Killing Cockroaches

During my vacation in the Bahamas last week, I had the chance to read the latest book from Tony Morgan, Killing Cockroaches. The book is a quick read (I read it in three days) with some pretty insightful information that have great application for leaders in the church and pretty much for anyone doing ministry. Here are some of the key thoughts that grabbed my attention and kept me thinking:

"It is God's church, so I am confident that his intentions will ultimately prevail".

"All leadership comes with responsibility. And even though it's God's church, I have a job to do".

"The only problem is that safety breeds contentment, which ultimately limits the need for faith. We have to find that place of healthy tension between being confident in our calling and knowing that we cannot complete the mission without God's intervention".

"Leaders must battle the status quo. We have to challenge the existing process and identify new methods for fulfilling our mission. Yes, the message is the same, but we live in an ever-changing world".

"At some point we'll all have to give an account for what we've done with our lives and for that which the Lord has given us".

"I've found that knowledge can get in the way. We can get consumed with knowledge. It can slow us down".

"You get to decide where your time goes. You can either spend it moving forward, or you can spend it putting out fires".

"But we learned long ago that to try to make everyone happy, you have to be comfortable with mediocrity".

"It's important that my kids have a great experience. If you can't convince me this will happen, I'm probably not going to risk visiting your service".

"If your church shut its doors today, would your community know it?".

"If you have to manufacture excitement, it's probably something you should stop doing".

This book has really had an impact on me and it has made me rethink about how to do ministry, there are a whole lot more thoughts I got from the book and I will post some more later. I do think that if you are doing ministry or are in any kind of leadership position this is a must read.