Clearing through the Clutter

One of the challenges I find as a leader is sorting through all of the great resources out there for equipping yourself and your team.  There are so many GOOD books, articles, blogs, etc. that sometimes I feel like all I’m doing is reading or studying rather than applying anything that I’m learning.

I also struggle with choosing which books to study with my staff.  There are a lot of good business books out there from which you can draw some applications to church work, but is it worth having the staff read it too or should you do the homework and share the clif notes with them?

So help a girl out…

How do you clear through the clutter?

Do you have a system/process for determining what you study and/or what you study with your team?

What’s the best resource (book, blog, magazine, etc) that you’ve found this year?

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  • Jonathan Sigmon June 16, 2010  

    My lead pastor and I usually assess a weak area in our church and then look at books that have an in-depth perspective on that issue. For example, we felt like we were struggling with "assimilation" at our church, so we read "Simple Church" together and really keyed in on the chapter that talked on this topic. It's affected our church organization because of their insights.

    Today we picked out a new book, and we knew we wanted to have a more holistic approach to ministry, so we decided to read Richard Stearns' "The Hole in Our Gospel." I'm excited to (hopefully) come up with some good ideas of how to help "the least of these" and not get stuck in our suburban context.

    Good question. I look forward to people's responses!

  • Elizabeth June 16, 2010  

    My clutter is in constant communication decisions / trends / etc. I'm a young church administrator and http://www.timschraeder.com/ is helping me make some of those decisions and implement them. I get things sent to my inbox (your blog and his are among a few). If I find I'm deleting more than reading I unsubscribe. Maybe every 6-8 weeks I do a quick hunt to look for new books to add to my admin reading wishlist or blogs for stuff we've got on our horizon.

  • D. Lake June 19, 2010  

    Hey Jenni: First time reader/commenter. Came across you blog from Ron Edmondson's blog.

    We (Lead + 2 Staff Pastors) are reading Linchpin by Seth Godin. It talks about how to be indispensable in the organizations we work for. It's been a good read thus far.

    • jcatron June 19, 2010  

      Thanks for dropping by & reading! Great book suggestion!