a staff member as well).

Making the call

If you’re a leader, I think a volunteer-led role could be a huge win for your ministry. It frees you up. It equips the saints for the work of the ministry. It expands your leadership and replicates the vision into other people who can lead alongside you.

To ensure a win here, you need to have a standardized onboarding curriculum so they know the expectations and know how to fulfill them. You need to check in often – don’t just dump the task and run. You need to let them speak into the curriculum so they are utilizing their skill set and bringing their strengths to the table.

Who do you have on your volunteer team who might be your next onboarding facilitator?

Want to submit a question for a future Q&A post? Ask it here.

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I’m thinking this morning about Tim Conway.

If you’re under 40, let Grandpa catch you up: Tim Conway was a comedic genius who hit his stride in the 60s and 70s. He is perhaps best remembered as a regular on The Carol Burnett Show, where his pairing with Harvey Korman went down as one of the greatest comedy duos in television history.

I have a childhood core memory (late 70s, mind you), of watching The Carol Burnett Show with my dad, and witnessing my normally-reserved father come absolutely unglued at Conway and Korman as they consistently sought to cause the other to break character.

Conway’s autobiography What’s So Funny? is a must-read for – ahem – people of my era, but Carol Burnett’s This Time Together actually does a better job at capturing both his comedic genius and his professionalism. Here’s how she describes her beloved costar:

We always taped two shows on Fridays with two different audiences. The early show was a dress rehearsal that we taped as a backup. Tim would do the first show as written, “to the ink.” Then, as we were getting ready for the next show, he would check in with our director, Dave Powers: “You get all the shots?”

Dave would respond, “Yes.” (He always got all the shots.)

Tim would then ask Dave to change some things for the second show. For instance: “Instead of shooting a close-up of me when I go to the window, could you make it a head-to-toe shot?”

This meant that Tim had come up with some outrageous bit of business that we hadn’t seen or planned for. Now the fun would begin. Whatever Tim had been secretly cooking up all week blossomed into sheer hysterics in the second show, with Dave and the camera crew winging it right alongside him. Ninety-nine percent of the time we aired the second taping with all of Tim’s ad-libs and improvisations because they were so much funnier than the “ink” that we’d planned.

Tim’s dentist sketch with Harvey has to go down in television history as one of the funniest bits ever. Tim played the dentist, fresh out of school, and Harvey was his very first patient. The meat of the sketch was that Tim kept accidentally shooting himself with novocaine, first in his hand, then in his leg, and finally winding up with the needle between his eyebrows. As usual, he came up with most of these bits himself, and we all saw them for the first time in the second show.

I was screaming with laughter watching the monitor in my dressing room, so I ran out to the backstage area and watched from the wings. The entire audience was exploding. Our cameramen couldn’t contain themselves, either. There wasn’t a dry eye (or seat) in the house. And then I looked at Harvey. He couldn’t move from his chair. Utterly helpless with laughter. He tried his best to keep it together, but it was no use. Tears were spurting out of his eyes. Tim was relentless.

Here’s what I love about this story: it illustrates the intertwining of professionalism and playfulness. Conway was committed to getting the basics right: he followed the script “to the ink,” he made sure the director got the shots, he dared not ruin that week’s show by going rogue too early.

But once he nailed the basics and adhered to the baseline, he was willing to take a chance. If that second shoot didn’t result in what the director or the other stars wanted, no problem: there was always the first shoot. But “ninety-nine percent of the time” the second taping was used, because his so-called spontaneous playfulness was so much better than the professional script.

In our jobs, in our ministries, in our relationships with family, friends, and those whom we lead, I have two questions:

Are we getting it right? Are we paying attention to the little details, making sure we’ve mastered the basics, making sure we’ve followed the rules, and ensuring a good experience for everyone involved?

Are we having fun? Are we becoming artists rather than just scientists? Are we adding whimsy to our standard operating procedures? Are we looking for harmless ways to add suprise and delight, for us and for those we serve?

By the way, if you’re a lifelong Tim Conway fan or a young whipper-snapper who’s just hearing of him for the first time, you can’t spend your next few minutes any better than watching the final half of the infamous dentist sketch…the second take.

You know the drill by now: every summer, I curate a specific list of titles to work through between Memorial Day and Labor Day, but I look to you to help me stock that list.

So the question: what have you read recently that you’d recommend? Fiction, non-fiction, leadership, spiritual growth, social issues, biographies, history…you name it.

Comment below, or send me an email, or let me know on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

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