Great Books
About the Great Books
Each year for the XP-Seminar, we cull the world for great books on personal enrichment, management and leadership:
- Classics—never forget about the great ones!
- Business books—our friends in the business world have lessons to teach us.
- Christian books—national thought leaders writing on vital topics.
The current year’s books are offered at the Free Book Table during the XP-Seminar. As the Spanish philosopher Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás (known as George Santayana in English) wrote: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Read, grow, learn from others!
Click on a year to see the books, covers and descriptions
Book Reviews
New books are being written every day on spiritual growth, leadership and management. Here are reviews by your peers. take a gander at their “must reads.”
Read the Great Books 2018
Each year for the XP-Seminar, we cull the world for great books on personal enrichment, management and leadership: Classics—never forget about the great ones! Business books—our friends in the business world have lessons to [...]
Staffing Smarts—Free Resource to Download
Our friends at Slingshot have released a great book on effective techniques to help you hire the best. They say: "From building healthy teams to navigating ministry crises in your church staff, the people [...]
Church Event Planning Toolkit
Deborah Ike is a regular author on XPastor.org, contributing some fantastic articles over the last few years. Based on her experience in helping churches and as a professional project manager, Deborah shares her approach to [...]
Book Review: Contagious Generosity
I recently read the book, Contagious Generosity: Creating a Culture of Giving in Your Church by Chris Willard and Jim Sheppard. I found this book to be inspiring and refreshing; it resonated with me in [...]
Book Review: Necessary Endings
Necessary Endings is a “necessary” read for every church leader, regardless of denominational stripe. While the author and internationally renowned Dr. Henry Cloud intended this volume to promote personal and professional growth, it could have [...]
Book Review: The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan
The New Leader’s 100-Day Action Plan: How to Take Charge, Build Your Team, and Get Immediate Results, written by George Bradt, Jayme Check and Jorge Pedraza, is a book about helping executives succeed in transition. [...]
Book Review: Less Clutter. Less Noise
I came across Kem Meyer a few years ago when I spent the day in my office listening to The Nines Webinar Conference. I was so intrigued and delighted by her approach and expertise that [...]
Book Review: Deep & Wide
I choose to read and review Deep & Wide: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend because of my positive experiences with other Andy Stanley and North Point books and videos. Andy’s book Communicating for a [...]
Book Review: Church Unique
In his book, Church Unique, Will Mancini pushes pastors to engage in the hard work of finding the unique contribution that their church can make to the world. More than strategy, this is a matter [...]
Book Review: The Wall Street MBA
When I picked The Wall Street MBA by Reuben Advani from the bibliography of the XP Online Course on Finance, I wondered what the connection to church ministry would be. It turns out that the connection [...]
Book Excerpt: Strange Leadership
My top two spiritual gifts are leadership and administration, so the subject of organization is something I love and gravitate toward. If you have the spiritual gift of administration, you love structure, systems, processes, and [...]
Book Review: ReLaunch
Before even opening this book, the title caught my eye. Whenever we think of words with the prefix “re” before it---words like review, rewind, re-do---we automatically think of things or situations that we must execute [...]
Book Review: The Effective Executive
Peter Drucker’s goal in The Effective Executive seems so simple; as he states in the preface, “The subject of this book is managing oneself for effectiveness.” It does not take long to realize, however, that [...]
Book Review: Sticky Teams
Up until now, I have for no good reason avoided reading Sticky Teams by Larry Osborne. Yes, I had heard it was excellent. Okay, more than one friend suggested it. But I guess I got [...]
Book Review: Deep & Wide
Andy Stanley is fed up. He is fed up with churches that are more interested in protecting the way “we have always done it.” He is fed up with churches that invest millions of dollars [...]
Book Review: Dangerous Calling
Pastors fall. Sometimes quietly, sometimes on public display—pastors fall. As one who has helped pastors and congregations deal with the aftermath of such falls, Paul David Tripp notes that pastoral failure rarely results from a [...]
Book Review: Staff Your Church for Growth
Gary McIntosh’s book, Staff Your Church for Growth, is ambitious in its broad coverage of topics related to developing a team to lead a church---all within the context of the current dynamics of American culture, [...]
Book Review: All Rise—Church Staffing
I am not an XP yet, but I do hope to be one when I grow up. In my pursuit of knowledge about the role and the many areas an XP has to keep track [...]
Book Review: Linchpin—Are You Indispensable?
This book is a must read for snowed-under ministry leaders like you. Not only will it add some fun in your schedule, but Seth Godin's Linchpin is like a mental kaleidoscope for opening up your [...]
Book Review: Misquoting Jesus
For most students of the New Testament, a book on textual criticism is a real yawn. The tedious details are not the stuff of a bestseller. All this changed with Bart Ehrman’s recent Misquoting Jesus: The Story [...]
Book Review: How the Mighty Fall
If you’re like me, you’ve got a stack of books somewhere in your home or office in a pile named, “I really need to read this once I have time.” If you have that pile—or [...]
Book Review: Leading from the Second Chair
Many capable, idealistic, servant-minded people find themselves in "second chair" management and leadership roles within Christian organizations and churches across the country. For many, this is a positive, fulfilling experience; for others, it is frustrating [...]
Book Review: The One Thing You Need to Know
Quick ... what's the single key difference between checkers and chess? Both have two players, alternating moves, the same board and both need advanced strategic thinking ... now if you are already saying, "Hey I [...]
Book Reviews: Disneyesque Books on Creativity
If you’re looking for not only a couple of great books on creativity and innovation, but a backstage pass into the business workings of Disney, then these two books are it. The Disney Way, by Bill [...]
Book Review: The Extreme Future
David asked me to write an ongoing series that explores books that have the potential for really pushing your buttons, disturbing your thinking, or challenging how you lead your church. If you don’t want that, [...]