I have started a coaching relationship with Gary Reinecke. Gary co-authored Developing Coaching Excellence with Bob Logan, the founder of CoachNet. Although I've been actively coaching church planters and other ministry leaders for several years, I recently completed my coach certification through the Office of Leadership Development of the Florida Baptist Convention. Gary is coaching me through the Leadership Effectiveness Process. We had our first phone+CoachNet coaching session on Tuesday. I am looking forward to getting to know Gary better, learning to be a better coach from his modeling and evaluating the the Leadership Effectiveness Process as a potential tool for leadership multiplication in organic churches.
I've just finished reading Marketing in the Age of Google by Vanessa Fox, a former Google employee who helped to develop Google Webmaster Central. She advocates using search engines to discover what people are thinking by using Google research tools. This book has tons of helpful information for missiologists and church planters.
Currently, I am reading The On Purpose Person by Kevin McCarthy. Kevin is one of the guys in my Dream Builders group. The books is a parable about a guy who is searching for order and clarity in his life. Kevin was talking and writing about on-purpose living before the concept was popularized by Rick Warren in his forever best-seller - The Purpose Driven Life. Kevin has a huge dream that I hope to be able to share with you soon.
I am also reading the digital version of Web Analytics: An Hour a Day byAvinash Kaushik. Avinash is the analytics evangelist for Google. I am a little disappointed in the lack of usefulness of this book. Avinash says that he wrote it over 5 weekends while consuming Red Bull. I believe him! However 100% of the proceeds are going to charity, so that makes me feel a little better. This is the my first read on the Nook that I got for my birthday. I am enjoying my Nook so much that I may never buy another hard copy book.
One of my sabbatical goals is to spend more time with my family, especially with my wife. I want to spend at least two hours of un-interrupted time with her each morning. We are trying hard to do that, but it is not happening every day. However, it is a worth-while goal. We are deepening our relationships as a family and I've been able to spend extra time with Matthew before he starts college in the fall.
