The second part of my chat with Thomas about Seth Godin’s new book ‘Tribes’ on the Something Beautiful podcast HERE.

We talk about change, cycles, leadership and faith in a Starbucks… complete with coffeehouse sound effects!

I mentioned that I had recoreded a discussion on Tribes for the Something Beautiful Podcast… well it’s edited and part 1 is online now… HERE.

Some further thoughts:

Tribes are everywhere.  We are all part of tribes.  Tribes form around interests and passions.  Tribes are big and small.  Tribes share a sense of purpose and belonging.

Godin’s book is one that all churches should read.  Not just church leaders.  But church people.  This is a book for leaders.  Some of those leaders are already leading tribes but some are waiting for their moment or waiting for their tribe.

So, what’s the book about?

Faith, Religion and Heretics.  Those aren’t necessarily words you would expect to read in a marketing book, but then Godin isn’t just any marketer.  He’s a heretic.

Faith, according to Seth, is a good thing.  Faith is something we all share.  Some have faith in God, others faith in Apple or Starbucks but that faith is mostly that the world can be better, that we can do better.  Faith helps us to reach further, to attain, to aspire.

Religion, well that happens when people who share a faith get together and start a club.  There are rules for the club and sooner or later those rules become more important than the faith they were made to celebrate.  This happens because people want to protect the status quo.  People want to preserve their faith.

Heretics are the people who lead change.  Martin Luther was a heretic.  Joan of Arc, Ghandi, Rob Bell…

Rob Bell?  Yes, Rob Bell.  The connection is that heretics change the rules.  Bell started a new church.  A new kind of church.

The thrust of Godin’s argument is that there are lots of people who are waiting to be led.  People are dissatisfied with the status quo.  Others have left their religion and are out there with their faith waiting and hoping for someone to come and lead them.  Waiting for someone to inspire them.

These people need leaders.

Leaders are all about how it could be.  Managers are about how it is.

Leaders are about what’s possible.  Managers are about what is.

Leaders deliver change.  Managers deliver the status quo.

Simple really.  Leaders lead.  People want to be led.  They want to form tribes around ideas and create movements.  Once the tribe is formed the leader’s role is to tighten the tribe.  To find ways to bring people together, to deepen relationships and to grow the tribe… if the tribe wants to grow.

Sound familiar?  Sound like something you want or need?  What’s the catch?

Leading is hard.  It takes committment and effort.  It takes people who don’t mind being called a heretic.

Seth Godin’s audiobook Tribes is available on iTunes ahead of the release of the book in a week or so.

The movie of one of my favourite books is out today and with it comes a load of downloadable discussion resources for church groups.  Go here to get them.

I like writing.  It’s definitely one of my favourite tasks although sometimes it takes a while to get into the groove.  Deadlines seem to help with that!

I’ve spent a good part of the past week writing part of the ’spiritual’ section of the new Girls’ Brigade (Scotland) programme for Juniors (8-12) and I’ve really enjoyed it.  My sections have been on ‘Bread of Life’, ‘Water’, ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Harvest for the World’ and each one of the four topics has 6 sections with a few activities.  So that’s somewhere around 72 activities!!!

They will be doing nature walks, finding our where their food comes from, discovering what communion is, painting, drawing, singing, talking, reading and acting.  Good fun I think.

I’ve been tagged by Thomas (he’s just getting his revenge for the book tag last month!)

Here’s the rules: Grab the book closest to you. Turn to page 161. Print the 5th complete sentence on your blog. Tag 5 others.

The book closest to my desk (none on it today) was ‘The Daily Study Bible – The Gospel of Luke’ by William Barclay.

Page 161, 5th complete sentence:

To God we are never lost in the crowd.

Oddly, I quoted this section of Barclay’s book in a sermon not that long ago!!!

I tag Avril, David, Pauline, Bryan (he’ll never do it) and Russell

I just got tagged by Matt…

How many books do you own?: somewhere around 300… half of them are in boxes!

Last book I read: Angels & Demons by Dan Brown – I’ve had this for ages and had never quite got round to reading it.  I have had a few train journeys recently so I picked it up and actually quite liked it.  I’m sure it will make a decent movie.

(Reading How To Be Good by Nick Hornby now)

Five Books That Mean a Lot to Me: (In no particular order):

Dangerous Wonder by Michael Yaconelli
This is a short book about the ‘adventure of a childlike faith’. Mike Yaconelli is one of the most inspiring people I have ever met. I first heard him speak at Greenbelt years ago and his enthusiasm for living out a curious and mischievous faith captured my imagination. The book is full of stories that are a bit ‘chicken soup’ but also inspiring and challenging.

The Lord Of The Rings by JRR Tolkein
It took me ages to get around to reading these. I tried to read The Hobbit four or five times when I was a kid but could never get into it. The LOTR movies kick started my reading. I saw the first one and was hooked. I could also better imagine Middle Earth. The books are magnificent. So rich in detail and depth of character. Well worth reading, even if just to see where the books and the movies diverge.

My Father Was A Hero by Cole Moreton
Another Greenbelt discovery. Cole Moreton gave a presentation on his journey of discovery to find out what his family secret was. I’ve blogged about the book before here. I read this book at a very difficult time in my life and it resonated deeply with me. Families are funny things. There are so many things we don’t know about those we love the most. This book captures some of that mystery and a young man’s journey of discovery.

Mental Fight by Ben Okri
Mental Fight is a poem. It is beautiful and challenging and inspiring. Read it.

The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
My mother read the Narnia books to us when we were children, mostly in a caravan near Oban on the west coast of Scotland. I have very strong memories of imagining Narnia was the western Highlands! I was given the set as a birthday present a few years ago and re-read the stories of Narnia and found I enjoyed them just as much as an adult. I began to read them to my kids but they are quite difficult to read aloud!!!

And now to tag five people: Avril, David, Pauline, Thomas & Chris

I’ve just read ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ by John Boyne, highly recommended by my wife .  It is the story of Bruno, a 9 year old German boy, whose father is sent from Berlin by a small man with a small mustache called ‘The Fury’ to be commandant of a place Bruno thinks is called Out-With.  Bruno makes friends with a boy who wears striped pyjamas and who lives on the other side of the fence with the other boys and men (there are no women on that side of the fence).

It is a beautiful and tragic story of the Holocaust, made even more poignant because it is told through the innocent eyes of a boy who does not know or understand the horrors of the place he now lives.

The book ends with the words

‘And that’s the end of the story about Bruno and his family.  Of course all this happened a long time ago and nothing like that could ever happen again.  Not in this day and age.’

I get the feeling that it could and is.  Millions of people die in Africa and the world stands by.  People are imprisoned without trial by America and the world stands by.  Just a few years ago genocides occurred in Rwanda and in the former Yugoslavia.

If only we all viewed the world in the way that Bruno did.

I bought the Out Of Bounds Church? today.  I’m liking it lots!  A great mix of emergent church thought and insight with commentary and pointers to music, film, books and websites as you go along.  I’ll post more thoughts when I’ve read and digested more.  Steve blogs as e-mergent kiwi.  Go read his thoughts and his tale of an encounter with a sheep…

My Father Was  A Hero 

 by Cole Moreton is a moving account of the relationship between a Moreton and his father and grandfather.  His grandfather would never discuss the war and his father would say nothing of his childhood beyond ark hints.  So what had happened that still hurt after so long?  And why would nobody talk about it?

War reaches far beyond the time and place of the conflict.  Moreton explores his own family’s secrets to discovered the devastation the war caused in his grandfather’s life and how that rippled through the generations.  A superb book.