This year I read quite a few books – you can see most of the book reviews here on the blog by using the book review tag right here. Which book was the best? Before we get there, here are a couple of runner-ups:

Pray for Kaia – Youth worker Ryan Donovan tells the most touching story about his daughter’s painfully short life. I literally cried my way through the end of this books. An absolute testimony to faitfulfulness in the middle of unspeakable pain.

Onward – Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz writes a way-too-long but great history of his little coffee company and a vision of the values they are taking to the future. Really interesting story of the Starbucks journey.

Stuff Christians Like - Jon Acuff takes his best stuff from his blog and drops it into a fun book making fun of but loving Christians. Excited Jon is a speaker at SYMC this year, excited to hear him speak in person about youth workers. Ha!

Lord, Save Us From Your Followers – Dan Merchant brilliantly shows us the clearest picture of what Jesus intended His followers to live by contrasting it with how we (himself included) have managed to mess it all up. Innovative stuff, even if I’m late to the party since the book was published 4 years ago.

My favorite book from 2011:

Steve Jobs – I realize it was trendy to read this book this year and kinda lame to make it my favorite – but it has to be conceded that 2011 will forever be marked by the loss of Steve Jobs. I think I’ve learned as much what TO do as what NOT to do by reading about Steve’s life and management style. Incredible success, incredible failure.

What was your favorite read this past year?

JG

Finished up a couple books lately and my favorite of this last batch was The Seed by Jon Gordon. I’ve ready every one of his fables so far and this one is by far his best. Jon tells the story of Josh, a young man hoping to find his purpose in life. It is a great fictional story – by far Jon’s most spiritual story so far. It is a quick read that might help you discover your purpose, too. Good stuff.

JG

Last week I discovered Stephen Colbert’s 2007 book I Am America (And So Can You!) at our local $2 book fair. I’ve been wanting to pick it up for a while now and it didn’t dissapoint. As usual and as you might suspect, the conservative Colbert rips every one and their mother in his book including conservatives and Christians. Colbert leaves no group excluded from his barrage of verbal beatdowns. With chapters like media, race, immigrants, old people and religion you know he’s looking for a fight. Filled with puns, humor, offensiveness, truth, hilarity and opinion. They will make you laugh out loud, cry, or be completely offended. Really varied and clever humor throughout. Laughed most all of the way through. Gasped a couple times. Frowned a few times. Wondered what it would say about me if you knew I read this book. Decided it didn’t matter. Super funny book.

JG

I’m reading Steve Gladen’s new book, Small Groups with Purpose: How to Create Healthy Communities. He’s one of the pastors on staff here at Saddleback and has been heading up the adult small group ministry pretty much forever. If you’re interested in learning how we do small groups, you’ve come to the right place – Steve does a great job of walking you through the model we use and gives some clear reasons why we’ve chosen it and it works for us. Keep in mind this is primarily for our adult programs (you can read more about our student ministry take on small groups in Doug Fields & Matt McGill’s Small Groups from Start to Finish). If you’re looking for a tool to help challenge you in the area of small groups, look no further than right here. Leader training, infrastructure, host homes, health assessment, evaluation, successes and failures – all in the book.

If you’re looking for a quick look at how small groups work at Saddleback (while you’re waiting for your book to arrive from Amazon), check out Saddleback Small Group FAQs or 8 Reasons to Join a Small Group.

JG

This summer I read-most-of-and-skimmed-the-rest of Practicing the Way of Jesus: Life Together in the Kingdom of Love by Mark Scandrette. It was a book that when I got it I thought this was going to be another book challenging safe, complacent Christians to sell-everything-and-live-the-simple-life. And it somewhat is, but a little different from the ones that Shane Claiborne and others made famous. Mark challenges everyone to take part in experiments of faith that challenge us to get outside our comfortable and safe Christian box. He wanders through experiments in community that push us to be more like Christ and more effective for Christ. While this isn’t in my wheelhouse of topics/books I normally read, I liked someone messing with the normal suburban life and pushing us to be more like Jesus and out to the fringe.

JG

Read most of Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them by Ed Stetzer a while back and thought it had some good insights into the spiritual mind of the next generation of students/young adults. It felt like another in the series of books that is hoping to reveal, motivate and train the current church how to reach the next group coming through right now that is spiritually lost. It is based on significant data and extensive research at Lifeway – clearly Ed’s thing if you read his books or blog – so if you read UnChristian, The Slow Fade, Essential Church? you’ll know the drill. Honestly the book felt familiar but definitely worth reading at least for sure the chapter summaries and the conclusions at the end.

1. Creating Deeper Community. Churches that are effective connect young adults into a healthy small group system.

2. Making a Difference through Service. Churches that are transforming young adults value leading people to serve through volunteerism. They want to be a part of something bigger.

3. Experiencing Worship. Churches that are engaging young adults are providing worship environments that reflect their culture while revering and revealing God. They want a vertical experience with God.

4. Conversing the Content. Churches that are lead by authentic communicators are drawing young adults into the message.

5. Leveraging Technology. Churches that are reaching young adults are willing to communicate in a language of technology familiar to young adults.

6. Building Cross-Generational Relationships. Churches that are linking young adults with older, mature adults are challenging young adults to move on to maturity through friendship, wisdom, and support.

7. Moving towards Authenticity. Young adults are looking for and connecting to churches where they see leaders that are authentic, transparent, and on a learning journey.

8. Leading by Transparency. Churches with incarnational leaders, those who express a personal sense of humanity and vulnerability, are influencing young adults.

9. Leading by Team. They see ministry not as a solo enterprise but a team sport.

JG

I went back to the $2 Book Fair this week to score some more cheap books to read this summer. While I was there picking up awesome ministry and business books, I stumbled on this gem from Dilbert creator Scott Adams. The Joy of Work is another masterpiece in his business-leadership book series (read my review of The Dilbert Principle here). The whole thing is written half-serious which means he can really shine some light on how people work around a typical office. The larger your church the more you’ll appreciate many of his insights on organizations and corporate scenarios, but everyone will appreciate and laugh out loud at chapters on office pranks, surviving meetings and managing your co-workers.

Lots of fun reader emails and cartoons throughout, too. Loved it.

JG

I realize I’m a little late to the party on reading this circa-2001 New York Times best-seller, but I’ve been a Drudge Report fan since just after it came out in the late 90′s. If you aren’t on Drudge Report every day, you’re missing the news. Matt came to power back in the days of dial-up and was at the forefront of this emerging idea that everyone was a journalist. He broke the news on Monica Lewinsky way back in a day, and has continually challenged the ideas that TV and print media had set in stone. If you’re a fan, the book is great – offering you insight and a behind the scenes look at new journalism. If you’re not, the book may read a little incomprehensibly at times and will only be somewhat entertaining. So it was perfect for me.

Here’s a big universal takeaway for all: Matt (and others) blazed a trail giving everyone a voice. You have a voice. Start a website, a blog or a Tumblr and jump in. A-

JG

Thriving at College by Alex Chediak is decent guide to prepare for college.  It consists of four parts including college, relational, character, and academic tips each giving us a Godly perspective on how to approach these areas in college.  One thing I did enjoy about the book was the constant link that education has to God, whether the student attends  a secular or Christian college.  We try hard in school because our efforts can either be glorifying to God or not, we invest in good friendships in hope that they can be glorifying to God, and we respect our professors and faculty in hopes that our attitude can glorify God.  This book just keeps a constant focus on the fact that we should be doing everything in the Lord’s name, including school.  Overall the book is a little lengthy and I did skip some parts including some of the parent to college student relationship, professor to student relationship, and school efforts sections.  However, there is some great advice in there on mature and healthy friendships, thinking about marriage, and education as a way of glorifying God.

(this review was written by Sarah, a just-graduated senior from HSM who I asked to read the book)

I was at a “everything is $2″ bookstore recently and stumbled on a book I couldn’t pass up – The Dilbert Principle by Scott Adams. Dilbert has long been one of my favorite comic strips, probably because of my connection to his world through my business degree. Everyone can relate though, because we’re all to familiar with bosses, org charts, and where we rank in them. The best chapters (which are each filled with comics, too) are on teamwork and management. So funny and painful. Amidst the sarcasm and humor comes a few really tangible potential learnings that may surprise you. By making fun of what leaders to, he begins to point us all toward better leadership that cares and our people and our products. All in all this old book (first published in 1997) made for some fun and highly-entertaining reading the past couple of weeks.

JG