Book Recommendations from my Best Reads in 2020

Here is a list of some of the best books I read this year. I will BOLD the ones I highly recommend and leave a few notes about them. So many of the non-bolded ones were fantastic too - so all of these books are recommended but I tried to highlight only 20. 

Take the Stairs – Rory Vaden : I loved this book. Simple advice on life success. 

Nine Lies about Work: Marcus Buckingham

Half Time - Bob Buford : I have read this book multiple times. It's a classic and a life changer. 

Confidence – Tomas Chomorro : Very intriguing book about how LOW confidence actually helps us. So counter-cultural! So fun!

Live Fearless – Sadie Robertson

What’s Next – Chris Hodges : I love everything this guy does. His sermons, his church (Church of the Highlands), his leadership material, his books - all so good! Fantastic material that every follower of Jesus should read. 

The Jesus creed – Scot Mcknight

Church Growth Flywheel – Rich Birch

The Jesus Experience – Bill Perkins

John Commentaries – x 5

The Jesus Life – Stephen W. Smith

Divine Direction – Craig Groeschel

Regrace – Frank Viola

The Primes

Teaming – Amy Edmundson

Who is this Man – John Ortberg

The Jesus I never knew – Philip Yancey

Jesus the King - Tim Keller : Fantastic book that will help you get to know Jesus better. 

The End of Religion – Bruxey Cavey : A great and edgy challenge. Be ready to be offended and transformed. 

Portraits of Christ – Laird (John)

Jesus is… Judah Smith : Judah Smith has a way of communicating that gets right to my heart. He shares about God's love and grace in a balanced and yet over the top powerful way. I highly recommend this book. 

State of the online church – Jay Kranda

Seeing and Savouring Christ – Piper : Everything by Piper is fantastic.

Jesus – Pure and Simple - Wayne Cordiero

Laugh Again - Charles Swindoll : Everyone should read at least a couple of Swindoll books at some point. This guy is one of my ministry heroes. Many of his sermons hit home for me like almost no one else's preaching. 

Better than Before – Gretchen Rubin

Leadership Strategy and Tactics – Jocko Willink : I was pleasantly surprised by how applicable this book is for everyone. Definitely a high recommend. 

Your New Money Mindset – Brad Hewitt and James Malone

Crushing - TD Jakes

SOAR – TD Jakes

Extreme Ownership  – Jocko Willink : I loved this book. I wish every leader could read it. I have bought 8 copies so far for others to read and handed them out. My son Joel and I had a blast reading and reflecting together on this book and the one above by Jocko. 

Success From the Inside Out – Nona Jones : This is another top book of the year for me. I literally wept and wept as I read it. The transforming power of Jesus is so evident here. I highly recommend this book for everyone. 

Phil – Commentary – Barclay

Phil – Commentary – Life Application

Phil – Commentary – Weisrbe

Phil – Commentary – Briscoe

 Real Life Discipleship Training Manuel – Jim Putman

Discipleshift – Jim Putmann

Joy – CS Lewis

The Dangerous Duty of Delight – John Piper

You’ll get through this – Max Lucado

Leadershift – John Maxwell

The Release of the Spirit – Watchman Nee

Talk like TED

Waking the Dead – John Eldredge

How to Get a Date Worth Keeping – Henry Cloud - Just to clarify. I am happily married. I read these books as I prepared for a series of sermons I was preaching on this topic. This one by Cloud really blew my mind, he had a fresh perspective that I think might be helpful for some Christians stuck in a "non-dating" mode. 

New Rules for Love, sex and dating – Andy Stanley : This is a classic that every single should read. 

Beginners Pluck - Liz Bohanon

Spiritual Leadership – J Oswald Sanders : One of the top 3 leadership books of all time. Every Christian leader must read this book. 

Apostolic Advancement – Various Victory Asia Authors

Leadership Can Be Taught – Sharon Parks

Irresistible – Andy Stanley

Happiness – Henry Cloud

Proverbs – Kroll

Get Wise – Bob Merritt : The best book on wisdom I have read. I have read this book several times and given it to many people. 

The Intangibles of Leadership – Richard Davis

Prayer: The Key to Revival – Cho : My favourite book on prayer of all time. 

Prayer is the Answer – Various (Bounds / Murray / Wesley)

30 Days of Prayer – Spurgeon

Walking in Wisdom – Dr. Raymond Barber

The Problem is You – John Burke

Church Happens from 12:00 Until 10:30

One of the passions of my life is that the church is not an institution or a building but it is the people of God. The church is "being" the church when we are making a difference in the world. When we are at home, at work, at school and at the sports arena. Really, what we do on Sunday morning is a gathering of the church but we are "being" the church and "doing" church when we go out from that place and live as salt and light all week long. Therefore, church really happens from 12:00 noon on Sunday until 1:30am the following Sunday.

Shame Off You!

Hey, did you do to church on Christmas day this year?

Some churches didn't hold a service on Sunday, Dec. 25 this year because it was Christmas day. I recently read an article about why we should or should not have a Christmas service on Christmas day if Christmas lands on Sunday. Hundreds of responses flooded in as a response to the article. Some people passionately against churches cancelling the service and being very critical of such a move. Some people equally passionately argued for cancelling the service and came up with some very good reasons for doing so.

What I found interesting was how emotionally charged the issue was since I really don't care a heck of a lot either way. What I do hope is that you encountered Christ this Christmas as I hope you do every day of the year. I hope that rather than criticizing anyone else for what they did, that you enjoyed the love and grace of God and extended that to people around you.

And even if you over ate, under slept, didn't go to church and got envious of someone else's presents...I have no desire to guilt you into anything...may you enjoy your Christmas/New Years Season. May you do what pleases God, not because your guilted into it, but because of the joyful invitation of Christ to forgive and love you and invite you into His service.

Shame off you.

8 Things I Love About VCMJ

What makes my church unique? Here are a few things I love...

1. It's multi-cultural. Almost every time new people come to our church they comment on how cool it is that we are so multi-cultural. Of course, we don't always even notice because it's normal to us. By Canadian standards Moose Jaw is not a really multi-cultural city...unless you come to Victory Church. What a joy to see people from dozens of different cultures coming together to worship the King of Kings.

2. High Energy. Coming to a place where we celebrate the goodness of God and His gospel of love ought to be a place of life, joy and passion. Dry, boring, and slow are not words that describe our church or our services. It's great to come to a place and be a part of a place that lifts and encourages people.

3. Transformation. We are a "high grace", "high challenge" people. That is, we value high levels of grace and acceptance where people can come as they are and be authentic and real about their struggles. We are human, we mess up and blow it lots. But we don't wallow in our brokenness. We are a people that challenge one another to grow and change. We have a culture of learning. We are constantly pressing forward for personal change and corporate change. Want to stay in a safe, low challenge environment where not much changes? We're not the place for you. But if you want to be somewhere that you are challenged to believe that with God you can change anything and everything about yourself that needs improvement...welcome to the family!

4. Generational. We love and invest in young people. We love and honour the elderly. We are a family friendly place (in fact, we are sometimes overwhelmed with tons of fun little kids!). We invest heavily in children and youth ministries and believe they are a huge part of our stewarding the call of God on our church. We work hard at encouraging generations to invest in and receive from one another. We are setting up the next generation for success in God.

5. City Loving. We have a heart for our city. We long to see God's Kingdom established more and more in our community. We partner together with other groups who have the same vision to see God reign in our area and we love doing whatever we can to express God's love to our community.

6. God-saturated. We are utterly convinced that we need God for and with everything we are and do. We are apologetically Bible saturated, prayer saturated, worship saturated and Jesus-centered. We actually believe that Jesus really is the answer to human beings deepest problems.

7. Serving, Giving and helping those in need. We are dedicated to giving and being generous in ways that actually cost us sacrifice and personal discomfort. We give to missions locally and internationally. We are constantly looking for ways to be a blessing within our fellowship, within our community and within our world.

8. Writing the last seven things has made me feel somewhat guilty as I know our faults and "underbelly" is far from perfect. All of the above things are indeed unique traits of VCMJ and part of who God has called us to be in this community at this time. But we do none of them perfectly and long to do them all far better. We are an imperfect group of people who get the privilege of working with God to establish something beautiful land powerful here in Moose Jaw. To see people flourish as they embrace God's person, principles and purposes in their lives. Our future is bright because the Light of the World is our Leader. We do have a vision, we are pressing on to achieve all that God has called us to in Christ.

The Power of Team

When I find a group of people who all have a passion for something and who are willing to put aside their differences do some good in this world...well, I love it. Being a part of a team like that is one of the coolest experiences life has to offer. But it doesn't happen by magic. In fact, there are a lot of things that have to go just right for it to occur.

- You need a great cause that each person can genuinely get excited about.
- You need people willing to invest and sacrifice for the cause. At some people, people's commitment will be tested. Either this will break up the team or solidify it.
- You need to choose to work hard at trusting each other, at overlooking your differences and at believing the best about each other.
 - You need leaders who are willing to stick their necks out and keep everyone clearly informed and motivated.
- You need people willing to honour leadership and follow leaders even when the leaders are imperfect and human just like everyone else.
- And if it's a team that is about the One Great Cause, you need God to divinely orchestrate it and indwell it and people who will co-operate with Him.

The Biggest Problem With The Church

The biggest problem I face as a pastor in a church is not troublesome people. It's not hypocrisy. It's not Christians who claim to be followers of a loving Saviour who act anything but loving. It's not lazy or apathetic people who refuse to pitch in with all the work that needs to be done. It's not a lack of great leaders who will step up and lead with excellence and passion. It's not the busyness of people's schedules and their choice to skip church services. Although all those things do happen and drive me crazy on occasion. They really aren't the real problem I face. They aren't the real problem any of us face when it comes to building God's church.

The real problem is this. Every part of our mission we are incapable of accomplishing. Let me state it the other way around, "We are completely incapable of accomplishing any of our mission." Now if you said that to any business leader, they would tell you to quit, throw in the towel, or to change your mission to something you can accomplish.

We can't change our mission. It's not ours to change. It was given to us from Above. Our mission is to transform lives (Matt 28:18-20). Our mission is for find people far from God and lead them to Christ so that they can know the joy and wonder of knowing Jesus. Our mission is to enable people to flourish in their lives as they live their lives in the power of the Holy Spirit.Our mission is to build a community of people who are filled with God's love and experience a level of relationship and connection only possible through God's Spirit. Our mission is to help people discover the will of God for their lives and walk in their destiny, fulfilling the potential that God has placed in them.

And therein lies the problem. We can't do any of that! We just aren't smart enough, powerful enough, good enough to do it. Not even a little bit of it. Our problem is that the ONLY way for us to get ANYTHING of significance done we absolutely NEED God to be the one who accomplishes it. Every time we move one inch forward in our mission, every time one person becomes a follower of Christ or becomes more who God made them to be or begins to find and fulfill their potential...every time any one of these things happen it is a miracle that only God can do.

The good news is that God is very much willing to accomplish it and even to accomplish it through us. He is the God who does what is impossible for us to do.

So what does all this mean to us. It means that we must stop trying to do church without God. We must never ever try to accomplish our mission unless we are confident that God is with us, using us, helping us and working through us. It means we must maintain a humility and brokenness before God that never tries to do things in our own strength. It means pride and self-accomplishment are our worst enemies. It means we must be desperate for God, faithful in prayer and seeking Him. It means we need to begin and end everything we do (and through the middle) with dependence on the Holy Spirit and prayerfulness. It means we must really believe the words of Jesus that, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for their is the kingdom of God." It means we must practice what Jesus said in John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

So the biggest problem the church will ever face is the problem of trying to do the church's mission without God. And the greatest accomplishments the church will ever get done in will happen only as we humbly engage in the power of the Living God.

I have seen the hardest of atheists give their lives to Jesus and serve Him with joy. I have seen selfish, angry people be softened and become some of the most loving, gentle people I've ever known. I have seen broken people healed and bound up people delivered. It can and does happen! Maybe you are reading this as an non-believer and you think it would take a miracle for you to be converted or saved. You are right! Only God can do it. But I'd be willing to bet right now while you are reading, God is moving on your heart and drawing you to Himself working on you to do the miracle only He can do.

A Great Team

Today we had one of our best Sunday's at church ever. Simply put, the ministry was powerful, the people were impacted and God was glorified. The best part was that there were dozens of people working hard together for Christ with such an awesome spirit of servanthood. SO cool! Thanks so much to the Victory Church team for each of you putting forth your gifts and letting God use you. So great when the church is being the church. I think we all went home exhausted but oh so satisfied. Today was a glimpse of great things to come.

Authentically Passionate - Organic Faith

Maybe this is one of my biggest concerns and passions in life...

I think when people find Jesus they find the greatest Treasure of all time. I think they ought to be radically overjoyed and overcome with awe, thankfulness and much more that can't even be put into words. I think that this genuine thrill of knowing and loving and serving Jesus ought to be so great that it spills out of them in life wherever they are. Not 24/7 necessarily because they still struggle and mess up and have hard times etc., but as a general rule of their lives, the people who know them should say they are amazingly grateful and overjoyed about Jesus.

Now if they genuinely have experienced the joy of knowing and being known by Jesus then they will want to obey his call to spread that 'good news' and joy around. They will desperately want their friends, family, co-workers and the whole world to know this Treasure that they have come to know.

I think this is what exploded 2000 years ago as the church. A group of people like I just described were so contagious that they grew and grew and grew. Not without it's problems or troubles but still and organic, authentically passionate thing called the church that was multiplying and spreading joy all over the place. "Filling the city (and the world) with their teachings."

Early Christianity spread so fast that it really impacted the whole known world at that time. So much so that as Christianity grew it, of necessity, became institutionalized, organized, programmed and slowly and imperceptibly, it lost it's organic nature, it became a machine instead of a plant. Sadly, this allowed it to become a religion made up of beliefs and practices instead of being a satisfying relationship with Jesus.

Of course, this isn't as clear as saying that organizing and programming bring death and we should work to destroy all organization. In fact, the places that I have seen that thrive, full of organic life and passion (including the church in the book of Acts) have plenty of organization and programming. But they don't allow it to become their reason for existence or to overshadow the true, real, authentic, relational side of things.

I long for church to be like what I see in the book of Acts in the early church. A church that is filled to overflowing because it's people are filled to overflowing with a genuine love for Jesus. A church that organizes and programs in order to facilitate more of this wonderful relationship with Jesus for us and for others.

When A Plan Comes Together

On Monday this week our church held our first annual May Long Weekend City Wide BBQ. The idea for the event was only a few weeks before the event so we were scrambling to make it happen. But...
1. Several businesses offered their support in sponsoring the event to help raise fund for the Riverside Mission in Moose Jaw. This added credability to the event and made it more fun and motivating to work hard and organize for those who were on the event team.
2. Our church stepped up. Dozens of people in our church found useful jobs they were good at and served. How cool is that? To see the Body of Christ doing excactly what scipture descibes, everyone using their gifts to serve! Leaders stepped up and led, organizers organized, cleaners cleaned, cooks cooked, fun people made it fun...wow, everyone doing what they are good at means everyone having fun and excellent service.
3. The local radio station and website http://www.discovermoosejaw.com/ did an awesome job of coming on site and promoting the event. We could not have had such a great event without there being a community minded organization like this that promotes healthy communities and helps us all connect and work together. Great job by them.
4. The weather was unbeleivably perfect. Holding an event on May Long Weekend is a risky thing. It can rain quite easily. Even though the forcast was for rain, the rain stopped in the morning so we could get set up and the sun came out for the few hours we held the event. Then the rain continued on in the evening. We couldn't have asked for better BBQ weather. We did pray for good weather so we would like to thank God for that, although we know there are likely hundreds of other factors involved.
5. The community of Moose Jaw participated. Over 800 people with over $2000 raised for the Soup Kitchen. What a show of support from the community of Moose Jaw. It's great to live in a city like that! We are proud of our great city.
6. It was the first of an annual event. We hope it will be bigger and better next year with even more support from local businesses and the community. If you have a business and would like to sponsor next years event please contact us at info@victorymj.com
7. How great when a plan comes together. Not every plan works out so well. We have events that flop, that are disorganized or don't get supported like we would hope, that get rained out or that lose money instead of helping out....when those things happen it's good to regroup, complain a bit, pray, learn and try again. But when a plan comes together like it did this week. It's good to be thankful and celebrate.

THANKS!!!

Equipping

Wouldn't you hate to be given a job you weren't equipped to do?

God designed the church to do a pretty big job. He gave some simple instructions as to how it would work.

1. God is with you. No matter how big the task, He is backing you up, so go for it.

2. God gives leaders who are assigned the task of equipping His church (people) to do the job.

3. God asks that every person in His church take personal responsibility for the mission of the church. (The church is not an organization or an institution, it is people.)

What Keeps You Away?

What keeps Moose Javians away from church?

a. Negative past experiences? (With church itself, with church goers, or with an on-TV connection?)

b. Belief that it would be a waste of time and irrelevant to their lives?

c. Belief that though it is good and important, it is also painstakingly boring?

d. Too many other competing things to do (busyness, movies, friends, jobs, TV, etc.)

e. It just never crossed their minds...they never really thought much about it?

f. All of the above.


My guess?
70% e.
25% d.
and 5% of a. b. and c.

Statisticians tell us that 88% of people say they would come to church if invited by a friend.
What about you?

If You're Having Fun We're Having Fun

Okay, confession time. I watched a bit of a skating show last night. My wife was watching it, really, and I just wanted some quality time with her (Truth is...I was too lazy to read and decided to let my brain fry in front of the TV and the show wasn't that bad, either). Anyway, one of the judges spoke after a skating routine and said this, "You were having fun out there and if you're having fun, we're having fun."

That got me thinking. I think that's true almost anywhere. Apply it at home with your kids...if you're having a miserable time, chances are you're spreading your misery around. If you're having fun, your chances of lifting your kids' day are higher. Apply it at work; if you're having fun, your co-workers and customers are more likely to be having fun too.

Now I want to meddle a bit. What about church? Maybe our friends don't come to church with us because we are so miserable there! What if we were having so much fun at church, we wouldn't miss it for the world? (literally...don't miss church for the world!)

What if the musicians were having fun, the greeters, the children's workers, the sound man, the media lady, the preacher (whoa...the preacher having fun?)? I think if we all enjoyed ourselves a bit more, we might be more attractive.

Now before you throw stones at me for promoting fun in church, I think a short perusal through the Bible would show that it's not only good PR (public relations), but it's also God-honouring.

A great case study on this from a business perspective is an airline called "Southwest Airlines". If you have ever ridden on one of these planes, you will recount the FUN experience with everyone you know. So, whatever you happen to be up to today...try to have some fun while you are at it. You will not only enjoy it more...you will actually be adding value to the thing you are doing.

What Makes Churches Great?

In the church world there are a lot of different philosophies of what makes a church great, what churches should aim to be and do. There are three that I tend to hear a lot. Three that I wholeheartedly agree about and resonate with. Three that I see throwing eggs at each other from over the fence. Three that I wish could all be true at the same time instead of having to compromise one for the other.


1. Solidly Biblical Churches. These are churches committed to theological excellence.
- doing things right theologically
- ensuring and maintaining Biblical integrity
- not compromising on the teaching of the Bible
- interpreting and applying scripture and to protect sound doctrine
- teaching everyone to know God's Word for themselves and be able to defend their beliefs with scripture

2. Passionately Spiritual Churches. These are churches that are committed to experiencing God personally and powerfully.
- being Spirit-filled and Spirit-fueled
- being on fire
- being passionate about prayer and worship

3. Culturally Relevant Churches. These are churches committed to making church relevant to everyday life.
- meeting people where they are at
- bridging the world of the Bible with the world of daily challenges
- making the music, the message, and other aspects of the church styled to be attractive and compelling to people

Why can't we do all three? Why would we have to do one without doing the others? Why do people assume because we are doing one that we are not committed to doing the others? Why do some groups choose to do one or two and exclude the other?

What makes a church great? Being able to be and do all three of these at the same time without compromising any of them!

What Should Moose Javians Do Today?

This morning I am preparing for our church services.
I am thrilled about what God might do today in people’s hearts and homes.

I can’t imagine another event that is more important than engaging in authentic worship of God, receiving the joy of being part of a bigger family and applying truth of God’s Word to my daily life.

How has the church become irrelevant to so many people’s lives when it is so easily available and so potentially powerful? One of the greatest tragedies of modern culture is the relegating of the church to useless.

I blame church missional drift. We have slowly left our primary purposes. We have left our first love. We have cooled off one degree at a time. Let's renew our vision for why we are here, let's grab hold of it like we are desperate and let's pray and fight and work like crazy until the church is what the church is meant to be.

I long for the day when the most important hour of the average Moose Javian’s week is centered on God’s worship and God’s word. Our lives would be far richer!

May everyone who goes to church this morning be thinking to themselves afterwards, "I wouldn't miss THAT for the world!"

Convergence

When faith and life meet there is a powerful convergence of two streams. Faith on its own has a certain power to it. It inspires me and calls me to a higher life. It opens my eyes to realities I may not otherwise be able to see. But it’s power becomes usable when it comes into contact with real life. When faith actually effects my work, marriage, moods and minute choices it becomes fuel that not only makes a big explosion but actually turns the turbine of an engine.

Is a fire powerful? Yes, but not necessarily useful. Its usefulness is determined by what the fire is applied to. It is powerful and useful if it is heating my home or flying me to my chosen destination in an airplane. When the fire of our faith converges with the practical realities of our life it becomes a useful fuel. Why not try out living what you believe and see what happens? If you like the results, try doing it more and more often. What would happen if we always lived what we believed? Convergence.