This made me chuckle. But thanks to everyone who has purchased the new Kindle version of Developing a Theology of Leadership.

I have some good news for all of you who received Kindles for Christmas. One of my most popular eBooks from 2011, Developing a Theology of Leadership, was just released on Amazon in the Kindle version.

It’s been downloaded and viewed over 24,000 times, and now it’s available as an easy download for anyone with a Kindle or using the Kindle app on their tablets, phones or computers. For those of you who have Amazon Prime memberships, you can borrow it for free. Otherwise, it’s only $2.99 to download the eBook.

Like my other eBooks, this will take you about 20 minutes to read. It includes discussion questions to process with your team. The sections hit these topics:

• Building a Leadership Theology Foundation
• Servant Leadership
• Empowerment
• Character
• Putting It into Action

If you’re looking for a good resource to read and discuss with your staff or volunteer leadership team, this may be a great place to start the new year. I hope you’ll download a copy and share this with a friend.

I recently finished reading We Are All Weird by Seth Godin. Here are some of the highlights from my reading:

• “The epic battle of our generation is between the status quo of mass and the never-ceasing tide of weird.”
• “The ability to reach and change those around you has been changed forever by the connections of the Internet and the fact that anyone, anywhere can publish to the world.”
• “When you don’t feel alone, it’s easier to be weird, which sort of flies in the face of our expectation that the weird individual is also a loner.”
• “If you persist in trying to be all things to all people, you will fail. The only alternative, then, is to be something important to a few people.” (Tony’s note: We need focused vision and strategy.)
• “If you cater to the normal, you will disappoint the weird. And as the world gets weirder, that’s a dumb strategy.” (more…)

In 2011, I took a non-traditional approach to publishing. Through my partnership with Church Community Builder and Engage Burkina, I launched “The Leisure Suit Series” with a focus on helping churches get unstuck. Apparently that was a strong felt need for church leaders, because this post introducing the second eBook in the series was the #7 most popular article in 2011:

New FREE eBook Available Today: How to Get Unstuck

Big news today! We’re launching the second eBook in the Leisure Suit series. This one is called Hanging Up the Leisure Suit: How to Get Unstuck. Among other things, this resource includes strategies and practical steps for:

• making the necessary changes to get different results
• bridging the gap between vision and execution
• following God’s blueprint for fulfilling his purposes
• avoiding over-reliance on teaching to produce change, and
• creating healthy systems in your church

Like my previous eBooks, this one is FREE. (You can share it with your teammates.) It’s short. (You won’t have to invest much time reading it.) It includes exercises and discussion questions. (My goal is for you to have healthy conversations that lead to positive change.) And, you’ll get to start those conversations immediately–no need to visit the bookstore or wait for the Amazon box to show up on your doorstep. (Do people still read hardback books?)

[Read the entire article.]

I released several eBooks in 2011. This has by far been the most popular. It’s been downloaded or read online by over 22,000 people. Here’s the post that started it all. The #8 most popular article on my website in 2011 was all about helping people consider their theology of leadership.

Have you developed a theology of leadership?

Today is the official launch of my new eBook, Developing a Theology of Leadership. Amazingly, the stats indicate over 1,300 people have already read it since I leaked out the link before the weekend. I’m hoping you’ll find this resource helpful as you begin to consider who you are as a leader.

This eBook is based on a series of articles I wrote about two years ago. Thanks to the help of Ben Stroup, we’ve refreshed the content and added some new features to help you take your next steps in your leadership.

What I love about this and the next few resources I’m about ready to release is that you can’t just read them and put them on a shelf. (They’re eBooks. That would literally be impossible.) Aside from that, each eBook includes a discussion guide for you to begin a conversation with your ministry team. I’ve also included some recommended steps to take the content and “put it into action.” I’m challenging you to do that. Remember, teaching (or reading) shifts thinking, but systems shift behaviors.

[Read the entire article.]

1. Read This Before Our Next Meeting by Al Pittampalli
2. Quitter by Jon Acuff
3. Necessary Endings by Dr. Henry Cloud
4. Today We Are Rich by Tim Sanders
5. Poke the Box by Seth Godin

Several years ago, I made a connection with Mark Hughes as a result of reading his book called Buzzmarketing. Mark’s life has radically changed in the years since then. With that, he’s released a new book on grace. I’ve asked him to share his story. I hope you’re encouraged and inspired by this interview.

TONY: What prompted you to write Sons of Grace?

MARK: Massive conversion. For 30 years of my life I’d turned off the switch to God. I was successful; my resume spanned from PepsiCo to VP of Marketing of Half.com which we sold to eBay for $300 million. I was author of the book Buzzmarketing and was a sought-after marketing speaker travelling to Europe, the Middle East and middle America.

But Thanksgiving 2007, I realized I had no purpose. I was self absorbed; self centered. I realized I had treated my family and wife pretty poorly for most of my married life. My life had to have more meaning, and when I looked deep inside my life, it was empty of many things.

Around the same time, a friend of mine had asked me if I wanted to attend a men’s spiritual group which met about an hour before we met each week. I was scared to death. I was skeptical of everything religious…perhaps afraid of anything that might replace numero uno (me at the time). But I knew for many years, though, that some kind of faith awaited me.

So Friday mornings, I showed up. Fifteen to twenty men from contractors to multi-millionaires shared openly about the baggage in their lives while reflecting on a passage from the Gospel. I was so removed from Christianity, I didn’t know that the Gospel was the first four books of the New Testament. I was so lost, but I could relate to these honest and flawed men, because I was flawed in so many ways.

I showed up, I stayed, I shared. Then a Marine approached me, knowing that I had written the book Buzzmarketing, and asked how to write a book. We talked, and it quickly evolved into a compilation book where ten tough, flawed men would write their own chapter of how they pushed God away, wreaked havoc and eventually embraced God — finding a peace never experienced before. It took three years from start to finish.

(more…)

A few weeks ago I picked up a free copy of Read This Before Our Next Meeting by Al Pittampalli. It offers an interesting twist on the strategy for meetings in organizations. Here are some of the highlights from my reading:

• “We’re now addicted to meetings that insulate us from the work we ought to be doing.”
• “When’s the last time any one of us made a game-changing decision that made our hearts race?”
• “I can think of no single great innovation that has ever happened without the presence of opposition.”
• “Regularly interrupting the day to bring our best minds together to focus on the urgent makes it impossible for these people to spend their focused energy on what’s actually important.”
• “Peter Drucker tells us that meetings are by definition a concession to deficient organization. We either meet or work. We can’t do both at the same time.”
• “Meetings need to be less like the endless commercial breaks during a football game, and more like pit stops at the Daytona 500.”
• “Meetings have become a tool to delay decisions. They have become our default stalling tactic.”
• “We must structure the Modern Meeting so that bold decisions happen often and quickly, and those decisions are converted into movement that leads our organization forward—fearlessly.”
• “Modern Meetings can’t exist without a decision to support. Not a question to discuss—a decision.”
• “I believe that just about anyone is capable of participating productively in a brainstorming session, but with one important caveat: the closer the topic is to the work you do all day, the worse you will perform.”
• “Group decision making often leads to a culture of compromise.”

I don’t necessarily buy into all the principles discussed in the book. For example, I’m not sure what I think about every decision happening outside the context of a team meeting. However, I think this is a good read for anyone who is responsible for organizing and leading people to reassess the effectiveness of meetings.

Here’s my Amazon link if you’d like to pick up a copy to read and discuss with your team.

Wow! It’s been quite a week around here. We launched the latest eBook last Monday, and lots of people have generously been sharing the love. Since Hanging Up the Leisure Suit: How to Get Unstuck was released, over 5,000 people have already viewed/downloaded it. I really appreciate the response.

Over the last week, several folks have shared reviews on their websites. Here are a handful of reviewers that sent me their links:

• Bob Adams
• Louie Marsh
• Steve Stewart
• Charles Cole
• Paul Alexander
• Steve Blumer
• Mike Morris
• Matthew Costner
• Tom Jamieson
• Ryan Stigile
• Nick Blevins
• Billy Ritchie