"Thinking For a Change" - Book 'Review'

I have been repeatedly challenged about the importance of reading non fiction books over the past serveral months (and even years).  I often will just shrug it off because I am too busy to read, or push it aside because too many books have too many seeds that need to be spit out.  I once heard the comparison between reading a book and eating a watermelon.  It's fine to enjoy the fruit, but make sure that you spit out the seeds.  Sometimes, identifying the seeds is difficult, sometimes it is hard, but we need to be discerning readers when we are reading materials written by man (this blog included).

The book I am currently finishing up is "Thinking For a Change", by John Maxwell.  I think the title has a double meaning - firstly of thinking that will bring change (improvement) to our lives, and thinking, as opposed to not thinking in our lives (for a change).

The book is well written, and thoughtful (I guess it has to be, right).  It approaches the idea of thinking from many different angles that continues through the book to expand on the picture he is drawing - that purposeful, thinking makes a difference in the outcomes of our endeavors.  While some of the chapters seemed to me as repetitive and overlapping, they each gave a slightly different twist to his main point, and were helpful in that way.

The 'seeds' of the book were clear by the second chapter.  Maxwell states "And if I had stayed the same, I never would have spoken to more than the few hundred people I had in my first church.  But I desired to reach my potential, to go to the highest level of which I was capable.  I was determined to improve."  This sounds good and even spiritual in trying to be the best we can be, but there are some seeds below the surface.  Maxwell is a business man, he believes bigger is better.  To Maxwell, preaching to a few hundred people at his first church was a waste of his potential.  In his thinking, small churches have mediocre pastors, but the good pastors are given bigger churches.  I'm all for personal improvement, but wouldn't leadership at his first 'small' church have been a better test of his leadership?  This 'seed' is the lack of distinction between the way God's kingdom works, and the way things work in the kingdoms of men.  From that point on, it was easy to digest the fruit without choking on the seeds.

I desire to be a better pastor, a better communicator, an better leader, a better evangelist, a better father, a better husband, a better friend, a better neighbor, . . . (you get the idea).  I desire these things, not so that I can get a bigger church, speak to more people, lead 'better' people, get 'better' children, get a 'better' wife, get 'better' friends, or a 'better' neighborhood.  I desire these things so that I can be found faithful.  You might think that being a good pastor is different than being a better husband.  The connection between pastor and church is much different between husband and wife.  I agree, a husband and wife is a bond until death separates the two, but shouldn't a pastor be committed to the flock God has led him to?  Not 'til death do us part, but at least until God separates.  "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" would apply to churches and pastors if we understand that God leads a man to his ministry. 

I'll get off my soap box now, but I use my soap box to encourage and strengthen my resolve and my choices to live a godly life.  I hope it encourages you, as well.