Seth Mnookin, author of Feeding the Monster quoted my review of his book on his blog. There should be a name for this. I reviewed his book, then he posted the review on his blog. Now I’m referencing his post of my review in this post.

Is there a name for such things? Either way, here’s the link if you want to read it. If you’re a baseball fan, I think you’ll really enjoy this book. If you’re a Red Sox fan, which puts you into a totally different breed of baseball fan, you’ll love it!

By the way, he was very kind to send me a quick email thanking me for reviewing his book. It showed me how little things like this go a long way!

Every year, I like to read a couple of fun, non-ministry related books. I just finished Feeding the Monster by Seth Mnookin. The book chronicles the recent history of the Red Sox, focusing on 2001 to the present. The book is about the people that got together and brought in the right people to eventually lead the Red Sox to their first World Series victory in 86 years.

After reading this, I walked away reflecting on 3 values that the team sees as part of its’ success:

#1 – Promote from Within – Growing up in Boston, the Red Sox were notorious for paying top dollar for aging players that ended up being a bust. The philosophy the new ownership and management of the Red Sox transitioned the team to one that promotes through their farm system.

It brought a few question to my mind: What’s my farm system? Who are the Triple-A up and coming leaders that are ready to hit the big leagues? Who are the next 4 or 5 people that God is raising up to join our staff? Thankfully, every member of our staff (Including me), started out as a volunteer in our church. They understood our philosophy, mission, and vision long before they came on paid staff. It saved me a lot of headaches and made each of our staff effective from day one.

#2 – Trust is Essential – The 2005 season was riddled with distrust and ultimately led to the Red Sox failing to reach the World Series. The front office was divided and thus lost sight of the goal. When people don’t trust each other, they become selfish and petty.

#3 – Narrow your focus – After 3 years of constant expansion, the ownership of the Sox decided to create an “86″ list. This was the list of stuff they were going to stop doing. We did this about 18 months ago and it was one of the best decisions we have ever made. We even cut stuff that we wanted to do, but weren’t doing well. We narrowed the focus and started doing the basics with excellence. Now we feel comfortable to expand a bit and add a few ministries that we can start doing well from the get-go.

Anyway, if you’re a baseball fan and a Red Sox fan in general, the book is an easy, fun read. I highly recommend it…

Honestly, after finishing Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church by D.A. Carson my first thought was, “This book could have been 100 pages shorter!” They book was good and I think for the most part it was a fair assessment of the people they featured in the book. I think Carson did a good job of trying to find some common ground with the various people involved in Emergent. I think the title of the book is unfortunate because “The Emerging Church” is very broad and many within it do not wish to be linked to Emergent in any way.

Once again, if I were editing this book, it would have been less than 150 pages. If you want to read this book quickly and still get a lot out of it, here is my table of contents:

Preface
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 6

The rest of the book was a bit much and not really necessary in my opinion. But I will say this, Carson is very thorough.