I’m going to take the next three or four posts and talk about reading.  Today, I just thought I would share some of my favorite quotes about reading.

“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who can’t read!”  -Mark Twain

“One of the tests of a really fine book is that while you are reading it, you put it down and start to think.”  -A. W. Tozer

“Life is too short to spend it reading inferior books.” -James Bryce 

“We read to know we are not alone.”  -C.S. Lewis

“It is better to read a little and ponder a lot, than read a lot and ponder a little”  -Dennis Parsons Burkitt

“Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting”  -Edmund Burke

“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers”  -Harry S. Truman

“A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking”  -Jerry Seinfeld

The New England Pat’s are on the verge of history.  They went the entire regular season undefeated (second NFL team in history to do that) and now they are one win away from finishing the season with a perfect record.  This has been done before (1972) but if New England does it they will have won 3 more games (16 - 19) than the 72 Dolphins.  It would set a single season perfection mark.  Also, their QB, WR & Offense all broke records this year for TD’s thrown/caught/and most points scored.

How does this relate to our church….well this month has been a record setting month at Southside!  We have set new high’s in worship attendance.  The first two weeks were way above last year and looking at the entire month, we destroyed the previous two years in January.  We keep hearing over and over again from guest that “Southside is a warn and exciting church.” - I’ll  take that everytime!!

It has been really cool to meet and help assimilate new people into our church.  Here are some behind the scene stats that we saw in January:

1) Over 45 people joined Southside - many were by statement (meaning no church history)

2) 92 people came to Starting Point to get plugged into a Life Group

3) Had over 115 kids/adults at our Youth D-Now weekend

4) Did I mention that Sunday’s have been amazing this month?

We are having a great start to the new year and we praise God for it and thank all of our volunteers who make it happen!  Can February be as good….hope not…it can be better.

I just finished a short, but very strong book, entitled, “When Leadership and Discipleship Collide”.   It’s written by Bill Hybels, and it gave me some great insight as to what to do when the laws of leadership and demands of discipleship get in the way of each other.  Anyway, here are a few of the comments he made that I’ve been thinking about. 

“Hands down, the single most impressive leader in the history of the world is Jesus of Nazareth.”

“No leader has ever cast a more expansive or breathtaking vision…No leader ever built a higher-impact team with less talent to work with.  No leader ever instilled deeper values or inspired people more than Jesus Christ- in many cases, enough for them to die for the cause…no leader has ever changed the course of human history the way Jesus did…and is still doing, more than two thousand years later.”

“Laws of leadership are really just descriptions of hard-learned lessons that, for hundreds of years, leaders have come to view as valuable guides toward mission achievement.”

“Christian leaders above all others (should) strive to be the most devoted, most faithful, most astute learners of leadership’s laws.” 

“In my opinion, good teaching will never be enough to build the kingdom of God.  But combine good teaching with great leadership, and watch what God will do!” 

“In those rare cases when the human laws of leadership and the scriptural demands of discipleship do collide, decide on the side of discipleship every time”

“From time to time, leadership lessons from the secular world do not translate well into the arena of kingdom building, and, as ministry leaders , we must remember that our operating values and our ultimate marching orders come from only one book- a book that is God breathed, Spirit inspired, perfect in its content, unchanging in its ability to transform lives”

This is another one of those books that I would probably recommend for pastors and leaders in the church only, but nonetheless, I really enjoyed reading it. 

I’m sure you’ve all seen the following video by now, but if you haven’t, be forewarned.  What follows is a song that will stay in your brain forever.  My kids wake up singing it and go to bed singing it.  I can’t stop breaking into it at random times throughout the day either.  It won’t be long until it completely takes over the airwaves.   Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

I just wrapped up another book over the weekend.  I don’t know if you’ve ever read anything by John Ortberg, but his books tend to be very practical and encouraging.  This one was no different.  I enjoyed reading it and I just thought I’d post of few of the things I underlined as I was reading. 

“The problem with spending your life climbing up the ladder is that you will go right past Jesus, for he’s coming down.”

“Trusting God means learning to let go of each moment so I am free to fully inhabit the next one.”

“It is possible to have a barn full of money and a boatload of talent and movie star good looks and still be poor.”

“The world gets pretty tired of people who have Christian bumper stickers on their cars, Christian fish signs on their trunks, Christian books on their shelves, Christian stations on their radios, Christian jewelry around their necks, Christian videos for their kids, and Christian magazines for their coffee tables but don’t actually have the life of Jesus in their bones or the love of Jesus in their hearts.”

“The early church did not explode the way it did because people figured out how to reduce worship, prayer, serving, and community to marble-size mini-commitments that fit in around life as usual. Life as usual had to go. And it had to be replaced with something better.”

“God had given each of us a day with the same amount of time, and it is enough time to do what God wants us to do.”

“You are where and who you are for a reason.”

“If we are not completely satisfied with all this world has to offer, perhaps we were made for another world.”

“One of the great illusions of our day is that we can have Jesus’ life without following Jesus’ way.”

Anyway, those are just a few of the thoughts that stuck with me.  If you love books that are practical and helpful as strive to follow Christ, then I think this one would be right up your ally.