Church Marketing Solutions

1. Simple Church, Thom Rainer and Eric Gieger - Rainer was my mentor and here he is at his best - giving a brief explanation of how to do church with simple effectiveness - especially great for church planters.

2. The Forgotten Ways, by Alan Hirsch - Ed Stetzer (newchurches.com) only recommended one book to me and then Vince Antonucci (forefront.org) backed him up. That was all I needed.

3. Communication for a Change, Andy Stanley - A good, easy read on preaching by one of America's most influential and profoundly effective communicators (northpoint.org).

4. Relevant (Media) - http://www.relevantmagazine.com/ - Get the kit every quarter, read the magazine, and listen to the podcast! Nobody gets it better with insights from the 20/30s generation better than these guys.

5. Catalyst Conference 2006 http://www.catalystspace.com/resources/event.aspx. - recommended by my friend Todd Wilson (church-planting.net) and Purpose Driven's Ron Sylvia (pdplanting.com). Andy Stanley's teaching on "church systems" is one of the most helpful leadership talks I have heard in the last 10 years.

6. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, Doris Kearns Goodwin - This is a long book! (700 pages), but if both Tim Woodroof (ottercreek.org) and Phil Claybomb (nexus.us) recommend it, you know it is good.

7. The Starbucks Experience,Joseph Michelli - recommend by Tom Jones (stadia.cc), a leader that I deeply respect and a personal friend. Nobody gets leadership better than Jones - and he thinks every leader needs to read this book.

8. Anatomy of Peace,by the Arbinger Institute - Aaron Couch from Real Life Ministries in Post Falls, Idaho (reallifeministries.com) recommended this one. This is the highest rated book I have ever reviewed on Amazon.com; only 3 of 32 reviewers neglected to give this book the full 5 out of 5 rating.

9. Made to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath - make your ideas simple and profound, so that your communication will stick. Recommended first by Mark Cawley, the accomplished song writer and mentor to song writers and authors (songjourney.com and Harpethcc.com, my home church) and seconded by Jud Wilhite (www.centralchristian.com). It was inspired by Malcolm Gladwell's bestselling book, The Tipping Point.

10. The Big Idea, Dave Ferguson et al. - many leaders try to do too many things and make too many points in a weekend service. The Fergusons challenge us to do one thing and do that one thing well. The Big Idea describes the whole philosophy that is being used effectively at Community Christian Church in Chicago.

11. Sex God, Rob Bell - my 20s co-worker and friend Steven Delong loves everything Bell does; others call him the new Billy Graham (marshill.org). Bell gets what the emerging generation craves "to be" (identity) when following Jesus better than anyone on the planet.

12. Confessions of a Reformission Rev, Mark Driscoll - the other Mars Hill leader (marshillchurch.org) and new John Wesley. No one can ignore the impact he is having on emerging Christian leaders. In their time, Whitefield and Wesley were the most influential teacher/preachers. Bell is like Whitefield and Driscoll is like Wesley. Heard of Wesley, but not Whitefield? That's because Wesley, and now Driscoll, impacted the country for the long haul by focusing on planting churches everywhere.