When the original Kindle released, I didn’t bite. I decided to wait until version two. That wait ended this past week. My new Kindle 2 arrived on Thursday. It was worth the wait.

To catch some of you up to speed, the Kindle is a wireless reading device. It holds books like an iPod holds music. And, just like an iPod, it does a lot more.

At some point in the future, I may share a more comprehensive review of the Kindle. But, for now, let me give my first impressions of the new device.

• The size and shape lives up to the hype. It’s very sleek. I can’t believe that this device stores 1,500 books.
• Although the functionality is relatively intuitive, I’m still finding myself referring back to the user’s guide to learn how to use some of the features.
• You can read more than books. You can also subscribe to newspapers, magazines and blogs. I’m testing a free trial version of USA Today. The newspaper is waiting for me on the Kindle when I wake up in the morning. That’s pretty amazing.
• The wireless functionality is free after you make the initial purchase. And, true to Amazon’s promise, my first book downloaded in less than a minute.
• The fact that it’s wireless means I can also access the Web. The Kindle becomes a relatively good way to keep up with blogs when I’m on the go. It also gives me access to YouVersion.com, my online Bible.
• I didn’t order a cover with my purchase. I should have. You need a cover. Mine will arrive early this week.
• I also wish there was a clock in the top header where the wireless and battery icons are located. I like getting lost in a book, but I also need to know how long I’ve been reading at times.
• My favorite part of using the Kindle may be the ease of adding highlights and notes to what I’m reading. It’s going to make blogging a lot easier, because I can download all my notes to my computer for editing and inclusion into blog posts. Far easier than retyping notes from traditional books.
• With that, I wish there was a way for Kindle users to share notes similar to the way YouVersion allows users to share content. If Amazon offered that service, it would revolutionize the way people read books.

After I purchased my first iPod it was only a matter of months before I stopped buying CDs. I can easily see how having the Kindle will likely mean I’ll only purchase and read electronic versions of books going forward. Books are cheaper that way. And, honestly, it’s a lot easier for me to have several books available on my Kindle than trying to carry books around in my book bag when I travel.

Just in case you’re curious, U2′s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb was the first album I downloaded to my iPod. And Bill Hybel’s Axiom was the first book I downloaded to my Kindle.

Any other Kindle owners out there? What do you have to add to this initial review?

Let me preface this by saying I’m not sure what I think about what I’m about ready to share. I’m still processing. I’m still waiting to hear more from God on this. I haven’t landed.

As best as I can tell as I study churches across the country, here’s how the typical contemporary church asks people to invest their time today:

• Participate in Sunday worship services.
• Read their Bible.
• Become a member of the church.
• Attend classes to learn more about the Bible and their spiritual walk.
• Participate in a small group with other believers.
• Serve in a ministry.
• Participate in events and programs that connect believers with others in a similar life stage. (i.e. men, women, married couples, moms, singles, college students, etc.)
• Participate in missions efforts either locally or globally.
• Invest in people’s lives and invite them to church.

I think that’s a fairly comprehensive list, but you could probably modify that for your specific church and add or delete from the list.

Now, as a result of all this, we see that about 20 to 25% of people end up doing most of the serving at a church. Contemporary churches struggle to get more than 30% of their people engaged in small groups. A very small percentage of people are in the Bible daily. People end up spending a lot of time at the church rather than connecting with people outside the church. We reinforce a consumption mentality that says if you’re going to grow in your faith that the church needs to spoon feed you. People become reliant on the church rather than Jesus for their spiritual maturity.

This is going to sound a little sacriligious, but I’m wondering what would happen if we eliminated some ministries of the contemporary church. What would happen, as an example, if we only asked people to invest their time in this way:

• Participate in corporate worship and Bible teaching.
• Read your Bible.
• Serve others.
• Make disciples.

Kind of scary isn’t it? There’s a lot of stuff that we do as churches that’s not on that list. Most of what’s not on that list are the gatherings and activities that bring believers together to learn more. No small groups. No classes. No singles ministry or women’s ministry events. No structured missions programs.

I’m wondering what would happen if rather than focusing so much on transferring knowledge, we focused on helping people love God, love others and make new disciples. What would happen if we asked people to spend less time at the church and more time in the lives of people who need Jesus? What would happen if we offered fewer gatherings to transfer knowledge and more tools to help people study the Bible on their own? What would happen if there was less emphasis on church activities and more emphasis on reaching the world for Jesus?

Maybe groups and classes and ministry programs aren’t the discipleship strategy. Maybe encouraging personal disciplines and serving and making disciples is the discipleship strategy.

Like I said, I’m not sure where I’m going to land on this. I just think some aspects of the contemporary church that we’ve accepted as requirements for “good ministry” are creating barriers to spiritual growth and to the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

In many ways, I think we’re becoming the new traditional church.

Here’s an interesting question that popped up yesterday during the Catalyst One Day event. Andy Stanley said at one point he asked the guys around him to answer this question: “Would you help me understand the way I do things?” For him, that question was primarily about how he communicates with his church. He was looking to help others communicate better by sharing how he does what he does.

I think it would be helpful, though, for you to answer that question for me. Give me some feedback. Don’t hold anything back. I’m trying to figure out how to teach, challenge and encourage the next generation of leaders in the church, but sometimes it’s hard for me to do that because I’m not sure what I’m doing. Does that make sense?

So, feel free to leave comments here or email me directly if you’d prefer for your responses to be more confidential. I’m looking for feedback from my team, my peers and my friends in our online community.

Would you help me understand the way I do things?

• 6:12 PM tonymorganlive - Welcome friends. Andy is preparing for the final session. Go ahead and let your friends know. We’re also taking comments here.
• 6:14 PM tonymorganlive - “What has momentum and what doesn’t?”
• 6:16 PM tonymorganlive - ministry “programming begins as an answer to a question”
• 6:17 PM tonymorganlive - “It ends up becoming part of our culture. It defines us.”
• 6:19 PM tonymorganlive - Andy is talking about an old couch on the platform.
• 6:19 PM tonymorganlive - It looks like a couch in my grandma’s house.
• 6:20 PM tonymorganlive - The couch started out as something to sit on, but it stays around for years and years and can’t be thrown out because people have an emotional attachment to it.
• 6:21 PM tonymorganlive - “In church life, this is deadly. It creates all kinds of problems.”
• 6:21 PM tonymorganlive - “All ministry programming becomes an old, out-dated couch.”
• 6:22 PM tonymorganlive - “If your passion is outsiders, then there are some couches that must be retired.”
• 6:23 PM tonymorganlive - “It’s difficult because it’s very, very emotional.”
• 6:26 PM tonymorganlive - “At some point a generation will come along and say, ‘I’m just not going to sit there.’”
• 6:26 PM tonymorganlive - “I don’t know the answers to the ‘how’ questions in your particular ministry environment.”
• 6:28 PM tonymorganlive - “We must be more committed to our mission rather than our programming or model.”
• 6:28 PM tonymorganlive - We’re comparing to the church we came out of.
• 6:30 PM tonymorganlive - “My tendency will be to love our model more than our mission because it’s what I’m comfortable with.”
• 6:31 PM tonymorganlive - “The goal is to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.”
• 6:31 PM tonymorganlive - Andy said church planting is the most difficult job next to being a single mom.
• 6:32 PM tonymorganlive - “If you are a denominational leader, you were probably hired to protect the model.”
• 6:34 PM tonymorganlive - “You don’t even have any people. I don’t have people. You don’t have people. There are just people.”
• 6:38 PM tonymorganlive - “The goal wasn’t to have great singers. The goal was to get people in the choir.”
• 6:38 PM tonymorganlive - (Cowboy-hat-guy just walked back in the room.)
• 6:39 PM tonymorganlive - Andy just quoted Seth Godin. “Don’t fall in love with a tactic.”
• 6:42 PM tonymorganlive - “Where are we manufacturing energy?”
• 6:46 PM tonymorganlive - “What God originates, God orchestrates.”
• 6:46 PM tonymorganlive - “If you commit to the what, God will show you how.”
• 6:50 PM tonymorganlive - “We made a list of all our assumptions.”
• 6:51 PM tonymorganlive - “What do we assume about people and how to reach them?”
• 6:52 PM tonymorganlive - “We’ve assumed we have to get people to sit in rows and teach to them.”
• 6:52 PM tonymorganlive - “We assume Christians like to sing.”
• 6:53 PM tonymorganlive - “We program kids ministry as if they’re going to be there every week.”
• 6:54 PM tonymorganlive - “Information and inspiration don’t necessarily produce transformation.”
• 6:56 PM tonymorganlive - “What are we doing to help people on Sunday morning to stick? We’re spending a lot of time helping people to gather.”
• 6:57 PM tonymorganlive - “What are we assuming?”
• 6:59 PM tonymorganlive - “We have to continue to examine our assumptions.”

• 5:46 PM tonymorganlive - Craig and Andy are answering questions submitted by the crowd via text messages.
• 5:47 PM tonymorganlive - Craig says they use 360 evaluations at LifeChurch.tv.
• 5:51 PM tonymorganlive - Craig: “If you don’t evaluate, don’t expect improvement.”
• 5:56 PM tonymorganlive - Andy: “One weekend off is not even like a weekend off. If you’re going to take one, take two.”
• 5:57 PM tonymorganlive - Andy is talking about an encounter with Joel Osteen. Joel: “Then I realized I had to run my race.”
• 5:57 PM tonymorganlive - (I like hearing these guys talk back and forth.)
• 6:02 PM tonymorganlive - Andy: North Point had to hire a consultant to figure out organizational structure and reduce the number of direct reports to Andy.
• 6:03 PM tonymorganlive - Andy: “I set up a personal board of directors. I meet with these three guys quarterly.”
• 6:04 PM tonymorganlive - Craig: “We’ve decided to be weird because normal doesn’t seem to be working very well.”
• 6:07 PM tonymorganlive - Craig just took off. Video before the last session from Andy.

• 4:25 PM tonymorganlive - Craig just started the first afternoon session. He’s talking about spiritual momentum.
• 4:31 PM tonymorganlive - “i messed up in a significant way” describing story about him and his wife
• 4:31 PM tonymorganlive - his wife asked, “Are you going to be a husband or a pastor?”
• 4:32 PM tonymorganlive - Bill Hybels: “The way I was doing the work of God was destroying the work of God in me.”
• 4:34 PM tonymorganlive - “What do you want to do for the Kingdom of God?”
• 4:34 PM tonymorganlive - “Don’t say build a big church. Because that’s really stupid.”
• 4:34 PM tonymorganlive - “The goal is to make disciples.”
• 4:35 PM tonymorganlive - “Once you answer that question, then ask yourself, ‘What should I do today?’”
• 4:35 PM tonymorganlive - “I will do today what I can do to enable me to do tomorrow what I can’t do today.”
• 4:35 PM tonymorganlive - (Feel free to let your friends know we’re hanging out here. And, feel free to add your comments.)
• 4:36 PM tonymorganlive - “Do something to defeat your dark side.”
• 4:39 PM tonymorganlive - Craig is talking about old Methodist days. Those wacky Methodists.
• 4:41 PM tonymorganlive - I started to think, “What will bring people in?” rather than “What will glorify God?”
• 4:43 PM tonymorganlive - “Find your darkside and figure out what you need to do to get out of it and into the presence of God.”
• 4:46 PM tonymorganlive - “Some of your greatest spiritual strengths can be born out of your darkside” if you let God redeem it.
• 4:48 PM tonymorganlive - Craig just acknowledged that playing golf can, at times, be better than preparing for a message. (I like Craig.)
• 4:50 PM tonymorganlive - “Churches have way too many meetings.”
• 4:50 PM tonymorganlive - (There was a murmur in the auditorium. I think that struck a chord.)
• 4:51 PM tonymorganlive - “Prioritize your ministry around your values. I will not sacrifice my family on the altar of ministry.”
• 4:52 PM tonymorganlive - “Some of you are never able to work on your ministry because you’re working in your ministry.”
• 4:53 PM tonymorganlive - “Delegating responsibilities creates followers. Delegating authority creates leaders.”
• 4:54 PM tonymorganlive - “You will not create or retain great leaders as long as you’re telling them what to do.”
• 4:54 PM tonymorganlive - (That principle is HUGE!!!)
• 4:56 PM tonymorganlive - “Do something only you can do.”
• 4:58 PM tonymorganlive - “Take time off. Your family needs you. Don’t play with your Twitter.”
• 4:59 PM tonymorganlive - “You’re the only one that can be a husband to your wife and a father to your children.”
• 4:59 PM tonymorganlive - “If you don’t set up parameters, your church will abuse you.”
• 5:00 PM tonymorganlive - “You’re the only one that can remain broken before Jesus.”
• 5:02 PM tonymorganlive - “When you’re ‘cool’ God says, ‘I’ll spit you out.’”
• 5:03 PM tonymorganlive - “Get off the gimmicks. It’s not working.”
• 5:03 PM tonymorganlive - “Bring Christ. Bring Christ. Bring Christ.”
• 5:04 PM tonymorganlive - “Be obedient to the promptings of the Spirit.”
• 5:04 PM tonymorganlive - “Some of you need to experience Christ like it’s the first time.”
• 5:05 PM tonymorganlive - “Success for me is hearing from God again.”
• 5:05 PM tonymorganlive - Craig is praying now. That’s the end of his session. I’ll be back in a bit for the final session.

• 1:50 PM kevinbeers - Yes… Thanks Tony for your updates. I’ll be out at Catalyst West in April as well.
• 1:47 PM colstoncopeland - Thanks Tony for doing all these updates! Are you going to go to West Coast Catalyst?
• 1:46 PM tonymorganlive - Craig is now going to take some questions. (I love this format. Short sessions and then brief Q&A.)
• 1:45 PM tonymorganlive - “Make the decision no matter what the short term pain.”
• 1:44 PM tonymorganlive - “Find someone one or two steps ahead of you and learn how they think.”
• 1:42 PM tonymorganlive - “If you have what you want, you may not see what God wants you to see.”
• 1:41 PM tonymorganlive - “People are going to die and go to hell. When you realize that, you can do things that you used to think you couldn’t do.”
• 1:40 PM tonymorganlive - “Limitations are often the breeding ground for innovation.”
• 1:40 PM colstoncopeland - We are about to shut down our Christian school and it isnt going to be pretty…. We know this is the right move, however its difficult to break hearts.
• 1:38 PM tonymorganlive - “Don’t be afraid if they leave. You can grow when people leave.”
• 1:36 PM tonymorganlive - “If this isn’t the place for you, go find someplace that is.”
• 1:35 PM tonymorganlive - “Create a culture that allows people to leave on good terms.”
• 1:34 PM colstoncopeland - Good stuff…. Experience the pain today so we can celebrate in God’s victory tomorrow….
• 1:33 PM tonymorganlive - (colston, we better. or we’re letting certain families hold God’s mission for the church hostage.)
• 1:31 PM tonymorganlive - “Some of you…you’re going to have to step into the pain.”
• 1:29 PM colstoncopeland - DO you make the hard call even if it will cost you families in the church?
• 1:28 PM tonymorganlive - “You have to get to place where you’ll say, ‘I love the mission enough to make the hard call.’”
• 1:27 PM tonymorganlive - “I hired and recruited for today and not for tomorrow.”
• 1:26 PM tonymorganlive - “We can’t allow someone to hold back the mission of the church.”
• 1:25 PM tonymorganlive - “Make the necessary changes in order to further the mission. Make the hard decisions.”
• 1:23 PM tonymorganlive - “What are you doing that you need to stop doing?”
• 1:22 PM tonymorganlive - “The only way we could do the things no one else was doing was stop doing the things everyone else was doing.”
• 1:21 PM tonymorganlive - “Why are we putting all these resources into something that isn’t bearing spiritual fruit?”
• 1:20 PM tonymorganlive - “We were just entertaining Christians from other churches.”
• 1:19 PM tonymorganlive - “Do what we are uniquely called by God to do.”
• 1:19 PM tonymorganlive - “We can reach more by doing less.”
• 1:14 PM tonymorganlive - “When we modeled it, they started to do it.”
• 1:12 PM paulHharris - sure craig!
• 1:09 PM tonymorganlive - @shaneduffey will appreciate the fact that Craig just mentioned midgets.
• 1:09 PM tonymorganlive - “We have 6 kids because my wife won’t leave me alone. I beg her. Can we just cuddle tonight?”
• 1:08 PM tonymorganlive - “What got us here won’t get us there.”
• 1:07 PM tonymorganlive - “The longer you are there, the harder it is to break out.”
• 1:06 PM tonymorganlive - “Organizations settle into what is comfortable and safe.”
• 1:06 PM tonymorganlive - “Organizations love to settle.”
• 1:05 PM tonymorganlive - Craig just shared a funny story about being trapped. Too bad you weren’t here to hear it. :-)
• 1:01 PM tonymorganlive - Craig just said Andy is one of the greatest leaders and godliest people. Andy is influencing thousands of people around the world.
• 12:58 PM tonymorganlive - People are cleaning up the stage from the mess Lanny made. Brad is introducing Craig.
• 12:57 PM tonymorganlive - Lanny is still talking. Hang on…
• 12:53 PM tonymorganlive - Lanny Donoho is going through a long, long presentation about momentum. He just used the word “hence”.
• 12:50 PM tonymorganlive - I’ll be live blogging Craig’s session here. Tell your friends.

• 11:55 AM tonymorganlive - Got stuck in traffic and arrived late at Catalyst One Day. Let me catch you up on some of what Andy shared this first session.
• 11:57 AM tonymorganlive - “New triggers momentum… Anything new creates some kind of momentum.”
• 11:57 AM tonymorganlive - “Do we need a new leader, a new product, a new direction or some combination of the three?”
• 11:58 AM tonymorganlive - “Momentum is never created by tweaking something old.”
• 11:58 AM tonymorganlive - “New doesn’t guarantee sustained momentum, but it’s the trigger for momentum.”
• 11:58 AM tonymorganlive - “Then they show up at church and think, ‘This is kind of like it was 10 years ago.’”
• 11:59 AM tonymorganlive - “Continuous improvement requires systematic evaluation.”
• 11:59 AM tonymorganlive - “It’s God’s will for people to get their feelings hurt.”
• 11:59 AM tonymorganlive - “You sacrifice the many for the one.”
• 11:59 AM tonymorganlive - “If lack of momentum doesn’t bother your current personnel, you have the wrong personnel.”
• 12:00 PM tonymorganlive - “Momentum requires friction.”
• 12:00 PM tonymorganlive - “Complexity kills momentum.”
• 12:00 PM tonymorganlive - “Most churches grow towards complexity and competing systems.”
• 12:01 PM tonymorganlive - “New. Improved. Improving.”
• 12:01 PM tonymorganlive - Andy is about ready to take questions. This might be interesting.
• 12:02 PM tonymorganlive - “Do I just want a bigger church? Or do I want to reach more people for Jesus?”
• 12:02 PM tonymorganlive - “If you’re just trying to draw a crowd, it’ll feel gimicky.”
• 12:03 PM tonymorganlive - Need to ask the question: “Is this really about life change?”
• 12:04 PM tonymorganlive - “New systems and structure will create internal momentum but not external momentum.”
• 12:07 PM tonymorganlive - “You have to decide that it doesn’t matter if they fire you.”
• 12:08 PM tonymorganlive - I love it that Andy always just says what he’s thinking.
• 12:08 PM tonymorganlive - “Am I more concerned about who I’m reaching or who I’m keeping.”
• 12:11 PM tonymorganlive - “If personnel decisions are not emotional and difficult, then we have a heart issue.”
• 12:12 PM tonymorganlive - “Where are we manufacturing energy?”
• 12:13 PM tonymorganlive - “Where are there competing systems?”
• 12:13 PM tonymorganlive - Simplicity.
• 12:15 PM tonymorganlive - A man with a cowboy hat just walked by.
• 12:16 PM tonymorganlive - Brad Lomenick is asking Andy about some new products including Andy’s newest book that just released.
• 12:17 PM tonymorganlive - Anne Jackson (@flowerdust) is sitting in front of us.
• 12:18 PM tonymorganlive - That’s the end of this session. People are clapping. Time for a break. Check back later for future sessions.

I’ve been a proponent of TweetDeck to track people I’m following on Twitter. That all changed today. Zac and friends from “team awesome” introduced me to PeopleBrowsr. PeopleBrowsr is TweetDeck on steroids. (Suggesting Major League Baseball players probably like it as well.)

Here are some of the advantages of using PeopleBrowsr over TweetDeck:

• It’s a browser-based solution, so you can set up groups on one computer and follow the same groups on any other computer connected to the Web.
• You can track people you’re following on other social networks including Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc.
• You can create public or private groups and then tag people to add them to those groups.
• It incorporates profile data like follower/following stats and location into each update.
• It streamlines the process of replies, direct messages and retweets from each update.

I’m loving it. It was easy to set up my new groups using the group manager. Much easier than TweetDeck. I think I’m hooked on PeopleBrowsr.

Have you tried it out? What’s your reaction? Any features you’re hoping will be added to the beta version?

Lee and the band played a great tune from Dave Barnes in our service this past Sunday at the NewSpring Anderson Campus. Check out the video:

More video clips from Perry’s message and the rest of the service are available on the NewSpring Church channel on YouTube.