Category Archives for "book"

Ice Breaker – Book or Movie Recommendation

Each week on The Stretched Blog, I ask an ice breaker question.  The questions are designed to help us get to know each other here in The Stretched Community.  I’ll provide my answer to the question here in the post, and then you can leave your response in the comments.  While you’re in the comments section, see how others answered the ice breaker question.

I’m going to try vlogging again for this week’s ice breaker question.  I’ll be leaving my response on video.  Here goes….

Question:  Tell us about a book or movie that you recently read or watched and would recommend to the Stretched Community.

My Answer:  You’ll have to watch the video below.

Answer this week’s ice breaker question by leaving a comment.  I look forward to reading your response!  (As always, feel free to share links.)  And keep STRETCHING!

Book Review: The Lamp Maker and The Potter (Cindy Starr Stewart)

I’ve done many book reviews on the blog over the years.  I’ve reviewed books on leadership, blogging, small groups, family, marriage, parenting, fiction, and Christian living.  But I’ve never reviewed children’s books.  Today, this changes as we look at two new books by a college friend of mine, Cindy Starr Stewart.

The Lamp Maker and The Potter are two books written by Cindy.  The Lamp Maker originally released in paperback last summer.  And both books will be releasing in hardback on August 1, 2013.

Both books are written poetically with beautiful illustrations by Dan Drewes.  The books are written for kids, but the themes and messages of both books will spark deeper thought by adults.

The Lamp Maker tells the story of a lamp maker who makes lamps designed to shine his light.  The book is a reminder that we are called to let God’s light shine.

The Potter tells the story of a potter who takes a lump of clay and turns it into something amazing.  The Potter resonates with this blog as it talks about how we are STRETCHED and molded by God and by the difficulties of life until we are turned into a beautiful and useable vessel.

You can pre-order both of these books by visiting Amazon today.  Click here to order The Lamp Maker, and click here to order The Potter.

What was the last children’s book you read?  What is your favorite children’s book?

Book Review: When Work & Family Collide (@AndyStanley)

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit in the Philadelphia International Airport for several hours waiting to catch a plane to Chicago.  My plane was delayed for more than 3 hours, and the flight itself was close to 2 hours.  This gave me plenty of time to catch up on podcast episodes and reading.

I read Andy Stanley’s book, When Work and Family Collide: Keeping Your Job from Cheating Your Family.  It’s ironic that I would read this book while I was heading away from my family on a business trip.  The book is all about keeping your priorities straight especially when it comes to family.

Whether you struggle with this issue just a little bit or a lot, this is a great book for men and women alike.  It provides examples and analogies of lives in balance and out of balance, and it provides solid Biblical teaching that helps someone bring proper order to their lives.

I especially like the author’s quote:

You do your job.  You love your family.  It’s when we reverse the order that the tension escalates and the tug of war begins.

In other words, we get it all messed up when we love our job and do the family thing.  It’s easy to do.  We get stuck in unhealthy patterns of seeking approval and pursuing success through our careers, and we permit our family life to suffer.  I’m guilty of it at times, and I would guess that many of you struggle with this tension as well from time to time.

When Work and Family Collide: Keeping Your Job from Cheating Your Family is a quick and easy read, and I would recommend it to moms, dads, husbands, and wives everywhere.

How’s your family life?  How’s your work life?  What is one thing you can do this week to make sure your family knows that they are the priority?

I received this book as a gift from Chris Patton.  He writes a great blog about Christians in the workplace – Christian Faith At Work.  Go check it out, and tell him I said hello!

Book Review: Dear Dad by Sundi Jo Graham (@sundijo)

If you could write your Dad a letter, what would you say?  Would you point out his faults?  Would you have good things to say?  Or would your letter be filled with pain?

I’m excited to announce the release of a new book by Sundi Jo Graham.  Dear Dad is a memoir written by Sundi Jo which retells her story of losing control, fighting to regain control, and discovering the blessing of giving up control.  It is a letter to her Dad.

Dear Dad is transparent and raw.  It is real and unfiltered.  And it ultimately offers hope for anyone who has endured pain and hardship.

Honestly, I couldn’t put Dear Dad down once I started reading it.  Sundi Jo does an amazing job sharing her story.  She draws you in immediately.  As I read the story of her healing process, I found myself cheering for Sundi Jo and excited to see how the story ends.

Tomorrow is officially the release day for Dear Dad.  The book is available in paperback and Kindle.  If you order the book this week, you can get six free gifts worth over $65.  Click here to learn more.

Dear Dad definitely has my recommendation.  I received the book for free as part of the Dear Dad Launch Team.  I was not required to provide a positive review.  Dear Dad is one of my favorite books so far this year.  Order your copy today!

What would you say to your Dad today if you could say anything?

(Please note:  There are affiliate links in this post.  Should you purchase Dear Dad by clicking one of these links, I receive a small percentage of the purchase.  These funds are used to support The Stretched Blog and to extend ministry and missions to Guatemala.  Thank you!)

Book Review: Are You Living Or Existing? by @KimanziC

Do you ever feel like you’re just coasting along?

Is that really how you want to live your life?

Part of the reason I write The Stretched Blog is to share my stretched experiences and to hopefully stretch others (for more read my About page).  I’ve come to realize that you’re not really living unless you’re stretching and growing.

In Kimanzi Constable’s new book, Are You Living Or Existing?, he shares 9 steps that can take you from just existing to living a life with passion.  In the book, Kimanzi relates his story of moving to Hawaii along with his struggles with weight loss to readers who are interested in taking their lives from coasting to gaining real traction.  The book talks a lot about making dreams a reality.  Kimanzi offers practical action steps towards achieving your dreams.

Are You Living Or Existing? is set up in nine easy to read chapters that make this a quick read for most.  If you’re feeling stuck on the road to fulfilling your dream, I’d recommend picking up a copy of this book which will give you some practical ideas on how to proceed.

This book will be available starting Wednesday, May 1st.  If you order the book between May 1st and May 19th, you can get over $100 in additional goodies by sending your receipt to sales@talesofwork.com.

What is your dream?  How are you pursuing your dream?  What progress have you made in pursuing your dream in the past 90 days?

[I received this book free of charge from Sound Wisdom Publishing in exchange for a review.  I was not required to provide a positive review.]

Book Review: The Connecting Church 2.0 by Randy Frazee

Several years ago, I had the opportunity to hear Randy Frazee speak at a Willow Creek Grouplife Conference, and I was challenged and inspired by his teaching and his book, Making Room for Life: Trading Chaotic Lifestyles for Connected Relationships, which challenges readers to restructure their days to make more room for relationships and for life in general.

In The Connecting Church 2.0: Beyond Small Groups to Authentic Community, Randy Frazee does it again!

Frazee challenges readers to rethink church, small groups, neighborhoods, and community in general.  The Connecting Church 2.0 starts with the premise that we were created for community.  In the book, Frazee starts with God as he shows that God models community through the trinity.  He then shows how the early church provided a great example of community as God intended it.

Obviously, things have changed quite a bit since the early church.  And over the past few decades, neighborhoods and community as they once were has deteriorated as people have moved out towards the suburbs with larger yards, longer commutes, and less time to hang out with others.  We’ve become a society of individuals instead of community.

In The Connecting Church 2.0, Frazee challenges the recent trend with new thinking about an old model.  He offers ideas for how the church can help restore authentic community in the busy, “me-first” society in which we all live.

I would definitely recommend The Connecting Church 2.0 as a place to start in challenging your thinking about church, community, and life in general.  If you’d like a chance to win this book, click here.  Or you can purchase the book, my clicking the link below.

How would you’re life be different if you decided to live your life within five miles of your home?  What is one thing you can do TODAY to foster community in your life?  What is your church doing to encourage authentic community?

[I received this book free of charge from Cross Focused Reviews in exchange for a review.  I was not required to provide a positive review.]

Love Works Wednesday Link Up Conclusion

Today marks the conclusion of the Wednesday series based on Love Works by Joel Manby.  Some of you maybe happy; some sad; and some just plain indifferent.  In today’s post, Bill Grandi (The Cycleguy) and I wrap up this 10 week discussion.  I hope you’ve learned something along the way and been challenged as well.  Check out Bill’s take by clicking here.

To help you recap, here are the posts from the series:

What did I learn from this series?  Ten weeks go by pretty quickly.  It has been a real pleasure to link up with Bill on a regular basis like this, and it’s been very interesting to get your input into the discussion each week through the conversation in the comments.  Bill’s posts tended to focus on leadership from a ministry perspective, and my posts leaned more towards corporate leadership.  I think it has been reaffirming to see that love based leadership can apply to various locations of leadership – the church, the office, the home, and elsewhere.  Though I had read the book before, I was reminded that you and I can make a difference when we choose to lead with love.

Now it’s your turn.  What is one thing you learned through this series?  What principle stretched you the most?  How has your leadership been transformed by Love Works?

Book Review: Platform by Michael Hyatt

Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World by Michael Hyatt provides a step-by-step guide for getting people to listen to what you have to say.  This book has been on my “To Read List” for sometime.  I’m glad a finally got the chance to read Platform, and it will be a part of my library that I go back to again and again.

In Platform, Michael Hyatt writes over 50 chapters that will help readers get noticed in today’s social media driven world.  Each of these chapters which reads like a blog post can stand alone but when put together provide a comprehensive look at growing your platform.  As a fellow blogger, Michael Hyatt’s story and advice relate pretty well to my own platform.  Even if you’re not a blogger, Hyatt’s knowledge can be applied to those who are creating a podcast, a book, a blog, or anything else that involves your voice.

Platform has definitely left me with lots to think about, and it’s an essential reference for bloggers, authors, and speakers.  I’d recommend Platform to anyone who wants to get noticed in this noisy world.

How could establishing and growing your platform help you to get heard?  What do you have to share that is worth being heard?  What’s your platform?  What would a platform make possible for you?

Love Works Wednesday Linkup Week 9

We continue the Wednesday series based on Love Works by Joel Manby.  In today’s post, Bill Grandi (The Cycleguy) and I are discussing the tenth chapter (A Choice You Make).  Check out Bill’s take by clicking here.

Since I already read the book, I thought it would be interesting to highlight some of the sentences I underlined when I read the book initially:

  • “’Profitability is a necessary condition for existence and a means to more important ends, but it is not the end in itself for visionary companies.  Profit is like oxygen, food, water, and blood for the body; they are not the point of life, but without them, there is no life.'”  Jim Collins – Author of Built to Last (p. 171)
  • “Enduring and successful companies are more ideologically driven and less purely profit focused than companies that don’t perform as well financially.”  (p. 171)
  • “‘There are two essential activities that take time:  developing an organization and developing a brand.  Those activities are parallel and interdependent.  Leadership is about teaching an organization what you stand for; brand building is about teaching millions of consumers what you stand for.  Leadership and brand building require time, consistency, and constancy.'” Joe Kennedy – CEO of Pandora  (p. 173)
  • “Shaping corporate culture is up to individuals across the hierarchy, no matter what their job title is.  Any of us can make a real difference.” (p. 175)
  • “Never lose an opportunity to bring sunshine into the life of another.  A few encouraging words could make a huge difference in someone’s life. (p. 176)
  • “Leading with love is too important to be left to chance.  It takes effort to lead with the principles of love – to be patient, kind, trustful, unselfish, truthful, forgiving, and dedicated.”  (p. 182)

We live in a time of entitlement – at least here in America.  People think that things should be handed to them and that the hard work of making things better belongs to others.  Many people are looking to their organizations, to other organizations, and to the government to take the leading role in changing the world.

While organizations and political entities may play a role in this change, I’m convinced that true change will only happen when individuals stand up and decide to take action.  Love based leadership is up to you and me.  We can’t wait for others to jump on board and take charge.  We have to be the trailblazers in our companies, in our churches, in our communities, and even in our homes.

We all have a choice to make.  We can sit around waiting for the world to change.  Or we can be the change that the world needs.  It starts with us leading with love.  As Manby states in this chapter, it doesn’t matter whether you’re the CEO, a mid-level manager, a front-line employee, or the janitor.  How you live and act will impact your span of influence.  From there it will spread like ripples in a still pond until the whole body of water is impacted.

Choose today to lead with love.  Choose to make a difference.  Choose to set the tone where ever you are today.

Next week, Bill and I will conclude our exploration of Love Works and love based leadership.  It’s been a great adventure.  Be sure to check out next week Wednesday’s post for the conclusion of the series.  (And don’t forget to stop back every day between now and then for more great Stretched content.)

How will YOU make a difference TODAY?  What will you do to lead with LOVE today?  What difference have you seen around you when one person decides to take action?

Love Works Wednesday Linkup Week 8 – Dedicated

We continue the Wednesday series based on Love Works by Joel Manby.  In today’s post, Bill Grandi (The Cycleguy) and I are discussing the ninth chapter (Dedicated:  Stick To Your Values In All Circumstances).  Check out Bill’s take by clicking here.

As a reminder, Manby’s premise is that leadership is best when it comes from a position of agape love based on I Corinthians 13 (“…[love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”).  Since I already read the book, I thought it would be interesting to highlight some of the sentences I underlined when I read the book initially:

  • “One of the primary roles of a leader is to give hope.”  (p. 150)
  • “A leader needs to clearly communicate how the organization will win in a competitive marketplace and then execute that plan.”  (p. 150)
  • “We need to care HOW people achieve their tasks, not only IF they achieve them.”  (p. 150)
  • “‘Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.'” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (p. 153)
  • “Love and power must be harnessed together to get the most important things done.”  (p. 153)
  • “The USE of power need not become the ABUSE of power.”  (p. 154)
  • “Leading with love is more important than the temporary approval of your coworkers.”  (p. 155)
  • “Many organizations talk about values, but few truly integrate those values into how leaders are evaluated and chosen and how organizational results are measured.”  (p. 156)
  • “It’s critical to define the values that will drive our lives…. What kind of person do we want to be?  What values will we uphold?  What kind of integrity will we have when nobody is watching?  How do we want to treat others regardless of how they treat us?”  (p. 156-157)
  • “It’s one thing to TALK about values like leading with love, but it’s another thing to DELIVER on those values, especially in tough times.”  (p. 164)

When we think of dedication, we typically think of someone who is committed to someone or to an organization.  We think of someone who comes in early and stays late.  We think of team members who consistently go the extra mile.  Most managers I’ve encountered in the corporate world would be considered dedicated by this definition.

Joe Manby takes it to another level with his discussion in chapter 9.  According to Manby, a dedicated leader is someone who leads out of solid values.  There are several leaders I’ve encountered in the corporate world that lead out of a value-focused position, and there are many leaders who don’t seem to be concerned with values as much as climbing over whoever to get to the top and crushing the competition.

I thoroughly appreciate Manby’s take on power and love.  Leaders can get a bad reputation when they misuse their power.  I’m convinced that a love-based, value-focused use of power  will not only improve leader reputation, it will lead to the overall enhancement and advancement of the organization, the employees, the customers, the stockholders, and the community at large.

When you and I hear the word “dedicated”, we must get past the hard-working, tunnel-visioned definition.  Starting today, let’s define “dedicated” to mean so much more.

Over the next two weeks, Bill and I will conclude our exploration of love based leadership.  I hope you’ll read along, jump into the comments, and maybe even change the way you lead.  Consider getting a copy of Love Works for yourself, and see how this book might change you and your leadership.

What is one thing you can do differently this week to become a more dedicated leader?  How have you been led with dedicated, love-based leadership?

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