Word to the Word

A Tale of Hawks & Mockingbirds

The expression “hawkeye” refers to the ability to focus and see well into the distance with clarity. Watching the bird atop the light pole reminded me how hawks can possess such amazing vision …

Geolocation War Raising the Stakes

Don’t look now but the Foursquare vs. Gowalla showdown is getting more intense with the added intrigue of major suitors expressing interesting in perhaps purchasing one of the two clear standouts in the geolocation landscape …

Tiger’s Better Late Than Never Crisis Communications

or the first time since his sex scandal broke, Tiger Woods faced the media without any preconditions for 36 minutes. Frankly it was 3-to-4 months overdue. If he had been this forthcoming in the early stages of the scandal it probably would have never spun so far out of control …

Geolocation Train Picking Up Steam … Are you on right track?

Can Google Create Enough Buzz to Swarm Facebook & Twitter?

After the disappointment of Google Wave, I feel a little gun shy about buying into all of the hype of what Google plans to do with Buzz …

LU 2010 Football Opponents: Is St. Francis A Sissy?

Posted by randy on July 12th, 2010

As the 2010 football season approaches for the Liberty Flames, I am going to take a look at some of the LU opponents. We start with St. Francis of Pennsylvania who comes as a lamb to the slaughter at newly renovated Williams Stadium on opening night, September 4th.

For most college football fans, the Red Flash are hardly a known commodity. Liberty fans were briefly exposed to the program’s existence back in the 2007 season when St. Francis came into Williams Stadium to provide a huge confidence boost to the Flames who were coming off back-to-back losses . LU pounded the Red Flash rolling up nine touchdowns in the progress.

Courtesy: LibertyFlames.com

Since that game, the Flames have reeled off three straight conference titles. The Red Flash, well, they have won just 5 times in the 29 games since that night in Lynchburg. The net result in Loretto, Pennsylvania was that SFU Head Coach Dave Apfar was out. In his place, the school chose to promote Offensive Coordinator Chris Villarrial after just one season as a collegiate coach. Actually 2009 was just his third season as a coach at any level after spending two years at a high school. But his resume sparkles nonetheless …

Courtesy: St. Francis University

Villarrial spent a dozens seasons in the NFL as an offensive lineman that included All-Pro honors. At 6′ 3″ and over 300 bills, he certainly looms large physically as well. He’ll need a firm hand to shape the Red Flash into a competitive team after years and years of losing.

Coach V will have some experienced talent returning from a year ago when the Red Flash posted a 2-9 mark. Penn State transfer John Kelly led St. Francis as a redshirt freshman in ’09 with mixed results. He connected on just over half his passes for 1357 yards with 7 TDs and 8 INTs. He’ll need to improve greatly as a sophomore if he wants to have success against the Flames. That will difficult with no receivers returning with any eye-popping numbers.

On the ground, Villarrial will be looking for senior Jude Yearwood and sophomore Kyle Harbridge to soften up defenses. Yearwood led the Red Flash in 2009 with 518 yards and he found the endzone 5 times. Meanwhile St. Francis’ own ‘Easton Assassin’ Harbridge averaged 6.2 yards a carry in limited action.

Defensively the Red Flash lived up to their named of disappearing in a hurry against opposing offenses. They gave up 4.4 yards a carry and didn’t do much better against the pass. They were opportunistic picking off 13 passes. The linebacking corps provides the leadership for the unit. Seniors Scott Lewis & Matthew Parker both racked up over a hundred tackles in ’09 and combined for 25 tackles for loss and 11 sacks.

Unfortunately for Villarrial, he simply doesn’t have enough scholarship bodies to match up with a fully funded program like LU. Competing in the Northeast Conference, St. Francis is limited to 30 scholarships … a total less than half of what the Flames have on their roster.

All of this adds up to a likely blowout that will christen the newly expanded stadium in grand style. It should also afford Coach Danny Rocco an opportunity to get plenty of faces an opportunity to get their feet wet in the season.

A Tale of Hawks & Mockingbirds

Posted by randy on May 3rd, 2010

While finishing up a Sunday afternoon bike ride with my son through the park trails near our home, a ruckus in the sky above our church parking lot caught our attention. Much to our amazement, two mockingbirds were squawking and generally harassing a large red-tailed hawk perched atop a light tower. While the hawk stood at the ready to swoop down on some wayward squirrel or chipmunk, the mockingbirds were swooping around the bird of prey and doing whatever they could do to motivate him to move along from their territory. If you are not from Texas, mockingbirds may be the size of robins but they have they aren’t intimidated by anything as evidenced by the little guy you see on the left maybe two feet from potential peril. You’ll have to forgive the quality of the image above that I snapped from my Droid while straddling a bike. But that hawk was mammoth and intimidating to us 40 feet below.

The image reminded me of how we have to keep our focus when we are on a mission. Like the hawk, we have an assignment. While it may not be snatching up rodents for lunch, we have a task in our daily routine for which we must remain diligent to achieve our goals. Then along come the mockingbirds …

Sure the raptor could have used its impressive talons to bring an end to the noise. But the hawk recognized the mockingbirds as simply a nuisance. If we spend all of our time focused on nuisances then we’ll never accomplish our greater goals.

Lately it seems I have had more than my share of mockingbirds cackling around me. They have swooped around me and sporadically caused me to lose direction. But the words of Solomon in the book of Proverbs provide sage counsel:

Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil. Proverbs 4:25-27 ESV

The expression “hawkeye” refers to the ability to focus and see well into the distance with clarity. Watching the bird atop the light pole reminded me how hawks can possess such amazing vision.

Geolocation War Raising the Stakes

Posted by randy on April 23rd, 2010

The two services were formally launched at SXSW 2009 in Austin and both used the 2010 event to try and distinguish themselves from the competition. Mashable has served up some interesting metrics that indicate that clearly Foursquare maintains the upper hand today.

The numbers from Viralheat indicate Foursquare is getting over 4 times the amount of buzz in the major social media chatter. Interestingly, Gowalla appears to be generated more positive discussion compared to their bigger rival.

From personal experience, I initially had a much more positive experience with Foursquare with their terrific Android app than dealing with Gowalla’s clunky mobile website. It was easier to see a quick satisfaction from the check-ins with Foursquare and the idea of mayoral privileges really kicked in. Since I am in the major metro of Houston, it was fun competing with other in my town on the weekly scoreboard. But frankly, the Android app really hasn’t shown significant improvements over the past few months.

On the other hand, I wasn’t crazy about the pokemon-style game of Gowalla. It didn’t make much sense and there really wasn’t a great way for me to grasp what was supposed to be accomplished in the game without me diligently searching out details myself. That’s a challenge that comes with early adoption on any app until it gets widespread enough usage. It wasn’t until a couple of months ago that the Alamofire team in Austin finally leaked an Android beta. Frankly it was awful and remains so clunky today in its fully released form that I generally stick with the mobile web instead. But once I got the hang of chasing the items, it has quickly jumped to my favorite of the two. Now granted, I live in the Gowalla stronghold of Texas. But it is has become addicting trying to find the missing items in my vault. The addition of events that remain open for just a day has added a new dimension to the Gowalla experience.

What I have been most frustrated by in both players is there relative lack of interest in their Android apps. Both have outstanding iPhone products that sport outstanding features like adding pics that we Android users can only watch from a distance and admire. Considering the accelerating growth of the Android platform, I would hope one of the two companies would start showing some equal support.

It should also be noted that the latest rumors in the industry surround the potential purchase of Foursquare by Facebook. In fact, the latter surprisingly did not announce a geolocation-based feature at the f8 developer conference this week. That’s led many to surmise it was because they didn’t want torpedo a potential purchase. It certainly adds some intrigue to the discussion. Both Foursquare & Gowalla are likely riding their buzz to a higher price. Who could blame them? In the meantime, Gowalla has to play catch-up but this game is far from over.

So which one has tickled your fancy thus far?

Tiger’s Better Late Than Never Crisis Communications

Posted by randy on April 5th, 2010

For the first time since his sex scandal broke, Tiger Woods faced the media without any preconditions for 36 minutes. Frankly it was 3-to-4 months overdue. If he had been this forthcoming in the early stages of the scandal it probably would have never spun so far out of control. But he placed the blame for those poor crisis communications decisions on his legal counsel.

I did everything to the letter of the law. My lawyers gave me some advice and I followed that advice. I did talk to my sponsors and the people I was close to at various companies.

In other words, he put a greater emphasis on the court of law over the court of public opinion. In a scandal of personal nature, that proved to be a disastrous choice. The legal system could never do the amount of destruction that ensued as the scandal picked up steam.

When you consider that much more of Tiger’s massive wealth has been amassed through corporate sponsorships than actually playing golf, you would think Team Tiger would recognize which should be the priority. Today the most dominant athlete of his generation understands why so many of his sponsors dropped him.

I don’t blame them for dropping me. All I know is that I acted terribly.

He had similar understanding for the media … at least those who haven’t been stalking the every move of his wife and children.

In 24 hour news, you are looking for just about any news to get out there. Of course they should have been critical of me and you should because I did some terrible things.

It was the mea culpa where Tiger performed magnificently at the news conference. Other than avoiding an admission of why he entered rehab (as if anyone in America didn’t already know) he did not sidestep his moral culpability even once in regard to his infidelity. He did deny any use of human growth hormone (HGH) or performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). But it was his personal conduct that Tiger freely admitted had stepped way over the line.

The toughest things was having to look at myself in a light I never I wanted to look at myself. How far I had strayed from core fundamentals & morals of myself. The way I was thinking was not correct. I was rationalizing and denying. I was in total denial sometimes. I lied to myself and I lied to others. Just because I was winning golf tournaments didn’t mean a thing. I didn’t realize that until I entered rehab.

What was most impressive is the wisdom that came from Tiger’s lips that would be hard for many folks to comprehend. Even though he credits Buddhism for his spiritual turnaround, the words he spoke resound with Christianity as well.

Its not about the championships, it is about how you live your life. Going forward I need to be a better man.

Immediately after the accident, I hadn’t hit far enough on bottom for me to realize how far I had fallen. I fooled myself. I lied to a lot of people and deceived a lot of people. I kept a lot of people in the dark. I rationalized and I lied to myself. When I stripped it away and I saw the full maginitude of what I’ve done.

And the relief of having the burden of his hidden sin off his back is already having an impact on Tiger’s life.

Have I been winning & competing? Yeah I have. But I wasn’t having a lot of fun. And that’s because of the life I was engaged in. Now that’s been stripped away and it feels fun again.

Geolocation Train Picking Up Steam … Are you on right track?

Posted by randy on February 22nd, 2010

Geolocation has been a buzz word in communication circles for some time now. GPS-enabled devices are commonplace today among even the least tech-savvy consumers. But it is the potential of geolocation apps that has those of us in the communications world drooling. The ability to reach those that sit closest to our exact location presents exciting new possibilities that until this wave of technology were limited to direct mail. And if you’ve been to your mailbox lately, you realize how saturated that medium has become. Right now there is still time to get out front of geo-location as it primarily remains in the “early adopters” phase. For those in church communications, now is the time to punch your ticket to the geolocation train before it leaves you behind as a runaway locomotive.

First up, a look at the major players in the app field. Some of the first on the scene were Loopt, Brightkite & Google Latitude. But the two biggest names launched a year ago at SXSW in Austin and have attracted the greatest following thus far: Foursquare & Gowalla. Both are social media apps that reward users for checking in at places. I’ve used both and despite their core differences they essentially operate the same way. I’ve been checking in using both for some time now.

If I had to pick an early frontrunner in this race it would be Foursquare. Mashable‘s Pete Cashmore closed out 2009 by dubbing Foursquare as “Next Year’s Twitter”:

“Among the Web’s early adopter set, the answer is nearly unanimous: Foursquare. While the technology landscape is ever-changing, I’d argue that Foursquare already has aligned itself to become next year’s mainstream hit.”

Tech guru Robert Scoble is also on the Foursquare bandwagon following the path of Twitter. “Go back three years ago. Twitter was being used by the same crowd that is playing with Foursquare today.” And he adds this nugget that sums up where many of us are right now on geolocation. “It sounds really lame, doesn’t it? But didn’t Twitter sound really lame to you when someone first told you about it? It’s not lame.”

Unfortunately since I carry a Motorola Droid, I have been limited to Gowalla’s mobile site until this past week when the guys in Austin released an Android beta app. The latter is still a tad buggy but a completed version is promised soon. The Foursquare app is smooth but makes you dig a bit to check leaderboards.

Yelp has recently stepped into the game by adding the capability to check into locations on their geolocation-based review app. I’ve used Yelp when I am on the road and it offers some cool features like the ability to upload pics. Frankly I am surprised pics aren’t available on the other guys’ apps yet. It seems inevitable. Yelp has primarily become the next generation TripAdvisor (a site that is paying the price for being slow to the geolocation game). If your church or business is not fully updated on Yelp yet, do it now. Yelp offers the ability to place your own info and match up to your overall branding. And for the record, Yelp remains a much better option than ChurchRater.com.

Another app developer that was quick to to take advantage of geolocation was lifechurch.tv‘s YouVersion. The YouVersion Live feature of their Bible app allows users to locate churches and find out what is happening and being studied without ever stepping foot on a campus.

It should also be noted that the much-maligned and yet still wildly successful Google Buzz has become the first (but certainly not last) of the more traditional social media such as Facebook/MySpace/Twitter to fully utilize geolocation. Frankly it is the primary reason why it is still picking up users after the disastrous privacy issues at its launch.

Many churches have begun looking at how to best utilize geolocation as they develop their own iPhone/BlackBerry/Android apps. As technology improves, the more exciting the possibilities arise for helping folks find their way around your campus and to be alerted to events as they occur. Locally, I love what the Houston Zoo has done with their iPhone app (although I’m still waiting for them to step up with Android for my phone). They have created an entirely new experience for me taking my kids to see the animals by helping me locate other family members in the park and alerting me to feedings and special events. This is where churches need to be heading as we push further into 2010. Particularly megachurches like the one I attend that have sprawling campuses and an overwhelming schedule of programs & events.

Consider this the “All aboard!” for geolocation. Don’t get left at the station.

Can Google Create Enough Buzz to Swarm Facebook & Twitter?

Posted by randy on February 11th, 2010

Now that the world has enjoyed a day or so test drive, it is time to start determining if Google Buzz has what it takes to become a major player in social media. Let’s face it, Google’s track record in social media has been less than stellar. So there was a great deal of skepticism when the suits in Mountain View announced the new service Tuesday.

My initial reaction was one of surprise that Buzz was being launched inside the Gmail architecture. While it is a brilliant move to essentially launch with millions of preloaded users, it also left a bad first taste in the mouths of many of their most loyal users.

I’ve used Google Buzz both at home and on my Motorola Droid. Both are relatively easy to access and operate. The geolocation functionality of the app brings together cool aspects of Twitter along with some of the fun elements of Foursquare & Gowalla. I find myself interacting with neighbors whom I would normally not have a connection through Twitter or Facebook. This opens up a wide array of possibilities for businesses & organizations like churches to connect with more of their neighbors than ever before outside of mailers & broadcast advertising.

After the disappointment of Google Wave, I feel a little gun-shy about buying into all of the hype of what Google plans to do with Buzz. And yet we have seen how strong Gmail has proven to be over the long haul for users.

Unfortunately for Google, most of the buzz about Buzz has been negative in regard to privacy concerns. I admit my wife freaked out yesterday when she stumbled into Gmail and saw people “following her”. Even though she is on both Facebook & Twitter, she still is extremely concerned about privacy issues on both of those services as well. So when she is in her words “forced” into Buzz it fed into her fears. She obviously is not alone.

Jennifer Leggio of ZDnet doesn’t mince words:

“But the whole experience makes me feel somewhat violated and out of control. And, unlike other social networks that I can hide while I try to do work or catch up with communications, Buzz is in my face every time I go to Gmail.”

The blogosphere is overloaded today with tips on how to disable all or portions of Buzz. That’s not exactly what Schmidt, Brin & Page likely had in mind following the launch. Frankly, there were similar privacy concerns expressed when Gmail was launched and those have been faint at best as the years have passed by. But this launch seems to have gotten under the skin of more folks than anticipated and frankly there are valid concerns. The most grievous breach of privacy is that Buzz automatically displays your most frequent email contacts. As a former journalist who relied heavily on undisclosed sources, I can appreciate how catastrophic those types of revelations might be.

Using Buzz off your mobile phone presents even more privacy concerns as noted by Barbara Krasnoff of Computerworld:

“I’d be interested to know if the people who left their first completely public messages using their spanking new Buzz accounts were aware that their exact locations were being broadcast to anyone who happened to look in. Or whether they cared.

I certainly do.”

It should be noted that you do not have to give your location when posting buzzes. But it certainly is encouraged in order to maximize the geolocation capabilities. Frankly letting people know where I am is appealing many times as verification. But you can certainly see how it might be an issue.

An interesting side note is that while Google was continuing to diversify their portfolio of services, the January search engine results showed Bing slowly making up ground on the leader in light of their partnership with Yahoo. Andy Atkins-Krüger of Multilingual Search took note of the timing as well:

“Whilst Wall Street was rubbing its hands in glee at the prospect of a ComScore announcement showing that Bing had gained market share, Google was launching ‘Buzz’ – but not exactly in a fully polished and finished state. If Google hoped to upstage the Bing advance – they did it with a certain apparent lack of preparation.”

Prepared or not, the Buzz product will have every opportunity to give Google a much stronger foothold in the burgeoning social media landscape. And it likely will raise the standards for what can be achieved by a social media app over the course of the next year. Frankly, it could just be the first in a number of major steps forward for the industry. But it could also force everyone to further examine our own privacy concerns.

Hedrick Finally On Track in Vancouver

Posted by randy on February 9th, 2010

Like most who hang their hat in Texas, I generally give the Winter Olympics a collective yawn every four years. Even growing up in Ohio I didn’t develop much of an interest in the Games until Lake Placid in 1980. That’s when the Miracle on Ice brought hockey to my world and a guy named Eric Heiden momentarily attracted my attention to long track speedskating.

A few years ago, I was working for a news channel where I did sports when I put together a story on a local kid here in Houston who was shocking the winter sports world by successfully making a transition from inline skating to the ice. Chad Hedrick lived just around the corner from my house. His parents run a roller skating rink where my kids are skating right now as I write this. So it had some additional appeal on a personal level. Chad was cocky & brash which was not uncommon for the elite athletes I interviewed regularly.

Four years ago, I was producing Olympic segments for the NBC station here in Houston before the Torino Games. Chad was in full character as the arrogant outsider who was crashing the Olympic party. Even some of the other Olympians we were interviewing at the same time were taken back by his over-the-top persona. His actions in Italy were received in similar fashion by the rest of the world as he captured gold, silver & bronze medals. Frankly he was obnoxious and tough to like at all even while winning.

Hedrick slid to the recesses of my mind until this past fall when I noticed fellow Champion Forest Baptist member Laura Wilkinson (3-time Olympic diver and a gold medalist herself) conversing with Chad on Twitter. They were discussing the impact of Christ on their life in a competitive environment. Having interacted with Chad in the past, I had a tough time believing this could be the same Chad Hedrick. This new Chad was talking about his daily devotionals and his love for his wife & daughter. But as often is the case, a personal relationship with God has resulted in major changes in Chad’s life & personality.

Chad was baptized at my church in November. Just a week later, he won gold over his archrival & American teammate Shani Davis at the World Championships in Calgary. The Houston Chronicle ran a feature on Sunday that explains his dramatic transformation:

“God gave me this talent and the drive to go out and be the best I could be, and I did it without ever acknowledging him or ever once thanking him. I thought I was happiest when I was winning races and going out afterward, and then I had to find myself as a person and learn that it wasn’t how fast I skated or what place I got, that speedskating was what I did. It wasn’t who I was.”

With a new role as a husband & parent since Torino, Chad was picked up by Pampers to be a spokesperson. With a young daughter and another child on the way, he was natural fit for pitching diapers. But just a couple of weeks ago, Chad’s wife Lynsey suffered a miscarriage. But even with this devastating turn of event, Lynsey told the Chronicle that the couple is still trusting God with all their hearts.

“It was a shock. It really was. But we didn’t play the ‘Why me, why is this happening to me?’ card. He played the same role that I played: ‘We don’t know why this is happening, but we need to hold on to what we know, and that is that we are only going to be able to find peace through our God and comfort each other as much as we can.’

“It’s an opportunity for us to show that even with Chad in the position he’s in and the position our family is in before the games that when disaster strikes, we don’t come unglued. We don’t come unraveled. It’s hard for people to understand that in the dead center of tragedy, you can find peace, you can find joy and understanding and strength.”

That brings us to Vancouver today where Chad has checked into the Olympic Village and is waiting for his family to join him for three weeks of racing before he hangs up his skates forever at the end of the month. You can follow @chadhedrick each step of the way on Twitter. He is very open with his feelings and about the tremendous opportunity he has over the next couple of weeks to share Christ with the world. Here is a sampling of his recent tweets:

I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to show millions this month how God has changed me!
Heading out into the city on my day off- just got off Skype with my girls and Hadley said DADA for the first time! What a cool feeling!
Going to bed after a great day in Vancouver! Looking at a pic of my daughter as I lay in bed. Man I’m one blessed man- Thank you Lord!

This week, the church where Chad has been attending in Salt Lake City released a video of their pastor interviewing Chad about his testimony.

Suffice it to say that my family will now be watching the speedskating competition over the next couple of weeks strongly in the Hedrick camp. Unlike Torino where he was a big favorite, he is faces some tougher challenges in Vancouver. But whether God blesses him with victory or defeat, I will be anxious to see how Chad uses the platform to share the Gospel.

Courtesy: Smiley N. Pool of Houston Chronicle

Is Free Book* Worth the Investment?

Posted by randy on February 8th, 2010

As a Cincinnati native, I have heard from a distance about the buzz coming from Crossroads Church. And as a graduate of a school named Liberty, I was really looking forward to diving into the subject of freedom in Christ. And if you haven’t figured it out by now, the title of this book is reference to freedom and not the price of purchase (hence the asterisk).

But what I found in the first two chapters was disappointing. The author Brian Tome comes off as a hipster more interested in attracting attention and ridiculing other Christians than digging into the subject. Matter he makes multiple references to how much Scripture we can expect as he work our way through his work. But in reality a great deal of his ink is based on his personal opinion (which he honestly asserts most of the time).

Tome takes great joy in mocking one of his church members who is a recovering alcoholic who had the audacity to question the presence of bloody mary cocktails & beer in the Crossroads parking lot for a church Super Bowl tailgate. In essence, he equates standards with bondage. That is a notion that I have a tough time swallowing based on Scripture.

In the third chapter he turns his focus to freedom from fear and this is where I believe the book finally hits its stride. He uses some powerful language to help readers visualize what a triumphant life can be achieved when freed from the bondage of our sinful nature.

In summary, Tome’s self-inflation is a bit annoying but his primary efforts to encourage a life of liberty through Christ is probably worth a read … even if it comes with more than a few grains of salt.

Reviewer’s Note: Free Book* was provided at no charge in exchange for this review.

Cockroaches

Posted by randy on February 8th, 2010

Recently, Tony Morgan brought his Killing Cockroaches Road Tour to Houston and it happened to be right around the corner from my house. I met up with a bunch of my former colleagues at my church and took in the morning event. Tony has posted his notes from the day on his blog. It was a great morning to pull back out of the granular monotony and look at the big picture from 30-thousand feet.

While Tony didn’t provide anything earth-shattering that wasn’t previously revealed in his excellent book, the second half of the day provided some great support for some of the communications principles I have long championed. Here are some of the quotes I collected that stood out to me to ponder as we face new communication & leadership challenges everyday:

“In church in America, we think more options leads to more devoted followers of Christ. But more options simply confuse. Where there are fewer options the easier it is to make decisions.”
“Fewer programs means less competition for dollars, energy, and volunteers.”
“We see all the people sitting in our pews and blame them for not getting involved. Finger should be pointed at ourselves.”
“When analyzing what communication should be presented, we need to determine what event or announcement requires the entire church to hear it? What would you do if we were not on staff? Does the program reach outside the church walls?”
“What would happen if resources were poured into ministries that were most effective?”
“The church spams people with all of our messaging. And what happens to the spam you receive?”
“The Giant Inflatable Monkey Syndrome is a fascinating but lousy concept that churches seem to be following. Instead of Giant Inflatable Monkey for visitors we should worry about engaging relationships.”
“What is the clear vision that God is calling us to & what is it going to take be intentional about that?”
“If there is going to be a change it has to be purposeful based on agreed up vision. Otherwise it will be cause for alarm.”
“Sometimes we have to make tough decisions for common good. Leaders should be satisfied with that.”
“Without right leaders its not possible to make hard decisions.”

Best Reads of 2009

Posted by randy on January 18th, 2010

We may already been well into our 2010 experience, but before we pass 2009 into the ancient history category I would like to list a quick rundown of my 5 favorite books of this past year:

1. Brain Rules by John Medina (Pear Press) – A colleague at the corporate communications firm where I work suggested I give this book a read to help better understand what communication sticks in our brains. It is written by a molecular biologist and it offers up 12 principles that have significant applications for those of us who communicate for a living. After referring it to the Executive Pastor of my church, he in turn placed it as suggested reading for his teaching staff. Often times we spend so much time focusing on our messaging that we don’t concern ourselves enough with how it is delivered and to whom is receiving it. I highly recommend this to my church friends and anyone who wants to be a more effective communicator.

2. The Last TV Evangelist by Phil Cooke (Conversant Media Group) – Cooke has carved out a niche as a guru in Christian television. His prior book Branding Faith is a must read for all of those who find themselves marketing their church or Christian organization. In this 2009 release, Phil focuses specifically on TV ministries. While little in the book is groundbreaking, it brings together all of the hard facts that many who have been involved in the industry have often been ignoring. At first glance, Cooke appears to be writing an obituary. But he actually is looking to reinvigorate the genre to be more effective.

3. Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl by N.D. Wilson (Thomas Nelson) – I have to be honest, I had more enjoyment reading this 201-page paperback than anything else all year. Wilson can flat out write in a creative fashion that challenges you to look at everyday life around us from a new perspective. I literally devoured this little book and then restarted it again to relish the prose a second time around with a different perspective. I am anxious to see what Wilson produces next because he has significantly raised the bar.

4. Christianity in Crisis 21st Century by Hank Hanegraaff (Thomas Nelson) – The reason why this book struck such a chord in me this past year is because the truths it reveals in regard to the dangers of prosperity theology and more need to be spoken. As Christians we often turn our head in disgust at the latest hot shot minister to use the greedy motives of men to distort the Gospel. Hanegraaff demands that we not only be persuaded about the truth but that we be motivated to speak out. This update on his original classic needs to be read with new vigor these days based on the challenges of today.

5. Jewels from James by Robert L. Sumner (Biblical Evangelism Press) – OK, I have to come clean up front and admit that the author is also my grandfather. So clearly you should factor that into your analysis of my review. But if you are looking for a commentary on the New Testament epistle then you will be hard-pressed to find a more dynamic perspective on the text than this follow-up to his 2003 commentary on Hebrews.

A Tale of Hawks & Mockingbirds

Geolocation War Raising the Stakes

Tiger’s Better Late Than Never Crisis Communications

Geolocation Train Picking Up Steam … Are you on right track?

Can Google Create Enough Buzz to Swarm Facebook & Twitter?

LU 2010 Football Opponents: Is St. Francis A Sissy?

A Tale of Hawks & Mockingbirds

Geolocation War Raising the Stakes

Tiger’s Better Late Than Never Crisis Communications

Hedrick Finally On Track in Vancouver

Is Free Book* Worth the Investment?

Cockroaches

Best Reads of 2009

Featured Video

TwiBadge