Thursday, July 31, 2008

Vacation in Texas

I am currently on vacation visiting our kids and grandaughter in Allen, Texas. You can see some great photos of our most beautiful grandaughter on our family blog.

This extended time away has given me some time to be refreshed physically and spiritually. I am getting a chance to do a lot of reading and visiting other churches to see what is going on. Here's a sample list of some of the reading I have or am doing.
Commentaries on Philippians in preparation for my fall series: "Real Life, Real Joy"

You can also check out my extensive (still growing) list of resources at my Google Notebook page. Eventually, my compilation of notes, powerpoint, sermon notes, and audio of messages will be posted at the Southwood current message page.

Some additonal enriching reading

Timothy Keller, The Reason for God - this was a father's gift from my wife. Tim Keller is pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City. He is a great apologist. This book addresses the key objections to Christianity raised by most people. I like his philosophy on how to relate to those who have not yet, or possibly never will, embrace the reality of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears,
Vintage Jesus; Timeless Answers to Timely Questions - Mark Driscoll is pastor of Mars Hill church in Seattle and Gerry Breshears is a theology prof at my seminary, Western Seminary in Portland Oregon. This book challenges your thinking about the person of Christ in some contemporary terms. Driscoll is known for his down-to-earth style. Both are solid theologians.

Patrick Morley, A Man's Guide to the Spiritual Disciplines; 12 Habits to Strengthen Your Walk with Christ. Patrick is the author of the very successful men's book, Man in the Mirror. Right on!

Church Growth
Reading a bunch of books on how a church grows. You can see some of my digest and complilation at the Southwood swat page: www.southwoodministries.org/swat

Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson, Comeback Churches: How 300 churches turned around and yours can too

Aubrey Malphurs, Advanced Strategic Planning - I had a chance to sit down with Aubrey on Tuesday, July 28 at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is a very insightful guy and is doing a great job helping churches refocus. I have already read a bunch of other books by Aubrey. In addition to his duties as professor of pastoral ministries at DTS, he is also president of the Malphurs Group, a church consulting organization.

Andy Stanley and Lane Jones, Communicating for a Change - Stanley is son of Charles Stanley and has become a very successful pastor of his own church, North Point Community Church and other daughter churches in the Atlanta,Georgia area. I have also read his excellent book, Visioneering.

Eddie Gibbs, LeadershipNext; Changing Leaders in a Changing Culture, quote, "Our culture is constantly changing, oftwn faster than we can adapt to it."

Daniel Harkavy, Becoming a Coaching Leader: The Proven Strategy for Building Your Own Team of Champions - Daniel is founder of Building Champions, an executive coaching company. He has co-authed another book with Gene Woods. Leading Turnaround Teams. Gene has also written Leading Turnaround Churches (I have read both books).

Also doing some technical reading:
Macromedia Dreamweaver 8; Hands-On Training

Adobe Illustrator CS2; Classroom in a Book


Photoshop and Dreamweaver Integration

Robin Williams Web Design Workshop

Flash Professional 8: Hands-On Training

Flash Profession 8 Beyond the Basic; Hands-On Training