Mark Watson

As most of you know, I prefer Twittering to Facebook.  I love all the people I follow.  Some of the people I follow on Twitter are for friendship, some family, and some for the “little nuggets” they tweet throughout the day.

A few weeks ago, Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, twittered about winning a book on his blog if you would leave a comment.  The book he was giving away was Mentor Like Jesus by Regi Campbell.

The title of the book intrigued me.  I also felt that I had benefitted from some good mentors at various points in my life.  My father passed away during my teen years and some of the men that showed an interest in me during that time were invaluable.  And then later during my business career,  I benefitted again from several men, specifically from Bob Fisher, now President of Belmont University in Nashville.

Not only was I selected by Mike to receive the book, but Chris Hornsby from Next Generation Mentoring contacted me saying if I didn’t get selected to receive the book, he wanted to send me one.  Chris and I exchanged a couple of emails about Next Generation Mentoring including sending me a link for further information.

Long story short – this book was humbling.  The objective of the book is to get men into a mentor – mentee relationship.  Regi describes throughout the book a “how-to” approach to setting up mentoring groups and offers a template and materials for a year-long relationship for a nominal fee.

Here are my issues.  While I would have no problem setting up a relationship like this with eight men, I have made a TON of mistakes.  I’m pretty sure there aren’t eight men I know who would be interested in doing this with me.  There are better mentors.

With the above said, this is a great book.  Mentor Like Jesus is a perfect rationale and template for mentoring.  If you think you could be a mentor, get this book.  If you think you would like to find a mentor, get this book.  If you’ve benefited from mentoring – pay it forward!

Primal is a book whose time has come.  In this day of complexity and multiple choices, the gospel gets lost in confusion, denominationalism, and politics.  Primal is a call to reformation.  A reformation back to where you met God and God met you.

Primal is a call to live the Great Commandment . . . or Primal Commandment.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

What would happen to this world if a movement of people really lived the Great Commandment?  What if our churches were all about this Commandment and less about religion and doing church?  As Mark states, “Christianity was never intended to be a noun.  And when we turn it into a noun it becomes a turnoff.  God doesn’t reward what we know.  He doesn’t reward what we say.  He rewards the expenditure of energy.”

Implementing Primal is daring.  It’s exciting.  It ignites the next reformation of God’s people.  It’s regaining the fire that obsessed Christ’s disciples that turned the world upside down.  It moves Christianity from a noun to an action verb once again.

This book is a must read for pastors, church leaders, and small group leaders.  Read, discuss, and start a new reformation.  Make Primal the 1^st book your read in 2010!

While traveling back and forth to upstate NY for the past six months, I’ve had an unbelievable amount of time to read.  Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom was my latest airline read.

First I have to tell you that I love Mitch Albom books.  I have read three of his previous books, For One More Day, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and Tuesdays with Morrie.  When I start reading one of his books, I feel like I’m with him.  I feel as if I’m experiencing and seeing exactly what he is seeing as he tells his stories.

In Have a Little Faith, he tells a beautiful story about his interaction with two very different men.  The first, a childhood Rabbi that was given only a limited time to live and has asked Mitch to speak at his funeral.  The second, a black ex-con and former drug addict struggling to feed and clothe the members of his inner city church in Detroit.  It is through the influence of these two very different men, that Mitch finds his faith.

If you ever have doubts and struggle with your faith, this is a must read.  If you are like me, I can identify with Mitch’s story on so many levels.

One of the nuggets in the book are the Reb’s (Rabbi’s nickname) sermon notes from 1975.  The end of the sermon has the following quote:  “My friends, if we tend to the things that are important in life, if we ae right with those we love and behave in line with our faith, our lives will not be cursed with the aching throb of unfulfilled business. . . . we can sleep in a storm.”

Read the book.  And Have a Little Faith.

I was chatting on Twitter with a good friend who lives in Florida this week when he used the term “A mile wide and an inch deep” to describe a situation we were talking about.  The phrase stuck with me throughout the weekend.

The Urban Dictionary defines the phrase A Mile Wide and an Inch Deep this way:  Impressive at first but with experience, found to be stupid or unimaginative.  A pretty good interpretation, if I do say so myself.

We see this in people, relationships, organizations, businesses, churches, and governments.  It usually happens when we work on appearance or self promotion more than internal growth and depth that we become this way.  Or, it could be we totally lack mission or committment.  Either way we are hollow eggs.  Once cracked – nothing comes out.

If you want to read something really awakening, look at the article from Daylight Atheism about Christianity in this country today.  They use the same term, a mile wide and an inch deep, when referring to Christianity in this country.

How are you growing deeper and not just more wide?

Josh preached a good sermon this past Sunday at Grace Crossing on the Golden Rule from Matthew 7:12.  As always, he does a good job conveying God’s message and challenging us to a higher calling.

According to the Religous Tolerance website, the Golden Rule is used in 21 of the different worlds religon in one form or another.  Hard to believe with all the wars over religion throughout the world.

Josh emphasized that Jesus’ Golden Rule was stated in the postive.  “Do unto others as they would unto you” as opposed to many other quotes that focus on the negative side and say “don’t do anything to someone else that you don’t want done to you.”  In other words I won’t hurt you so you don’t hurt me. 

Josh challenged us to use the Golden Rule proactively.  What would this world be if we actually practiced this?  Besides using the Golden Rule in our everyday dealings, what if we sought out someone to practice this on that had no chance of ever “paying us back?”  That would be the Golden Rule at its purest! 

Pay it forward!

http://www.johnmarkwatson.com/