Perhaps you started 2018 making a commitment to read more. Many times we get busy, we have so many different things come up, or we just never get around to it. Well now is a good time to get started.
The old adage “leaders are readers” is true. The same goes for a leadership team or staff team at a church. Yet with so many books on the market, it is hard to know which ones to read as a team and which ones will be helpful. I also find it best to read books on a variety of topics.
To help you get started here are 10 books you should read or perhaps even reread this year…
1. Sticky Teams: Keeping Your Leadership Team and Staff on the Same Page
Serving as a church leader can be a tough assignment. Whatever your role, odds are you’ve known your share of the frustration, conflict, and disillusionment that comes with silly turf battles, conflicting vision, and marathon meetings. No doubt, you’ve asked yourself, “How did it get this way?” With practical and accessible wisdom, Larry Osborne explains how it got this way. He exposes the hidden roadblocks, structures, and goofy thinking that sabotage even the best intentioned teams.
2. Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement
Written by church consultant Will Mancini expert on a new kind of visioning process to help churches develop a stunningly unique model of ministry that leads to redemptive movement. He guides churches away from an internal focus to emphasize participation in their community and surrounding culture. In this important book, Mancini offers an approach for rethinking what it means to lead with clarity as a visionary. Mancini explains that each church has a culture that reflects its particular values, thoughts, attitudes, and actions and shows how church leaders can unlock their church’s individual DNA and unleash their congregation’s one-of-a-kind potential.
3. 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork
The go-to guide for building and maintaining successful teams. People who have taken their teams to the highest level in their field often have difficulty recreating what accounted for their successes. Is it a strong work ethic? Is it “chemistry”? What tools can you wrap your hands around to build-or rebuild-your team? In The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork, leadership expert and New York Times bestselling author John C. Maxwell shares the vital principles of team building that are necessary for success in your business, family, church, or organization.
4. Deep And Wide
Deep and Wide provides church leaders with an in-depth look into North Point Community Church and its strategy for creating churches unchurched people absolutely love to attend.
5. The 7 Practices of Effective Ministries
This book directly speaks to the ministry leader and helps lead the way to a more effective approach to ministry. The book tells of one overwhelmed pastor and his downfall followed by seven success stories. These stories are reinforced with strategic practices that can turn any ministry into a winning team.
6. Lasting Impact: 7 Powerful Conversations That Will Help Your Church Grow
Our culture is changing faster than ever before. There’s no doubt the church is in a moment in history for which few church leaders are prepared. You can look for answers, but the right response depends on having the right conversation. In Lasting Impact, Carey Nieuwhof leads you and your team through seven conversations that will help your church grow and have a lasting impact.
7. Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence
Do you ever struggle with focus? The never ending distraction that we face seem to never stop. Daniel Goleman says attention works much like a muscle: use it poorly and it can wither; work it well and it grows. In an era of unstoppable distractions, Goleman persuasively argues that now more than ever we must learn to sharpen focus if we are to contend with, let alone thrive in, a complex world.
8. Steve Jobs
This is a book I never planned on reading but one I am glad I did. Many principles that leaders should know. To many people, Steve Jobs was a hero. To others, his was a controlling tyrant who stopped at nothing to get what he wanted. Whatever you believe about him and his life, one thing is certain: his vision and ability to innovate left a dent on the universe. Leaving a dent on the universe is what he set out to do when he and Steve Wozniak launched Apple Computers from their garage in Palo Alto.
9. Your best year ever.
We all want to live a life that matters. We all want to reach our full potential. But too often we find ourselves overwhelmed by the day-to-day. Our big goals get pushed to the back burner–and then, more often than not, they get forgotten. This book will help you learn about setting and reaching goals.
10. The Myth of Balance
The Myth of Balance Balance is a mythical beast. We always say we need to achieve it for equilibrium in our work, life, or family time, but balance doesn’t really exist. In The Myth of Balance, Frank explains how a simple four-word formula can prepare you for the unexpected and not-so-unexpected events that distract you in the most inconvenient moments.
