Leadership Briefs - Revised 2nd Edition

  

2015 BOOK-OF-THE-YEAR Issue No. 318 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Feb. 21, 2015) spotlights a new leadership book with—trust me—at least a dozen chapters you’ve never read before. I’ve exhausted my inventory of affirming adjectives for this refreshing resource, Leadership Briefs. It’s amazing. [2026 Update! Read the latest edition!]   When Do You Stop Leading? Aw, heck.  Just when you think you can pontificate on all-things leadership, along comes a phenomenal book that hammers your ego. I still have much to learn. Case in point: Ask me how to build a healthy culture on your team—and I can give you three steps and three books.  Ask Dick Daniels the same question and he delivers eight core elements and seven steps. (Where does he get this good stuff? It’s off-the-chart insightful—and packaged brilliantly.) In the new, hot-off-the-press book, Leadership Briefs: Shaping Organizational Culture to Stretch Leadership Capacity, Daniels says that “building a healthy culture requires a carefully crafted blueprint.” He starts with four foundational building blocks: vision, mission, values…and one more we often minimize: leadership. Then in less than a page, he outlines the four sides of organizational framing: strategy, structure, staffing, and systems. He notes, “Staffing follows structure. A change in strategy leads to a change in structure which impacts staffing.”  But…there’s more! His seven steps to building culture are short and crisp (three to five lines each), yet comprehensive. The outline:    1. Declare it.    2. Define it.    3. Model it.    4. Defend it.    5. Expect it.    6. Measure it.    7. Reward it. He elaborates: “Culture is evidenced in specific and measurable behaviors. People consistently perform according to what is measured.” That’s Chapter 3 on organizational culture—a feast in just four pages, plus an eye-catching “Leadership Debrief” three-line chapter summary on the fifth page. (Some chapters—with equal punch—are just two pages. My kind of book!) So imagine…40 very short chapters in nine major leadership categories with tempting subtitles:    • CULTURE: Leadership Friendly Places to Work    • FORMATION: Building Leaders from the Outside—In    • CHARACTER: Building Leaders from the Inside—Out    • STRATEGY: The Intuition of Leadership Judgment    • LEADING: The Daily Agenda    • TEAMS: Collaboration and Cross-Functional Alignment    • FOLLOWERS: Engaged and Growing    • COMMUNICATION: Everyone Knows Almost Everything    • ETCETERA: Behind the Scenes Honest.  Scan the table of contents—and you’re hooked. If you’ve got even a hint of leadership in your bones, you can’t resist cancelling your next meeting and digging deeper into these life-long learning leadership briefs.  There are gems in every chapter: • Chapter 9: The Trusted Leader • Chapter 10: Emotionally Smart Leaders • Chapter 11: The Social Graces of Memorable Leaders Yikes! Under six “Graceful Reminders” in Chapter 11 he warns about “the danger of the 15%. Some people can be right 85% of the time. It is a powerful gift. The danger is when they assume they are right 100% of the time. They become relationally dangerous 15% of the time when they are wrong but think they are correct.” How can you not read these chapters?    • Chapter 14: When Leaders Look for the Silver Bullet    • Chapter 18: The Point of Creativity in 31 Leadership Polarities    • Chapter 22: When Do You Stop Leading? In Chapter 22, Daniels cautions, “There is a disruption in leadership continuity when you stop doIng the critical exercises needed for sustainability.” Then his poke-in-the-ribs includes 12 “Don’t Stop” warnings, including: Don’t Stop Learning. Don’t Stop Listening. Don’t Stop Confronting. Don’t Stop Celebrating. Don’t Stop Studying the Competition. Don’t Stop Taking on the Next Challenge.  There’s more!    • Chapter 23: The Delicate Dance of Team Chemistry    • Chapter 25: Counterintuitive Conflict    • Chapter 30: Delegating Developmentally Gimme a break, Dick!  I’ve written a whole chapter on the Delegation Bucket, so how come I just learned a new insight that’s going right into my PowerPoint?  “Leaders have three options: (1) Not delegating, (2) Delegating prematurely, or (3) Delegating developmentally.” And more:    • Chapter 33: The Emotional Flow of Employee Disengagement    • Chapter 35: The Power of Thought-Provoking Questions    • Chapter 38: Formulas for Succession Planning Gut check on employee disengagement: “When the problem is organizational,” says the author, leaders fix it. “When the problem is a team member’s personal baggage, they find a way to help. At last resort, leaders will carefully calculate if it is necessary to release and replace the disengaged. How this transition is handled impacts the attitude and engagement of every other team member who is watching.” ‘Nuff said. Just buy the book. As I wrote in my endorsement, “I could have used this book 30 years ago—and saved myself and my team members from unnecessary leadership pain! Every chapter begs to be discussed and implemented in a weekly staff meeting. The chapter on delegation is worth the price of the book. I've already borrowed his memorable outline: Think, Talk, Act, and Ask. Brilliant!” To order the REVISED 2ND EDITION from Amazon, click on the book title for Leadership Briefs: Shaping Organizational Culture to Stretch Leadership Capacity, by Dick Daniels. BONUS! View the podcast (8 minutes).   Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) Dick Daniels peppers his book with stunning insights from leaders, like this from Tom Peters: “Leader’s don’t create followers, they create more leaders.” How effective is our team’s leader-creation plan? 2) BONUS! The 2026 2nd Edition describes six stages for developing and keeping your best talent: 1) Reality Check. 2) Development Game Plan. 3) Focused Learning. 4) Reflect Collaboratively. 5) Intentional Application. 6) Your Change Story. (See the value-added graphic also, "The Culture & Capacity Model.") Charles, You're Fired!   In my cycle through the 20 buckets, here’s a reminder from the Culture Bucket, Chapter 8, in Mastering the Management Buckets. In their book, Winning The Answers—Confronting 74 of the Toughest Questions in Business Today, Jack and Suzy Welch comment on “The Ultimate Values Test.” They warn not to get rid of value offenders with surreptitious excuses such as “Charles left for personal reasons to spend more time with his family.”  Instead, they say, inform your team publicly and “announce that Charles was asked to leave because he didn’t adhere to specific company values.” MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations • PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcasts Note: This is the NEW location for John Pearson's Buckets Blog. Slowly (!), the previous 650+ blogs posted (between 2006 and 2025) will gradually populate this blogsite, along with new book reviews each month.

Enough

 

Issue No. 690 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Sept. 10, 2026) highlights Scott Rodin's new book on holy contentment. It's gut-check time! Plus, click here for back issues posted at the new location for John Pearson’s Buckets Blog, including my review of Beyond Church and Parachurch: From Competition to Missional Extension. And check out these bite-sized book summaries (7- to 9-minute videos)—perfect for your weekly staff meeting.   Scott Rodin writes, “For most of my adult life I have lived and worked pursuing a goal that is nowhere commanded in Scripture. It’s as if I was reading from the ASV, the Assumed Standard Version of the Bible.” (Graphic: ChatGPT)   Scott Rodin’s Second Conversion Back in 2014, when I reviewed The Choice, by Scott Rodin, Gary Hoag, and Wes Willmer, I began every paragraph with, “Don’t read this book.” I’m tempted to do that again—because Scott Rodin’s very transparent commentary on his own walk with God is stunning, maybe even alarming. If you’re ready—it’s gut-check time. Rodin’s new book, Enough, is already on my Top-10 list for 2026.   Enough:  Finding Deep Contentment in an  Anxious and Fearful World by R. Scott Rodin. (Sept. 1, 2026)   Oh, my. Rodin writes about his “second conversion” and doesn’t hold back. “I mentioned earlier in this book that I am in the first few years of a personal spiritual revival. At sixty-eight years old, that’s a challenging thing to say, but it is so very true. It started about three years ago when Linda and I found ourselves de-churched—not something you plan for or expect when you hit your mid-sixties.” Imagine this: Rodin and his wife are now on an “ecclesiastical journey” that includes a Sunday gathering of 65 to 80 people in a middle school cafeteria. “The unique feature of our worship is that we meet around round tables, and much of the teaching, encouragement, prayer, and insights come from us sharing life experiences together.” (Must-read: “Part 11: Contentment in the Overwhelming Love of God.”) Rodin’s words grabbed me by the throat. And yikes! If Rodin—a former seminary president and author of 17 books—needed a second conversion, what about me? And you? He goes deep on the Enough theme—and there’s no way I can communicate the heart and importance of this book in one review. (Maybe two or three reviews?) So—forgive me for taking the lazy guy’s journey through the book. Here are a dozen or more zingers to whet your appetite—if you’re longing for holy contentment. Enough is Enough. “The root of our discontentment is our unacknowledged suspicion that God may not be enough.”  I Am the Good Shepherd. “The Lord is my Shepherd; I have everything that I need.” #1. “The Desires of the Flesh and the Audacity of Psalm 23.” In the study questions for Part 1, Rodin suggests a next step: “Starting today…commit to writing Psalm 23:1 on the top of every to-do list to remind you of God’s full provision for you before you begin your work for Him.” #2. “One Kingdom Freedom.” The author notes that “Adam and Eve became the original second-kingdom builders.” And thus bondage began. Rodin adds, “As soon as we start to shift from stewards to owners, we will begin to experience bondage. Most often it starts with our stuff. This stuff can be our possessions, but it can also be less tangible, like time. Many of us would confess that God can have everything He wants, as long as He leaves our time alone.” #3. “Defining What is Enough.” Only Rodin could connect the dots between a Zac Brown Band song and Leo Tolstoy. •    “Homegrown” song: “It’s the weight that you carry from the things you think you want. I’ve got everything I need and nothing that I don’t.” •    Tolstoy: “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” (If you’ve never read this short story—read it now or listen to the story here. Hint: the answer involves six feet. Yikes.) #4. “Proclaiming Contentment in a World of Scarcity.” Rodin quotes J.D. Greear, “Most Christians haven’t rejected God; they have just reduced him.” (Note: Don’t skip the “Dayenu” exercise in Part 4’s study questions.) #5. “Living from Well Pleased.” Must-read: what Rodin experienced on “four lanes of asphalt” on I-90 in northern Idaho—that dramatically changed his life. “God spoke to me in the most powerful way that I’ve experienced in my entire Christian walk.”    • Can you relate? “I never for a moment have had the peace in my heart that I could ever produce enough fruit.”    • Read the five words that the Spirit of God spoke to him—causing him to nearly drive off the road. #6. “Success, Time, and Work.” There’s more (no pun intended). “The enemy always wants to convince us that God is a miser, doling out an increasing volume of work to be crammed into the limited time He has granted us. The comment, ‘I just don’t have enough time,’ is an admission that we have bought the lie.”    • LOL, but sadly…our Christian theology of work, says Rodin, often is shaped by country western music! Listen to Dolly Parton, Johnny Paycheck, Tennessee Ernie Ford, and Travis Tritt. #7. “Everything About Money Gets Turned on Its Head.” You’ll definitely want to SKIP this chapter about the bondage of money:    • “I joke that if you don’t believe owning and possessing things puts you in bondage, buy a boat!”    • “If we are unable to define what is enough, we can never be truly joyful givers.”    • Also: read the story from his novelette, The Million-Dollar Dime. #8. “The One Thing, God’s Ultimate Priority.” Stop and think about “…the guilt we can carry over our shortcomings as disciples.” Rodin adds, “Behind some of this guilt is a distorted theology of salvation by grace. To use a big theological term, we can give in to a modern-day Pelagianism.” (Read more here.) “What Pelagianism offers fuels our pride, but it also fills us with uncertainty and robs us of peace.” #9. “The Pride of Life and Silencing the Sirens.” Wait…how did Rodin know that the movie, Odyssey, would arrive just when his book was published? He reminds us that “the  most famous encounter with Sirens comes from Homer’s Odyssey, where Odysseus, advised by Circe, orders his men to plug their ears with beeswax.” (Not a bad suggestion for some of us!) Rodin notes: “If we ever thought being envious was a minor sin, we need to think again. God commits 10% of His law to the subject. He spends additional words going into detail, so we don’t miss the point. He ends with the all-inclusive statement, ‘or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’” So Rodin confesses (again) about a gathering at a friend’s lakefront home. “All I can say is, I heard the siren song. It sounded like this: ‘Why can’t we have a cabin on the lake?’” (Read more in Enough about envy and its cousin, resentment.) #10. “The Great Unexamined Presupposition: Growth = Success.” In this chapter, you’ll laugh-out-loud first—and then search your heart. Rodin writes, “For most of my adult life I have lived and worked pursuing a goal that is nowhere commanded in Scripture. It’s as if I was reading from the ASV, the Assumed Standard Version of the Bible.” Some favorite ASV verses:    • On the second of the two great commandments: “’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. And of course, the third commandment is this: Always strive to be successful, do more and more and more for the kingdom, even if it means you can’t do the first two as much as you’d like.”     • “If you abide in My word, and grow your ministry at least 20% each year, you are My disciples indeed.” Oh, my. You must read Rodin's contrarian thoughts about the “famous (infamous) prayer of Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4:10, where Jabez prayed: ‘Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my border…’” THERE'S MORE (pun intended):    • The memorable chart (page 158) contrasting Complacency (idler), Drivenness (owner), and Contentment (steward).    • How two nonprofit board candidates discerned whether or not to serve.    • And this: “Brett and Connie are two nonprofit leaders who just announced goals to grow their ministries by 20%.” (Is that a good thing?)    • The day Rodin shocked a seminar room with this: “If you do not have enough resources today to do what God has called you to do, you never will.” He adds, “Needless to say, I got everyone’s attention.”    • Gut check question: “Have you ever experienced the Holy Spirit calling you to do less, give up some responsibilities, or take a season of rest? If so, did you obey? How did it go? If not, do you think you may have missed His direction in your life?” #11. “Contentment in the Overwhelming Love of God.” Wait…this former seminary president has the guts to write: “It is the first time I’ve ever known true community in a church setting.” Rodin explains—further—what led him to write this powerful book. With lyrics from Rascal Flatts, he reminds us that detours are part of the drill. “…the question I’ve struggled with in writing this book is simply this: ‘Can you find deep contentment driving a detour?’”  #12. “Finding Contentment in the Footsteps of Jesus.” Keep your seatbelt fastened—because there’s even more about enough! Rodin explains, “I used to teach that following Jesus reorders our priorities from self-career-marriage-family-God, to God-marriage-family-career-self. I am coming to see that apprenticing under Jesus means that life has but one priority: intimacy with the triune God.”  He adds, “That is the one thing, and it is enough. When that relationship has preeminence over our entire life, everything else is filled with richness and purpose. It is the fruit promised by Jesus to those who would ‘seek first the kingdom of God’ (Matt. 6:33).” “This may seem like a paradox: we are called to a continuous process of transformation and to be content where we are at the same time. Yet both are essential for our walk with Jesus.” SAFE? Scott Rodin asks if this Psalm 23 way of living is “safe” and quotes from The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis. “Perhaps the most accurate words spoken on this subject came from the mouth of a beaver. Lucy Pevensie is learning about Aslan, the great lion that rules Narnia. After hearing him described by Mr. Beaver as a King of the Beasts and the Great Lion, and anyone approaching him will have their knees knocking, Lucy replies, ‘Then he isn’t safe?’ To which Mr. Beaver replies incredulously, ‘Safe? Who said anything about safe? Course he isn’t safe. But He is good. He is the King, I tell you.’” TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for Enough: Finding Deep Contentment in an Anxious and Fearful World, by R. Scott Rodin. (And thanks to the author for sending me a review copy.)     View the new series, John Pearson's Buckets Podcast, with AI-generated summaries of John's book reviews (short and snappy: just 7 to 9 minutes each). View the 8-minute podcast summarizing my blog post, “The Miracle Orange.” (An "enough" true story!)   YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) Define “enough.” Define “holy contentment.” Now read how Scott Rodin defines those two terms in his introduction, “Enough is Enough.” 2) Try this! “I have a Starbucks card for any team member who will take an afternoon off and read one of Scott Rodin’s books.” [   ] Steward Leader Meditations [   ] The Seventh Key  [   ] Development 101  [   ] The Choice [   ] The Million-Dollar Dime [   ] The Third Conversion [   ] The Steward Leader [   ] The Sower  [   ] The Four Gifts of the King [   ] The Seven Deadly Sins of Christian Fundraising - Read more in The Donor Bucket chapter of Mastering the Management Buckets.          SECOND READS: Fresh Solutions From Classic Books You have changed—and your problems have changed—since you read this the first time! Book #58 of 99: Manage Your Day-to-Day For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #58 of 99 in our series, “Second Reads.” The big idea: REREAD TO LEAD! Discover how your favorite books (and articles) still have more to teach you and the people you’re coaching and mentoring. Manage Your Day-to-Day:  Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus,  and Sharpen Your Creative Mind by Jocelyn K. Glei, Editor (May 21, 2013)   The unique approach for this book is compelling: 20 authors, 20 short chapters, and 20 full-page quotations, like this one from Warren Buffet: “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say 'no' to almost everything.”    • Read my review (Issue No. 285, Sept. 9, 2013)    • Order from Amazon.    • Management Bucket #18 of 20: The Systems Bucket. The 20 authors call this a “playbook of best practices—the missing curriculum that you didn't get in school” for making ideas happen. And it over-delivers. Perhaps my strongest recommendation would be this: somewhat of a life-long student of time-management best practices, I have dramatically altered my daily routine (when in my office) as a result of reading this book.    CLICK HERE FOR BOOKS BY JOHN     View the AI-generated summary of “Mistake Number 1: Neglecting the Mistake-Making Literature. I needed more practice and more laps in the mistake pool!” (8 minutes). See the workbook, Mastering Mistake Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—and What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here at John Pearson's Buckets Blog. Manage Your Day-to-Day VIEW the AI-generated video (6.5 minutes) of John’s review of the book, Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind. Read John’s review. BONUS! As of today, 27 video podcasts (7 to 9 minutes each) are posted here. Perfect life-long learning snippets for your weekly staff meeting. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations • PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcast   Crime Page-turner! Before summer ends, squeeze this page-turning novel into your weekend reading plans from bestselling authors Trey Gowdy and Christopher Greyson. The Sound of Regret (read my review) has everything you want in a novel, including MMO (motive, means, and opportunity), plus CCC (crime, cops, and courtrooms). I just made that up! Find more book reviews at the Pails in Comparison Blog.

The Third Conversion

 

Issue No. 218 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (May 19, 2011) features a profound 90-page “novelette” that could mess with your current comfort level.  The author quotes Martin Luther: “There are three conversions necessary to every man; the head, the heart and the purse.” Plus, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Measuring the How Whoa! This will get your attention! In this week’s book, the board chair of a Seattle-based ministry drops this bomb on the vice president (in-training) for international resource development: “I can still remember the day when we shared with the board that we were going to begin measuring our success in fundraising based solely on activity and not outcome.” What?  There’s more. This time from the CEO of Hands of Love International, (“which had the fortunate acronym HOLI”): “The breakthrough for us came when we were challenged to consider that if we were faithful in how we carried out our work of raising up faithful stewards we could trust that God would be faithful in what that work produced. So we began to figure out how to measure, train, and budget for the how.” Peter, the board chair in this paradigm-busting novelette by R. Scott Rodin (author of The Steward Leader and co-author of The Sower, among other books), then adds, “Never tell God what to do, and never tell God’s people what they are to give. You just might end up underestimating the generosity of both.” Let me stop here and insert perhaps the most compelling sentence of this review—one of my clients just ordered 50 copies of this book!  He personally presented The Third Conversion to every board member, senior team member and development team member.  This 90-page gem may be his best contribution yet in his goal of building a God-honoring stewardship movement for the ministry. What makes Rodin’s book so powerful—with so few pages?      --It’s a quick read.  Everyone you give it to will read it.      --It’s filled with teachable moments. You’ll follow Walt, the retiring VP of development, as he coaches and mentors his successor, Carl, in actual appointments with ministry supporters (some with high passion and others who have been abused and/or disappointed by the ministry). It’s real life with real learning in every chapter.      --It’s profound. When faced with a new paradigm (low pressure, but high prayer and sensitivity to growing a giver’s heart for God), Carl responds, “Wow, Walt, that’s a real zinger to me.”       --It’s dangerous.  Walt admits, “It kind of un-anchors all of your moorings for this work.”      --It’s biblical. In Rodin’s unique epilogue, he writes, “…if you are among those who refuse to accept this teaching but insist on hanging onto practices and techniques that produce transactions without transformation, then I pray you will be upset and unnerved by this book. I pray that Carl and Walt’s stories will stay with you and be used by God to slowly open your heart and mind to these important truths.” Who should read this book? Almost everyone in your organization: Givers and non-givers, CEOs and senior team members, development team members—and board members (especially board members). Rodin again: “Organizations as well as individuals are embarked on a journey of faith and faithfulness. For an organization, this journey is influenced primarily by its culture. And ministry leaders are culture keepers. They are tasked to define reality, articulate values, and exhibit consistent behaviors that become the cultural moorings of the organization. When organizations define their reality in kingdom terms, articulate their values in alignment with biblical, holistic stewardship, and exhibit behaviors that indicate their commitment to the journey of the faithful steward, they engender a culture of giving.” YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) Whoa! Dare we even stick our toes in the water of “leaving the results up to God?” What performance measurements would we give to our development team? What might be the upside of being activity-driven versus results-driven? 2) Rodin cautions Christian development professionals: "This is a bad time to get good at doing old things. The new wine of this biblical way of raising ministry resources requires new wineskins."  On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 is Very Biblical), how biblical are we in raising resources? TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for The Third Conversion, by R. Scott Rodin MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations • PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcast   ECFA Blog on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations”     Add your thoughts and comments to John Pearson’s blog posts including this from 2016, "10 Fundraising Mistakes That Are Easy to Fix." NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here at John Pearson's Buckets Blog.

The Million-Dollar Dime

 

Issue No. 248 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (May 9, 2012) highlights a hot-off-the-press quick-read, but profound, book on generosity from prolific writer/thinker R. Scott Rodin.  In it, he suggests this no-gimmicks mission statement for your church’s stewardship committee: “Pray. Challenge. Model.” Plus, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Generosity Page-Turner R. Scott Rodin asks a probing question in his latest book, “If all I had in life was God and a dime, would that be enough?” In just over 100 pages, this remarkable quick-read novelette highlights three challenging generosity scenarios confronting Carl Burns, the director of stewardship for a fictional Seattle-based nonprofit ministry. Similar in style, length, humor and importance to his 2011 novelette, The Third Conversion, this memorable short story packs yet another punch.  Pastors, stewardship committee members, ministry leaders, board members and all Christ followers should be warned: your logical (but not biblical) assumptions about God-honoring giving and generosity are about to crumble. I won’t divulge the storyline in this short review (no spoiler alert here), but I will guarantee you this: it’s a generosity page-turner—and that’s not an oxymoron. I’ve been off the grid for several weeks while traveling in Asia (hence the lapse between issues), but I’m now back in the saddle and enjoying jet lag.  So in a sleepless stupor at 2:00 a.m. this morning, I picked up The Million-Dollar Dime and browsed Chapter 1—in search of sleep. Rats! I got hooked! This is a page-turner—even at two in the morning.    --I was captivated by the story—built on the memorable simplicity of a dime. (I predict you’ll repeat this stunning story dozens of times.)    --I was convicted by the insights. “The journey from owner to steward is the transformational journey from bondage to freedom, anxiety to peace, grasping to letting go.”    --I was shocked by the honesty—especially the transparent confessions that maybe, just maybe, our evangelical mantra of sacrificial giving (“give until it hurts”) is, in fact, not biblical. Yikes.    --I was inspired by the biblical principles. “We should be outrageously generous givers because we were created in the image of an outrageously giving God.” And “No matter how much we think we have or don’t have, we have enough.” Two hours later (now 4:00 a.m.) my re-energized body and mind arrived simultaneously at page 106—the last page. Some books lull you to sleep. Not this one. Rodin’s book—and his stunning treatment on the joy of generosity—got my juices going. His two-page back-of-the-book summary lists two foundational truths (“handrails on a narrow path”): “God owns it all and God will always provide.” Warning! You’ll need multiple copies of this book.  It’s a perfect gift book for your pastor, your donors, board members, staff members and key volunteers. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for The Million-Dollar Dime, by R. Scott Rodin.  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) When coaching a pastor to review the giving records of his church members, Carl Burns, the fictional director of stewardship in this book, says, “I believe that there may be no greater single indicator of the strength of our spiritual walk than how we give.” Why do you think Christians have freely shared and confessed many sins to their pastors—but often resisted making their giving (or lack of giving) histories available to their spiritual mentors and leaders? 2) In the book, Cassie, a former drug dealer—now a women’s shelter director—shares her personal journey into the joy of generosity and why she always carries a dime in her pocket. Her belief: “He wants all of us.” Reflecting on that, Carl adds, “That word ‘all’ had to be the most challenging word in the Christian vocabulary.” Do you agree—and how might that impact your generosity journey? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Appeal Letter Misses 75% of Your Audience! Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit One of the big ideas in Chapter 7 in my book, Mastering the Management Buckets, is to become a student of the “social style” of your colleagues, your boss, your board members and—here’s an idea—your donors. One big mistake: communicating your giving opportunities to others by focusing on just one social style—your own.  (Example: If your donor letter is written by an analytical, that approach won’t bless 75 percent of your recipients.) Here’s why:   --Analyticals will want the historical context and the facts and will react slowly and cautiously to your ideas.   --Drivers want you to get to the bottom line quickly and can make swift decisions.    --Amiables enjoy close relationships and love stories. They, like analyticals, will avoid risky ventures, but opinions are more important than facts.    --Expressives will take risks, based on hunches and intuition, have low interest in routine issues, and often can be exciting cheerleaders for your cause. (Don’t ask analyticals to be cheerleaders for anything—they still have 50 questions that need to be answered.) For more help and two downloadable charts, “General Overview of the Four Social Styles,” and Do’s and Don’ts for the Four Styles,” visit The People Bucket webpage.     MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations • PODCASTS: John Pearson's Buckets Podcast   ECFA Blog on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations”     Add your thoughts and comments to John Pearson’s blog posts including the latest, "Policy: The Board's Chief Occupation."