Book Review: "Good to Great"

Essential Principles

I. Define your Level 5 Leaders

1.     You must put in place leaders who have “personal humility” and “professional will.” The leaders are focused upon inward humility but have an outward aspiration to be excellent in their work. 2.     You must get the right people “on the bus” if it will end up in the correct destination. 3.     Confronting the “brutal facts” is the only way to achieve greatness in any organization. 4.     Level 5 leaders look out for the interest of the organization before themselves. 5.     Do not hire someone who is not a fit for the job.

II. The Hedgehog Principle

1.     This process is to clearly communicate the simple and understandable meaning of the business. 2.     A healthy organization makes money, is passionate and has self-discipline. 3.     Technology is not the focus but is used as a motivator for change.

III. Culture of Discipline

1.     Great companies have a spirit of sacrifice and discipline. 2.     The structure of discipline helps build a culture that helps people live out their vision for the organization. 3.     The “stop doing” list was a fascinating approach to helping the organization lead people to greatness and not mediocrity.

VII. Strengths

1.     This book is a clear presentation for businesses to be streamlined and focused upon principles for growth. 2.     The communication of resisting apathy was felt throughout the book. 3.     It conveyed the importance of leadership setting the tone and direction for any organization. 4.     Biblical principles can be transferred into the business world and this book highlighted them well.

VIII. Weaknesses

1. The book was written mainly to businesses and it is hard to apply some principles into the church world. 2. It was somewhat hard to follow and used explanations of “great” companies that were secular with no mission for the gospel.

Personal Assessment

Good to Great has a great starting point for setting the strategy, “Good is the enemy of great” (Collins, 1).  Jim Collins displays a clear presentation of the need for leaders and organizations to achieve greatness over mediocrity. This book is written more along the lines of businesses, but some aspects can be transferred into the church organization. To understand what great really is, one must define it. Collins explains, “the crucial question in our study is not, what did the good-to-great companies share in common that distinguished them from the comparison companies?”(Collins, 7). From the explanation of the book, greatness is much more than an idea, but it is a conscious choice.

The emphasis is upon making a choice of unwavering commitment to excellence within all aspects of the organization. Collins characterizes the Level 5 leader as, "a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will." Collins is focusing on the importance of the motivation and skills of leadership. This principle, although not backed by specific scripture, can be applied under the realm of Christian leadership. The relevant topic that stood out to me was the leaders (level 5) always put the needs of the people of the company before their own. It reminds me of servant leadership and the example that Christ left the disciples at the Last supper (Luke 22). Humility was another character trait that is applicable to God’s Word (Philippians 2:8).

The book to me was not applicable as much to leadership in the church as the earlier books we have read. The emphasis is upon human leadership more so than the Holy Spirit’s power. I have heard Jim Collins speak and he is intelligent and engaging but this book would be more fitting in a business class. I prefer to look at the thought of “good to great” more along the lines of “character leads to excellence.” Churches must become unsatisfied with the status quo to improve but not at the cost of making it man-made. There were gems of wisdom found throughout the book but found the business strategy quite irrelevant to Christian leadership.

Overall, Good to Great was a research-based book on business principles. I would agree that it can be helpful in the church, but I would rather spend my time reading Simple Church or Purpose Driven Church to find help and insights into leadership. The thesis of this book is important to remind oneself of not becoming mundane or comfortable, but to strive for God’s glory in everything.

Book Review: "Simple Church"

Essential Principles   I. Define your Ministry Process. Ask the right questions! 1. This is much more than a strategy, but it is clarifying what kind of disciple you want to produce. 2. Define how each ministry goes together to produce mature disciples. 3. Develop Simple Discipleship Process. The plan must be to form a strategy that clears the clutter from being unified towards the same goals.   II. 4 Important Characteristics 1. Clarity: Starting with a ministry blueprint. Explain in detail the what the definition and actions of a disciple that the church wants to produce. Clarity is defined as “the ability of the process to be communicated and understood by the people.” 2. Movement: Place your key programs along the process. This is the important “how” of the process. People must see the action steps that must be taken to fulfill the main idea of developing followers of Christ. 3. Alignment: Unite all ministries around the process. The church staff and leaders must be unified and heading in the same direction. All of this is imperative for the mission to become a reality. It is important to keep articulating the process so it becomes a part of the DNA of the church. 4. Focus: Begin to eliminate things outside the process. It is important that churches become wise at saying “no” to things that are good, but to say “yes” to the best things. This is part of the process that can cause conflict due to changes. It is important that churches make decisions based upon focus upon the gospel over tradition.

VII. Strengths 1. Eric Geiger and Thom Rainer did an excellent job of displaying real-time statistics of churches. It was a fresh look at churches who were living out the Simple church principles and some who were not. 2. It is written in a way that gives the reader hope that the church can stay headed in the right direction. 3. It is easy to understand and backed with quality statistics and real life stories. 4. The aspects of defining a disciple rather than just counting attendees. 5. Eric Geiger and Thom Rainer handled the details and the vision with balance.

VIII. Weaknesses 1. It seems that at times the authors can focus more upon the “process” than the Holy Spirit. 2. The research was not as broad as it could have been in different demographics. 3. The examples of secular businesses as comparison for the church. The Early Church would have been more effective to focus upon in detail rather than “Papa Johns.” 4. It is a church model. As much as the authors continue to say it is not a model, it does give four main characteristics to follow and so forth.

Personal Assessment

Simple Church is not about being easy but creating a plan to keep the church focused upon God’s mission of redeeming mankind. The book suggests that church health does not just come from attendance but in a climb towards Christ-likeness through the steps of the church. Although it is never easy, the author gives a clear and compelling look at becoming simple in the process. Simple Church is refreshing looks at the church going back to a focused experience upon helping people grow in their relationship with God.

The first key to the four main principles of Simple church is to clarify. Not just to clarify an idea of discipleship, but to explain in detail what the blueprint is for developing disciples. Simple church says, "To have a simple church, you must design a simple discipleship process.  This process must be clear.  It must move people toward maturity.  It must be integrated fully into your church, and you must get rid of the clutter around it" (26). The church is to explain and make a priority to clarify the goal of discipleship. Illustrate the process visually by a metaphor showing progression. Not only is it important to communicate correctly, the staff should be unified. "People follow leadership, and if leadership is not moving in the same direction, then people are scattered" (169).

A topic that stood out to me was that churches have become cluttered through numerous programs with a vague vision. This quote explains further, "Many of our churches have become cluttered. So cluttered that people have a difficult time encountering the simple and powerful message of Christ. So cluttered that many people are busy doing church instead of being the church." The authors also explained ministry “schizophrenia.” I believe that this book is revolutionary in helping leaders sum up their main mission for the church. The principles of helping people grow in their walk with God must be at the center of all decisions. If a program is moving away from this principle, it needs to be cut. The priority must be the gospel and people growing into a relationship with God.

Lastly, Simple Church is an effective and precise book. It is useful for helping churches and leaders hone in on the importance of a discipleship process. Although this book is not the “Bible” on church strategy, it can be useful in helping build a cohesive and understandable pattern of discipleship in any church. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will continue to use it as a resource in ministry for a lifetime.