So I recently finished two great books. First Purple Cow, written by Seth Godin. This book was really a marketing book, and I am not a professional marketer by any means. But the premise of this book applies to any organization. The best marketing is created by being remarkable, by being something that people want to talk about. Godin introduces the concept of the Idea Virus which is an idea that starts with a few key influencers (sneezers) and is then spread by word of mouth as the sneezers get excited about the idea or product.
This kind of work is hard, and it takes a willingness to take risks and be different and change the way things are done. I feel like I came across this book at just the right time in my life because we are trying to re-invent our ministry and so this is a period of experimentation, trial & error and deep heartfelt prayer.
If there is any kind of idea virus that is worth spreading it’s the Gospel, and so while we don’t have to create a new message, we have to create a means by which to spread the ideavirus effectively. Seattle is a very post-christian environment, people have no religious memory so we are trying to get the gospel to people who have no idea who Jesus really is, and that’s scary, but if we can make the Gospel remarkable through transformed lives, then the tranformed will become the best marketing we could ever dream of. Look on John 4, one woman who had a remarkable (in a negative way) past was transformed and she spread the ideavirus of the gospel to the whole town.
That is my prayer for our ministry, that we will begin to see lives of students transformed, that we would begin to really believe the gospel for ourselves and be unable to hold it inside any longer. It’s hard and it can be discouraging at times, but that’s what we are called to do. This is a great book to remind you that you don’t have to go out into the whole world to reach the world, but you need to start with the few and let the gospel infect people. And make it remarkable.
The next book I read was The Radical Leap by Steve Farber. This is a leadership fable in the same style as Patrick Lencioni. This was an easy quick read. I would really recommend it.
The point is that you need to really love what you are doing and you have to be committed to the vision that caused you to fall in love with it in the first place. Again this is a book that was just the right thing and just the right time.
Leap is an acronym.
cultivate Love
Generate Energy
Inspire Audacity
Provide Proof
I don’t even really know what to say about this book yet, except to say that if you are feeling burned out or tired, or are forgetting why you got into ministry in the first place then read this book. We as Christ followers are called to change the world. And we need to love the calling and bring others along in love. We need to energize people to go out into the world to transform the world. We need to inspire Audacity, that is the courage and boldness to believe that the Gospel is real and we can be creative as to how we are going to get the message to the world. And we need to provide Proof that we are committed to making this a reality. Great book. Farber has some more books that I am going to have to look into.
Both of these books I checked out from the Public Library. I love the Library because through them I own millions of books, and I let other people hold on to them and read them from time to time.
JasonDeuman.com 
Thanks for the kind words, Jason! Let me know what you think of The Radical Edge, too…