But even for movements like where I am now, that is more pastor driven, this book is of amazing value as focuses on practical side of team building and have a lots of prectical examples how to do it and how not to do it. Since I am teacher on leadership myself, I read a lot, and among over 120 books on leadership I have read in last few years, this one is the best on teams I have ever seen!

It matches my recent favourites on leadership that would include Billy Hybels’ The Courageous Leadership, Craig Groeschel’s It, Andy Stanley’s The Seven Practices of an Effective Ministry, John Maxwell’s The Leadership Gold and Kouzes+Posner’s The Leadership Challenge. Larry Osborne’s The Sticky Teams would be added to this collection of the best leadership resources for current generation of leaders.

This book is one of the handful of books about how TO USE JAVA. It is written in the tradition of Scott Meyers “Effective C++” and even surpasses this landmark book in quality. It has 57 items of interest organized in ten chapters. Each item can be read alone and the items can be read in any order. Still it is pure delight to read the book from cover to cover.

This book describes the consequences of the interplay of the basic Java concepts with nearly mathematical precision (no formulas). It helps you to write library quality code. It gives you a feeling, where you have to be careful… It increases the quality of your code and your joy of programming.

That being said, this new issue of the book can still be recommended. Generally, it contains a more information than using Sun’s own API documentation. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find an example of it being more comprehensive than the “core Java” and “graphic Java” books.

Who then would I recommend this books to? Well, probably not a beginner in programming but certainly to a competent programmer who is new to Java. It’s probably at it’s most useful, though, for intermediate level programmers, since it contains a wealth of background information and advice on how to improve java code from being ‘run-of-the-mill’ to being ‘state-of-the-art’.

Overall, this Nutshell book is probably the best guide to the language to come from outside the Sun camp.

“Less stress, more Peace
Less frustration, more Fulfillment
Less discouragement, more Hope”

and that’s exactly what this book is about. It’s about living in sync with our surroundings and world and making your life much less complicated and stressful. This book helps you understand that being able to manage life, your marriage, children, jobs, travel, etc is next thing to impossible. Learning to understand how God created the world to work and learning to work with it and not against it will help you get through the stress of everyday life.

While this book definitely is Christian in genre, everyone will benefit from what Miller talks about in his book. This isn’t some new age mysticism, but scientific fact. In the book Miller states:

“We live in a large ecosystem that moves rhythmically in seasons, tides, currents and seasons. We can fight them or follow them.

When we try to live as if natural cycles did not exist, as if all time progressed in a uniform, linear fashion, we frustrate ourselves and increase our stress.”

This book will help you to realize your limit points, help you learn to look forward in life instead of to the past, and help restore harmony to your busy life. Miller encourages us, and helps us learn, to enjoy the different seasons of our lives. Don’t let the unpredictability of life to cause undue stress, learn to be flexible and flow with the changes instead of fighting against them.

This book is an important read for anyone who has stress in their life, regardless of the source, to help them learn to live a more balanced, healthy andharmonious life.

Osborne divides Sticky Teams into three parts, each designed to promote long-term unity and health in local church, which a special emphasis placed on the elder council, staff, and congregation.

Osborne stresses the three pillars of unity which includes doctrinal unity, respect and friendship, and philosophical unity.

He alerts the reader to transition points when growth takes place within a church and recommends different approaches (or “changing the game”) for different contexts.

PART ONE: Landmines and Roadblocks

The author sets his sights on five roadblocks to unity: 1) meeting in the wrong place, 2) ignoring relationships, 3) not meeting often enough, 4) constant turnover, and 5) too many members.

Principles of protecting the unity of an elder council and church staff are discussed, what the author refers to as “guarding the gate.” Osborne insists on maintaining high standards at the leadership level. Spiritual maturity is central. Leaders must be on the same philosophical page – they must agree on the overall direction of the church. Finally, leaders must work as a team relationally. There must be a relational match.

Osborne spends time focusing on clarification of roles at the board and staff level. “Healthy teams have great teamwork,” he writes. “There’s little role confusion, and everyone knows what the ultimate goal is.”

PART TWO: Equipped for Ministry

Part two develops the importance of ministry alignment, mission, values, and methods. Healthy churches employ creative training opportunities for elders and staff members alike.

Osborne recommends scheduling monthly “shepherding meetings” to deal with “important but neglected priorities” and should focus on team building, training, and prayer.

The author discusses the importance of staff alignment which helps ensure the team agrees with the core values and priorities of the church. He argues that healthy teams are committed to a plumb line which may vary from church to church.

He also focuses on congregational alignment and includes five keys for maintaining the health of a given church:

1. A clear and simple mission statement

2. A front-loaded pastor’s class

3. The drip method of preaching (where the core values and vision of the church are included in the regular preaching diet).

4. Sermon-based small groups

5. Short congregational meetings

PART THREE: Communication

Part three includes a host of practical suggestions for vibrant communication. Controversial topics are broached such as setting salaries, money management, and dealing with difficult staff members.

SUMMARY AND EVALUATION

I am certainly glad I read Sticky Teams. The author shares many stories that are rooted and tested in personal experience. I appreciate Osborne’s heart for leadership development and his “down-to-earth”approach to ministry.

One critique is especially worth mentioning. The author places a great deal of attention on the importance of small groups, even to the exclusion of formal theological education. While I wholeheartedly embrace and endorse the use of small groups in the local church as a strategy of discipleship, I resist the notion that theological education should play “second-fiddle” or be excluded from the “performance” all-together.

I have seen first-hand the value of developing a strong theological education department in the local church context. The Christian mind must be educated, the affections must be engaged, the whole person must be equipped, and God-centered living must be encouraged. Therefore, the development of a rigorous theological education track is essential for biblical discipleship to take place.

3 stars

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