I recently finished ‘The Fur’ by Nathan Hobby, a young west ozzie who has done pretty well for himself by winning the TAG Hungerford lit prize.

In a past life I was an English teacher and aspiring writer (may still get it done one day…) so I am always keen to read the work of others, particularly those whose spirituality is given expression in their work. I never been much for classics and even less for trash, but I think I can detect decent writing from crap. Hobby’s stuff is definitely in the decent category, but certainly not in the same league as Winton – not yet.

Its probably a bit of an unfair comparison, but having just read Winton’s latest book, and seeing him as the guru of writing he is my benchmark! I was partly drawn to reading The Fur because of an interview in the Baptist Advocate (West Aus Newspaper) which discussed his work. It spoke of him originating from the south west town of Collie and being a member of Collie Baptist – a fairly conservative church if I hear right.

As a novel its a story of West Aus when it has been overrun by a mould like substance which he calls ‘fur’. The west aussies are quarantined from the rest of the country and also from some of their wealthy Western suburb neighbours (who are referred to thru-out as ‘the wealth’.) The main character is Michael whose mum gets killed by the fur when it wipes out her internals – nice…

Michael is a young guy who is just finishing year 12, moving to Perth to Uni, wanting to be a writer and also exploring his faith and sexuality. I liked the depiction of Michael as he moved from died in the wool fundamentalist to a more astute thinker and as he came to grips with the greying of the world.

It reads very autobiographical – kinda like Hobby was keeping a journal as he went thru year 12 and just wrote down what happened. That said I’m sure he has used his own experience to shape a character without it being him completely.

I probably wouldn’t have picked it up had I not shared some common ground as a recovering fundamentalist, but I’ll be interested to see what else he puts out. Its worth a read if you are interested in local talent.

I have just started reading Tim Winton’s latest book – The Turning. As soon as you enter its pages its like stepping into a west aussie coastal town with all the familiar faces and characters.

I love reading Winton because I feel like I know the people he writes about (I probably do!), the boys from the south west town in their ‘uniform of flannel shirt, black jeans and beanies’, the girl who is as ‘thick as a box of hammers’ (yes, it might be you!…) and so it goes on.

My all time favourite is Cloudstreet, followed by Dirt Music and then The Riders. I’m definitely a devoted fan and would read anything he wrote. Actually one of my favourite movies is ‘That Eye The Sky’, an adaption of Winton’s novel. Incredibly powerful!  I wish I could remember where I hired it from as I can’t find it again.

There is an earthiness, a dry humour and a depth of spirituality about Winton’s stuff that just keeps me reading.

watchers download

Apparently I have been quoted in a book and I didn’t even know it! I guess it happens to famous people all the time, but it hasn’t happened to me before.

Michael Moynach’s new book, Emerging Church.Intro is where I crack a mention. It is stuff from my article on ‘Burning your Bridges’.

download shallow ground movie

Next time I am in Koorong I’ll have to have a look!

Dan Brown is a novelist and The Da Vinci Code is fiction. Asking a New Testament person to comment is like asking a Marine Biologist to comment on Finding Nemo. The expert is of course going to say that sting rays do not sing and clown fish do not talk.

Its not even that good a novel…

download sliver dvd

After seeing it plugged by so many people I have finally given in and started reading ‘Wild at Heart’. I’m a couple of chapters in and so far its ringing lots of bells.

I love his idea of blokes being about adventure, exploring and living heroically – seeking to be ‘dangerous men rather than nice men’.

Here’s the description of the book from Amazon:

God designed men to be dangerous, says John Eldredge. Simply look at the dreams and desires written in the heart of every boy: To be a hero, to be a warrior, to live a life of adventure and risk. Sadly, most men abandon those dreams and desires–aided by a Christianity that feels like nothing more than pressure to be a nice guy. It is no wonder that many men avoid church, and those who go are often passive and bored to death. In this provocative book, Eldredge gives women a look inside the true heart of a man and gives men permission to be what God designed them to be–dangerous, passionate, alive, and free

It seems its not only Frosty and Hirsch who are speaking about some kind of masculine spirituality. Perhaps there is a thread running thru conversations at present that is very significant and in need of our attention.

What’s it mean to be a fully alive, godly bloke?…

Eldredge seems to have a great concept of who Jesus is and for me that’s a key place to start.

At last my all time favourite author, West Aussie Tim Winton has released a new book – this time a collection of short stories with interlinked themes and characters. The Turning is due for release soon and should be a great read. So far Cloudstreet is still my favourite followed by The Rider and Dirt Music.

along came polly movie download Today I met up with Jules Birt three lives of thomasina the divx movie online at the South Perth Boat Cafe to talk about the mission project he and friends are about to launch into. It was great to hear the dreams.

While there last week I found this modern children’s classic. This week I decided we needed to have it…

I reckon Sam will love it!

This is something we need to do more of as churches.

Collins research discovered that companies that excelled were those who were not afraid to hear tough truths about themselves.

I’m not sure who it was that said the ‘first task of leadership is to define reality’, but Colins would agree. He sees it as vital that companies deal with truth that is hitting them in the face – not the reality they wish were true.

He advocated creating a culture in which every person can be heard and respected because the ‘brutal facts’ may not (an probably won’t) come from those high on the food chain. They will likley come from those ‘on the ground’.

To create that culture he discovered that leaders:
– lead with questions not answers (that doesn’t mean the leaders didn’t know the answers but rather they heloped people explore the questions)
– engage in dialogue an debate – not cooercion – we don’t use power to achieve our ends
– conduct autopsies without blame – blame will limit our discovery of truth
– build ‘red flag mechanisms’ that turn information into information that canot be ignored. (too long to explain – but a magic idea!)

I guess if our churches genuinely confronted the brutal facts it might be way too scary…

lucky numbers dvdrip download

Continuing on from yesterday…

Just before I do, its been said a lot lately that we shoudn’t emulate the business world with our practices in the church. Another pendulum swing… (yawn) I would say we shouldn’t emulate some of the practices of the business world but there is a hell of a lot of wisdom we can learn from. This book is full of it.

The second criteria of companies that made the cut as exceptional was that they worked on ‘who first then what’.

Collins discovered that it is critical to get the right people on the bus before you decide where the bus is headed. he believes that the right people will sort out the ‘what’ questions easily.

They discovered that the right people are not motivated by money. They don’t come or hang around because of the pay – they are intriniscally motivated and would be great if there were no money involved at all.

They described companies that chose the right people as ‘rigorous but not ruthless’. In that they made the tough calls if people weren’t shaping up, but never in a callous fashion.

Three practical disciplines in this area they suggest:

1. When in doubt don’t hire – keep looking. How many churches just grab the closest fit, rather than the brst fit because we need someone in the driver’s seat?

2. When you know you need to make a people change, act. He says when you need to tightly manage someone you have made a hiring mistake… Oh yes. I have been there. Its easy to get people into positions but it can be hell to get them out. On the other hand he says people can still be valuable, but just sitting in the wrong seat on the bus.

3. Put your best people on your biggest opportunities not your biggest problems. Its about using talent wisely and freeing those gifted people to fly rather than bogging them down with problem solving.

• racing stripes movie download

While on holidays I read Jim Collins Good to Great

fugitive pieces divx online

and it was sensational!

Basically what he does is a rigorous survey of companies that have way excelled in productivity and profit by comparison with other similar companies and asks what makes them great and the others just ‘good’.

Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world’s greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck.

He states clearly that its a book based on concrete research and empirical data – not what the authors feel might be a good bet.

On that note here is what he has discovered. This might take a while so I’ll do it over a few days. For those of us in churches we could learn a lot from this list…

1. A specific kind of leadership is essential. He calls it ‘level 5 leadership’ characterised by deep humility and indomitable determination.

In several places he used the phrase ‘servant leadership’. Essentially he is saying the leader needs to be one who has low ego needs and sees it as his mission to do what’s best for the company regardless of how it makes him look. The best level 5 leaders are often relative ‘no-bodies’ in terms of fame (I had never heard of the list he mentioned!) but their companies have excelled.

By contrast level 4 leadership relies on the charisma and personality strength of the leader. The end result of level 4 leadership is that when said leader finishes up the company usually experiences a decline in performance. He is ‘the man’. Level 5 leaders make many people great and can disappear leaving a functioning company.

He suggests that if we look for the ‘next great leader’ to come in and rescue us then we will disappointed, but if we find that combination of humility and unswerving determination then we might have a chance.