Take 2.0 Ministry for the Next Generation

I had read a book a while back titled: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, which I found to be an incredibly good book. The summary could look something like this: Malcolm Gladwell poses a more provocative question in Outliers: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential? Challenging our cherished belief of the “self-made man,” he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don’t arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: “they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot.” Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, “some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky.”

Then just today I ran into a brief little bit that another great person in my opinion wrote, his name is Michael Hyatt
Michael writes: A study by K. Anders Ericsson, which looked at musical prodigies, found the common denominator for mastery and success: 10,000 hours of practice. “The emerging picture from such studies,” says neurologist Daniel Levitin, “is that 10,000 hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert—in anything.” 10,000 hours is the equivalent of 20 hours a week for 10 years.

That made me think all over again, how many hours have I put into the things that I want to be successful in? How many have you put into the things that you want to be successful in?
There is a price for success, it seems that it is at least 10,000 hours.

Here we are at number 5 of our top resources according to me for any children’s pastor. But today’s resource according to me is for much more that just a children’s pastor, actually it is for everyone and I strongly believe that everyone should use this one as well. Today’s resource is one of those that sit in the lives of may peoples lives, but still remain untapped of it’s true potential. This resource has become so common for so many that it tends to get ignored and is greatly under appreciated by just as many if not more than those it covers. This resource is BOOKS.

This is going to be one of those harder topics for me to discuss because of my love and true enjoyment of them and not just say things like:
* The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.
* Leaders are Readers
* A vacuum of ideas affects people differently than a vacuum of air, otherwise readers of books would be constantly collapsing.
* “Books, I found, had the power to make time stand still, retreat or fly into the future.” – Jim Bishop
* “The closest we will ever come to an orderly universe is a good library.” - Ashleigh Brilliant
* “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” - Ray Bradbury

It is a well-known fact that when there were no televisions or computers, reading was a primary leisure activity. People would spend hours reading books and travel to lands far away-in their minds. The only tragedy is that, with time, people have lost their skill and passion to read. There are many other exciting and thrilling options available, aside from books. And that is a shame because reading offers a productive approach to improving vocabulary and word power.

Books, I feel are an incredible resource, and one that should not be lived without. I am tempted to not try and go through a list of great books and break them down into my likes and all for fear that I have so many and so many to still learn about that I would leave some out and later run across some more that I would always want to come back here and add them. But I will give some sites that I would encourage you to maybe go and check out for yourself. These sites have chosen to already list some books and all. Please remember these are only a couple sites that offer you a quick peek into books. The best way is to actually just go and pick up a book and begin the journey of a life time for yourself.

MineZone
ministry marketing coach
800 CEO read
Leadership Network
Leadership Now

Now don’t wait any longer, go and read a book.

I am reading this great book titled: Collapse of Distinction by Scott McKain. This book is not only well written but it is one that is challenging me to look at things with a new perspective. This is not a church book in the least, as it covers many great businesses and their examples like Gateway, Starbucks, Apple, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Wal*Mart and many more. But, rest assured, through covering these and many others Scott McKain does a wonderful, almost masterful job of sparking thoughts in the readers mind for each of us to question what we have been doing and why regardless of our profession.

For me one of the greatest sparks that the book helped me to venture down through my own world of Children’s Ministry or the Church world is the true cost of copy cats in these areas. I found myself rallying my teams and challenging them to help me sort through the true price (which I found out I am not the only one who did not take this into consideration)  that comes from a lack of clarity and “TRUE” distinction.

Basically in this area the book talks about is restaurants for example. Many restaurants see the success one is having with something and so they will go and copy it figuring that if this restaurant is successful here then we will be as well. Each restaurant continues to copy the others until every improvement is rally just a small incremental improvement and the customers can not longer tell the difference between any of them really and so for the customer it all boils down to price then. No more distinction just price. This then becomes very pricey for the businesses and keeps them from being what they have the potential to be by keeping everything based on just the price.

What about in the church world. The loss of “true” distinction and the copy cat syndrome that runs so high through all churches and ministries. Remember when bus ministry was first getting started? The success moved everyone toward starting bus ministries. What about puppet teams, themed rooms then whole themed facilities? Let’s not forget family services, or large group small group services, what about even the terminology from “services” to “experiences”? The list can really go on and I am sure you have by now even created your own list in your mind. I am not sure what the bottom line (since it is not price for the church) is, but I do feel that we tend to become copycats real fast and do not see the true price of losing what our distinction is and why God has us where He has us.

But think on this, “Imitation usually generates neither passion nor distinction. If you are copying from others-even if you are imitating the best-you are propagating a “me too” approach that will continue to cast you adrift on the sea of sameness.” ~Scott McKain Collapse of Distinction