I’d heard so much over the past year about GTD this and GTD that. I had no idea what folks were talking about until Richard Poole began blogging about his desire for personal organization and how using the “Getting Things Done” principles found in David Allen’s book had helped him.

During his process, he also began reviewing several pieces of software that applied the GTD concepts. They included Thinking Rock, iGTD, and Omnifocus.

Since I am a fluid thinker and tortuous multi-tasker, I filed the book away mentally as something I’d like to get done… It wasn’t too long before a particularly overwhelming week hit that provoked me to finally order the copy of the book that had been sitting in my Amazon Wishlist.

I’ve been plowing through it for several weeks, and I must admit that it almost immediately began transforming my workspaces and habits. One of the primary points of Allen’s material is that our brains are profoundly able to retain information…. That’s not necessarily a good thing for many of us.

Every little to-do, project, honey-do, and urgent item that has ever crossed your mind is still buried in there somewhere. Over the course of time, you began to feel stressed and overwhelmed because you’re juggling so much mentally. Even things that carry relatively no weight – things that you just occasionally want to get to “someday” – occupy your mind with equal frequency as the need to finalize that big project.

So the first thing you do with GTD is simply to begin the collection process. Allen recommends setting aside an entire day for this. It’s a literal, physical collection process. Everything that lying around your house, office, in files on your computer, bulging email inbox, and floating around in your brain becomes part of this process. The goal is to simply empty it all into appropriate “collection buckets.” Whether file folders, trash cans or folders on your computer, Allen’s book guides you through this process.

As I’ve done this, I must admit that it’s mentally freeing to see accumulated piles of stuff – some things in them dating back a few years! – disappearing and being acted on, filed, or trashed.

The next step is “processing.” After collecting everything into one spot, now begins the time-consuming step of going through it all. He advocates a 2-minute rule in this step. If you come across something that you realize you could get done within 2 minutes, then stop and do it then. You’ll be surprised – I was – of how true that is. It’s also VERY encouraging to see things dwindling and getting done.

The next step is “organizing.” It’s this step that I’m still working on, but I’ve purchased a little file stand for my new filing system. Allen recommends the following broad categories: a “tickler” file (Someday/Maybe), Errands, Waiting (things that you’ve passed off to someone else but need to remind yourself of), Projects, and Reference (things you don’t need to act on but want to keep).

Obviously, you’ll also begin to create a more indepth filing system, but those are essential. Allen’s book is definitely not “pie-in-the-sky;” rather, it’s extremely practical and immediately useful.

After processing comes “reviewing.” You must carve into your weekly calendar a set time to sit down and review what you’ve filed. If you don’t, you’re in danger of simply getting things out of your mind and forgetting what you got them out of your mind for. You do the mind-dump in order to become more proficient and focused on what you begin to “do.”

And that’s the final step – “doing.” Start asking yourself about each project, task and floating idea, “What’s the next action step I could take on this that would advance it forward?” As you take that step, (and more like it as you then identify the next step after it), you’ll see even the largest, most daunting duties reducing in size and complexity.

I’m passing this book off to wifey, in the hopes she’ll digest it as well. It’s going on my yearly read/review list because I sense it’s one of those areas that in which I’ll need to be challenged again.

Here’s the process:

It’s been a while since I chewed on this much at one time in a book. Recommended in a Catalyst podcast by Andy Stanley, pastor of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, GA, I knew that I needed to digest the book. Stanley said that the leaders of his church went through the book together when they were in the pre-planting days for North Point as a way to try to understand “systems thinking.”

He said something to the effect that once your organization starts rolling, you get consumed with people, issues, problems and the like and if you don’t have the proper perspective on how organizations and people work – aka a systems perspective, you will always be responding to crises and events rather than seeing the whole picture.

His promotion of it sold me.

I wasn’t disappointed.

The book definitely isn’t a “light” read – it took me almost two months of steady chewing to work through it all. (We bought copies for our leadership team as well, but I’ve not heard a peep of evaluation from any of them except my copastor). Although it is a different kind of reading than I’m used to, I thoroughly enjoyed being stretched in this area. I actually found myself being deeply fascinated by organizational behavior theory.

You can imagine all the immense practicalities for a pastor being well-versed in helping an organization see the big picture, make decisions with the long view in mind and addressing problems and issues with the entire “system” as a reference point, rather than that particular problem at that particular time.

Doing systems thinking means becoming a “learning organization.” It’s a group of people all committed to the truth of where their organization is/isn’t and working from there with a broad, compelling vision as their reference point and goal.

The author, Peter Senge, shares the laws of the Fifth Discipline in chapter 4 as being:
Today’s problems come from yesterday’s solutions. Basically, he means that all the stuff that an organization struggles with today is simply the delayed consequences of decisions made in the past. Most of those decisions were simply addressing symptoms of larger problems rather than seeking to address the larger issues.
The harder you push, the harder the system pushes back. Senge refers here to “feedback loops” and reinforcing processes that are a little difficult at first to understand. However, I think I began to interpret this as simply – “It took you a while to get in this situation; the organization ain’t gonna fix itself by your first feeble efforts overnight.”
Behavior grows worse before it grows better. When you begin making strategic decisions that are truthful and right for the organization, things will probably continue bumping along as they have been for a while, with the same problems. Of course, you now have the additional stress of new direction and the pressure of “will it work?” Most “right” decisions and systems-thinking-inspired ones will take a while to begin to show results. Be patient.
The easy way out usually leads back in. There are dozens of illustrations from a business context throughout the book that illustrate this point. Typically, we just want things to “get better” – and NOW! However, the temptation for a quick fix in these instances does nothing to promote health for the organization. Don’t choose the easy way out; it will just compound your problems and make it more difficult later – if there is a later.
The cure can be worse than the disease. Ouch. Ever had cancer? Case in point. Treatments like chemotherapy basically almost kill you in addition to the rogue cells in your body. Truly addressing deep, root organizational issues can be extremely painful.
Faster is slower. This does’t sound very affirming because we all want to see immediate results, don’t we? However, the author urges leaders not to become discouraged. The end result takes hard work on the front end, but moving your organization to a systems perspective enables synergy, productivity, and unity in the long run.
Cause and effect are not closely related in time and space. This is probably one of the biggest downers in all of life. If consequences happened immediately after making great or stupid decisions, we’d all be rich.
Small changes can produce big results – but the areas of highest leverage are often the least obvious.
You can have your cake and eat it too – but not at the same time. If you persist in leading your organization toward a vision-oriented and long-range perspective, you’ll enjoy both harmony in relationships and immense productivity (in the business world = profits) later.
Dividing an elephant in half does not produce two small elephants. Senge uses the elephant illustration to help us see that most American organizations (including churches and non-profits) tend to try to address problems and issues by isolating them. “Let’s form a committee/team and study this…” This tends to cut off part of the elephant. It prevents you from seeing the whole beast/issue. Every part of the organization affects every other part (sounds like 1 Corinthians 12, doesn’t it?), so decisions must be made with the entire “elephant” in view.
There is no blame. This is a refreshing rule for systems thinking. Rather than blaming “someone” or “them” or even a competitor, this rule helps us to remember that we’re the problem. “There is no outside… you and the cause of your problems are part of a single system.” It’s all within the organization and the systems in place (or not) to respond to and deal with issues, problems, successes, backlogs, etc.

I particularly enjoyed the chapter on “Personal Mastery” in which he describes the qualities necessary for a leader of a learning organization to pursue. The chapter on “Mental Models” is one of the best about studying worldviews because he addresses such a heady topic in a very readable fashion. It was in this chapter that some very practical ways of dealing with folks who “don’t see it your way” are shared, including some tips for “advocating your own view.” In fact, all the chapters in this section of the book called “Core Disciplines” were excellent. The other two were “Shared Vision” and “Team Learning.”

While I know that most of my readers will not rush out to purchase this book, I would encourage any leader of an organization to digest this book and do it slowly. Make it a goal over a year’s time span to chew through it. You’ll be glad you did.

One practical thing anyone can take with them after skimming through the book is simply this: It’s not just about you. Learn to fit in, submit, discover your unique contributions, listen diligently, and make decisions that are best for the long haul – not on what would make you feel good right now.

Four preacher-friends have come together not only to form a new ministry alliance but now have also written their first book. Mark Dever, CJ Mahaney, Al Mohler and Ligon Duncan III are from different churches and ministries, but together they have founded Together for the Gospel, a ministry seeking to defend and proclaim the Christian gospel.

Their book about preaching also includes contributions from John Piper, RC Sproul, and John MacArthur, all of them renown biblical scholars and teachers.

The 7-chaptered table of contents looks like this:
A Real Minister: 1 Cointhians 4 – Dever
Preaching Christ from the Old Testament – Duncan
Preaching Christ with the Culture in View – Mohler
The Center of Christian Preaching: Justification by Faith – Sproul
Preaching as the Expository Exultation for the Glory of God – you guessed it, – Piper
The Pastor’s Priorities: watch Your Life and Doctine – Mahaney
Why I Still Preach the Bible after Forty Years in Ministry – MacArthur

We affirm the centrality of expository preaching in the church and the urgent need for a recovery of biblical exposition and the public reading of Scripture in worship.
We deny that God-honoring worship can marginalize or neglect the ministry of the Word as manifested through exposition and public reading. We further deny that a church devoid of true biblical preaching can survive as a Gospel church.

I particularly enjoyed the chapters by Piper, Mahaney and Mohler. At times, I felt like Dever, MacArthur and Mohler were more mad than instructional. Perhaps a re-read of the book might change this impression, and I certainly woudln’t want that observation to keep you from reading it, because the book is definitely a great resource.

Any pastor/teacher/preacher needs to digest the material slowly. Much of it is a steak meant to be chewed slowly and thoughtfully. I agree with the overall assessment of the book that preaching in America today has suffered a serious decline as more and more churches and their leaders turn to a type of communication that is more intended to draw and keep crowds than it is to mature, grow and equip the body of Christ for God’s glory.

I had the blessing of growing up in churches where deep exposition was present, and I teach/preach that way today out of conviction. I too affirm that God’s Word is inherently powerful, and if you present it, interpreted rightly, to God’s people, then God’s Spirit will ensure that it doesn’t return to Him without accomplishing its purpose.

Many of the authors seem to be addressing the emergent movement as much as they are seeking to inform the reader. Especially in MacArthur’s chapter where he has several references to pastors who are practicing the opposite of what he would recommend.

He has strong words for those Christian leaders who follow a market-driven strategy of church growth rather than simply teaching and preaching the totality of God’s Word.

There have always been men in the pulpit who gather crowds because they are gifted orators, interesting storytellers, entertaining speakers, dynamic personalities, shrewd crowd-manipulators, rousing speechmakers, popular politicians, or erudite scholars. Such preaching may be popular, but it is not necessarily powerful. No one can preach with power who does not preach the Word. And no faithful preacher will water down or neglect the whole counsel of God. Proclaiming the Word – all of it – is the pastor’s calling.

What he mean by “the whole counsel” is simply every verse and chapter. He notes a distrubing tendency of pastors today to create series, self-help focuses, and other “sermonettes for Christianettes” that never progress through a single New Testament or Old Testament chapter. It’s a constant pulling-out-of-context approach to address topics that they feel like should be addressed. This is in contrast to expository preaching which seeks to allow the text to speak for itself. The latter requires careful study to determine context, authorial intent, historical background, and the principles being communicated.

All in all, the book has much to offer. Although relatively short, it has several profound implications for today’s church and preaching.

I have seen these Charlie Bone books occupying bookshelves for a few years now. I heard they were disappointingly similar to the Harry Potter books. Since I’ve completed the Potter series, I decided to give the first one a try.

A young boy discovers he has magical powers. His discovery produces family conflict. He is sent to a school for other kids with magical powers where he engages in heroic deeds and brings the book’s plot to a satisfying conclusion.

Nope, it wasn’t Harry. Neither was Hogwarts the destination. Try Charlie and Bloor’s Academy.

After completing the book, I had one of those senses of strange verified entitlement. Everything I’d heard was true. After book 1, the CB series is a knockoff of the success of the HP series. It’s rare that such rumors and cultural whisper prove true.

Yet… I found myself engaged in the fresh storyline, and before book’s end, I had chuckled a few times and become engaged with this new cast of characters, plot twists and personalities.

I’ve ordered book 2… off of the used list at Amazon. (Local library didn’t have 1 or 2). I’m willing to give this series another chance in the second book.

I heard (or perhaps read) about someone describing how they balance their reading a while back. Their selection over the course of a year contained some enjoyment reading, a biography or two, books in an area that they desired personal growth, and then the kicker… a book about prayer.

I remember how it struck me as extremely strategic to include in one’s reading each year a book about prayer. Whether good or bad, such material would hopefully remind and provoke my commitment and reward in this area of my spiritual life.

I would love to say that I am a deep and consistent pray-er all the time. I am not, however. My prayer life is like the tide.

With all that said, however, I highly recommend this short book, The Kneeling Christian. It was written between the two World Wars – in the 20s or 30s. While the author refused to identify himself (or herself), most think it the work of Anglican clergyman Albert Earnest Richardson.

The author is well-versed in scripture, and although there are a few principles that I would take issue with, the material will most assuredly challenge your prayer life.

It will challenge your first love as being rooted in Christ.
It will challenge the praise of your prayers, the regularity of your prayers, and the urgency of your prayers.
It will help you examine possible hindrances in your prayer life.
The book also has a great chapter on “who” can pray. Most of us might like to quickly respond, “Anyone!” But not so fast, says this author. I think you’ll find yourself nodding in agreement with him by the time you follow his line of reasoning.

If you haven’t read a book this year on prayer, swing by Amazon and pick this one up. Then pass it along.

I hope it provokes you as well to become a kneeling Christian.

In preparation for the upcoming movie (released February 14), I decided to read the Spiderwick Chronicles. For one thing, they were an incredibly fun and easy read. You can read each book in about 45 minutes to an hour.

The tale revolves around twin boys and their older sister whose parents have recently split. They find themselves living with their mom in an abandoned mansion, once lived in by their great aunt.

Mysterious things begin to happen, and for a while only one of the twins is aware of the source of the drama. He finds a hidden book, secreted away, and it reveals the reality of what they now face.

Each book builds on the other, and as far as fantasy-adventure, the chronicles are more like a motorboat, skimming quickly across the surface of previously charted waters.

For true enjoyment and a significant depth, I’d recommend the Chronicles of Narnia as a priority before chewing on the lighter and more candy-coated Spiderwick series.

They’re a fun read, and kids will most assuredly enjoy them. I do suspect, however, that the movie will be much more enchanting than the books have been.

What a delightful surprise this book was!

It’s bulky 533 page mass beckoned mysteriously the last time the kids and I were at the public library. The library had put it on display as a new book.

I flipped through it and was fascinated with the hundreds of pages of original artwork by the author, Brian Selznick. I showed it to Adelyn, our 8 year-old and asked, “Do you think you could read this?”

She looked at it, intrigued, but clearly doubtful.

Imagine her delight when a week later she was proudly posing for a picture to show that she’d read the book! A third grader who had polished off a 533-page book is quite an accomplishment, I would say – even if the book had hundreds of pages of pictures.

It’s a rewarding achievement and gift for a child to realize that they can tackle a book of that size. I saw in Adelyn that proud evening the dawning of a new day of book reading desire.

I picked up the book after she completed it and was quickly immersed in the story. Selznick has indeed earned his Caldecott Medal for this achievement. It’s not so much as a good read as it is a visual, epic feast.

The illustrations combine with the story to give you the sensation of watching an old movie. And indeed, that’s what much of the plot is about. As you read this fascinating tale, you’ll also learn some amazing history about early movies. Every movie referenced in this magical tale is real, and one of the main characters is also real.

I’d highly encourage anyone to sample this innovative medium. You won’t be disappointed.

Aaaaaaah.

I sat up til late last night savoring every word and nuance of the final Potter book. I had put off reading it forever, knowing that after I was done… I was done.

It didn’t disappoint.

In fact, the final tale to the Potter epic was remarkably deep and powerful in themes of love, redemption, sacrifice, family, friendship and learning the purpose in life.

I had skimmed the book Looking for God in Harry Potter and was impressed by the intricate weaving of classic literary themes and Christian elements into the Potter series. In that book, the author unashamedly recommends the Potter series for reading by all.

I would echo that sentiment. In Potter, as in other tales of fantasy and epic literature, there are themes as grand as the imagination can bear.

In particular, however, I was struck by J.K. Rowling’s use of biblical themes from Jesus’ life. In one instance, Harry and friends find the inscription, “Where your treasure is, there will be your heart also” (Matthew 6.21) on Dumbledore’s parents’ grave.

In another instance, 1 Corinthians 15.26 is inscribed, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

While reference is not made to the source of these two verses, they remain true in our reality – as well as in Potter’s. I was fascinated and even moved by the final chapters of the epic as Potter willingly moves toward his destiny. (I’ll skirt that here for those of you who haven’t read it.)

As I closed the final page, I did so with warm reluctance. It had been a deep and fantastical journey since I read the first book back in 1997. Another grand literary epic was brought to a more than fitting conclusion.

Bravo, J.K.

A while back I read an article saying that George R.R. Martin and Robert Jordan were some of today’s fantasy epic writers. I was craving some great, imaginative literature since I’d read Tolkien’s books years ago (and even reread them!).

I picked up Martin’s books and devoured them. I can’t recommend them to everyone because they’re rated PG-13. There are some pretty pointless graphic descriptions in them. However, as far as character development and plot, they’re fantastic.

Imagine my surprise when I finally picked up Jordan’s first book in his Wheel of Time series and became increasingly enthralled by it. I’ve read some reviewers who say that he simply mimics themes and elements from other fantasy authors (such as Tolkien), and I’m not saying that he doesn’t.

However, if such mimicry is as compelling as Jordan’s tale is, then bring on the Xerox machine.

I found myself immersed in this story that continually pulled back the curtain to allow you to glimpse a much broader and grander history that the author intended to unfold. It’s simply cinematic.

One discovery was a little dismaying… there are 11 books (so far) in the series! Wow. I wasn’t quite ready for that much of a commitment.

To top it off, Jordan passed away in September 2007 with the series unfinished. Also known as James Oliver Rigney, Jr., Jordan was diagnosed with amyloidosis in 2006, and his death was due to complications of that disease.

Brandon Sanderson, a well-known fantasy author was hand-picked by Jordan’s wife to finish the Wheel of Time series.

I will most assuredly pick up the second in the series and then make the decision from there as to whether I’ll continue.

In the meantime, if you’re in-between series and wondering what to read next, you can’t go wrong with The Eye of the World. It ends in a way that brings much resolution, and it’s not necessary to continue reading in the series unless you’re curious or have become captivated by the broader epic.

I have had Aldrich’s book Lifestyle Evangelism so long that I still chuckle when I look at the cover – it has two couples dressed in decidedly 80s fashion visiting together while sitting on a wall. The new cover is much better. I guess Christian publishers have learned to cease putting pictures of folks on the cover of books?

The whole focus of the book is intended to help educate Christians on how to “share their faith” through their relationships. Aldrich’s contribution to this essential Christian discipline and lifestyle is enormous.

The author first of all debunks the idea that evangelism is the work of the Christian. Rather, it is the work of God. God alone convicts of sin, calls people and draws them to Himself. However, Christians are both the medium through which God’s great truths and message of forgiveness are made known AND the means of making God known.

Aldrich continually points out that the church (a gathering a local believers) is the bride of Christ and therefore should be a beauty to behold. He points out Jesus’ words that said that the world would know that He was sent by the Father if his believers loved one another.

When you encounter a bickering group of Christians, it does irreparable harm to the gospel of Christ. That’s why the New Testament apostles were urgent and authoritative in their declarations about how Christians should treat one another.

When Christians and churches live a lifestyle of humility, obedience, and truly put one another’s interests before their own, they become a people through whom God reveals Himself to a lost world. The more sensitive a group of people are to God, the more attractive and beautiful they become to a watching world.

Aldrich points out that Christians cannot simply live “good lives” in front of their communities but rather they must speak and proclaim the truth of the gospel verbally to be an ongoing explanation of why they live the way they do.

Some churches focus on service to the exclusion of gospel proclamation while others focus on proclamation to the exclusion of service. Both are ultimately necessary and focusing exlusively on either extreme leads to imbalance.

Relationship alone is not enough. No one is good enough to let just his life speak for Christ. Words are necessary to point beyond himself to Christ.

I love one of his idioms. He says that in order to portray Christ and faith in Him as beautiful, we must not look like we were weaned on dill pickles.

To some Christians, the very word “evangelism” makes them break out in a cold sweat. They envision memorizing a long presentation and knocking on the door of a stranger to shove rote content down an unwilling neighbor’s throat.

Aldrich redefines evangelism as simply expressing what you possess in Christ.

Personally, I thought the two best chapters in the book were the one on Avoiding Evil Instead of its Appearance in which the author does a magnificent job of explaining how Christians are to relate with non-Christians. How far should we go to establish a relationship with them? Jesus was accused by the religious elite as being a drunkard and a “friend of sinners.” To what extent should we go to befriend those who are living remarkably “unChristian” lifestyles?

Another chapter that I thought was particularly well-written was the one entitled Evangelism and the Church Body which deals with how a church can become more beautiful.

This resource is an excellent one that has been around for a while now (first published in 1981), but its tone and teaching are greatly needed in the church today.