Category — Top Tens

Top Tens – Gadgets (I can’t live without)

I hesitate to call these gadgets; the word implies frivolous. These are serious tools for getting work accomplished efficiently. At least that’s why I’ve included them on this list. I admit I’m more of sucker for electronics than most, but my experimenting might save you some time and trouble. They are really more like cool tools. If you are a pastor and have some room in your budget I would not hesitate to invest in any of the following tools to make myself significantly more efficient.

Trade in your Pilot and your cell phone for a Treo 650 !
I’m on my 15th Palm device (I counted and I started early). Treo-Handspring came out with a combination device a couple of years ago that wasn’t very practical. I bit on that one, but it never worked all that well with my Macintosh computer even though it promised to do so. The new Treo works like a charm. It does email (using any POP 3 account which is most accounts), goes onto the web with ease, and does what any of the other high end phones do these days. On top of this the 650 has Blue Tooth features which are very nice. On top of all of that, your Palm Pilot is built into the phone.
When I first started using it I kept thinking that I was leaving something behind. I wasn’t leaving anything behind but some of my complication.
Cost: About $450 with activation.
I use Cingular service because it has about the best coverage plan across the US.

Radio Shack Variable Speech Control Recorder
(about $80)
Listen to audio books on cassette tape? I listen to several books a week and one or two sermons. This little player allows you to speed up the tape while lowering the pitch allowing you to listen at about twice the speed. Sounds excessive, but it works once you get in synch with it. I recommend you listen with headphones to eliminate distractions.

Olympus Auto Reverse Micro Cassette Recorder
(about $55)
I think that every Christian needs to have a micro-cassette tape recorder. I use mine on a daily basis – actually several times a day. I use mine to capture devotional thoughts that I later transcribe into either my journal or my computer depending on which is appropriate.
As an author I capture my thoughts for upcoming articles and books on my micro-cassette. Thoughts come at odd times – usually when I’m not trying really hard to think. Often when I’m driving or vacuuming or mowing the lawn – when my internal “metronome” slows down enough that I can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit speak to me clearly. When that clicker goes from 120 beats per minutes to 20 or 30 b.p.m. I almost always begin to hear from Him. My creativity is unleashed. Mindless activities do that for me.

When I am prayer walking – going through the local mall, asking God for new ideas for outreach, asking God for new ways to invade our city, he will almost always speak to me in new and exciting ways that I have never thought of before. During those times I can’t stop to write things down on a piece of paper and I am almost sure to forget what I am hearing from Him after a few minutes. That’s a perfect application for the micro-cassette recorder.

You may look a little odd walking about the mall speaking into a cassette recorder, but these days people look odd in general speaking into their earpieces that are wireless. As a whole, we increasingly look like a society of certifiable loons! Just join the club with enthusiasm!

Apple / Mac 17” Laptop
(with current set up plus 1 gig of RAM about $2,800)
I have been a “switcher” for about three years now. Before I converted to the Mac I had gotten to the point where I was crashing several times a day with simple applications like Word. From what I have been told by other Windows users my experience wasn’t completely unique. I can honestly say that since converting to the Mac OS I haven’t had one crash. I love the huge screen – large enough to place two pages side by side. I recommend you get the Apple airport in order to go wireless in your home or workplace.

I am evangelistic about a number of things in my life other than Jesus. Guy Kawasaki books, BMW motorcycles, and Mac computers to name a few of them. I count my “converts.” I have seen 31 leave the world of Windows and switch over to the lighter side of the Force!

I recommend while you are buying this you pick up the teacher-student version of the Microsoft Suite – that is, if you have children or you are a student yourself. It’s a good deal at $149. It allows 4 applications.

The new operating system is Tiger and it is phenomenal. It is the latest edition of Mac’s OSX. It is built on Unix like all of the other OSXs. It is rock solid. In the 3 years since I have switched to Mac I have not had one crash – literally. Not bad considering that I was having a crash every few days with Windows before. My friends who are still slugging along with Windows tell me that they are crashing in spite of their best efforts to keep things on the up and up and do all their upgrades on a nearly continual basis.

Bottom line: There is just no comparison between Mac and Windows. If you are serious about getting work done with a minimum of headaches and a maximum of your creativity then you’ve simply got to switch over to the Mac system.

Thank you Steve Jobs for changing the world. Thank you for changing my world and making things so much easier and for making things more sensible.

Last thought: I particularly like the 17” PowerBook because it is large enough to display two documents side by side at the same time. When you write a lot or when you are doing a lot of spread sheets that can be very helpful. I use that feature on a regular basis. The battery life is surprisingly good!

iPod
Apple Computers is now changing their name to simply Apple thanks to this little device. The iPod is the massively popular MP3 player. Before I go any further, I must admit, that I am so smitten by this little devise that I have several of them! I have given away a number of them to family and friends who were in need of a lift in life. It comes in a very cool looking shell that looks like other Apple products – it bears an amazingly close resemblence to the Apple iBook. I mostly use the 60 meg iPod Photo which allows one to store up to 25,000 photos as well as music galore. This is ideal for me to carry my portfolio around with me to show to people who want to see my digital photographic work. The battery ain’t bad either – over 12 hours on one charge. Available at many electronics stores, at any Apple store, and online at www.apple.com. I got mine at the bleeding edge technology level price but now they are quite affordable at something like $450 for that model in particular.

I do recommend a few accessories to go along with this wonder. If you travel pick up the Bose noise canceling over the ear headphones ($299 – www.bose.com). You’ll arrive at your destination stress free and calmed down after wearing one of these during your flight. Get a good case that straps onto your belt. There are many to choose from. Just choose “iPod Case” on Google and you’ll find many. If you want one that takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’ check out the www.rhinoskin.com line of cases. Lastly, check out the Altec portable speaker system that comes complete with a remote. It recharges your iPod while it plays songs at a pretty high volume and surprisingly deep bass. The Altec also runs on 110v as well as 220v if you travel around the world now and then – something I do on a regular basis.

Belt clips (available at Best Buy, Radio Shack, etc.)
What does one do with all those wonderful electronic devices? Clip them on your belt but of course! For about $5 a piece you can pick up these interchangeable clips that work for everything from your cell phone to your wireless mic to your variable speed tape player to your, well, you get the idea. I know, you’re thinking I must look like Lloyd Bridges filming an episode of Sea Hunt. Maybe so, but I’m ready for anything!

Leapfrog Communication Products Pace Setter Time Manager (www.goleapfrog.com)
Ever had trouble keeping to your speaking time limits? This little tool might be a big help. It either rings or vibrates at two points during your talk then gives you a double ring (or vibration) when your prescribed time has expired. Also has a built in clock. It clips on to your belt, of course. This little tool has literally been the biggest help in making my talks better and more succinct than any single discovery in all of my years of speaking. I think it is a necessity for anyone who is concerned about keeping his or her talks on time and on track with their audience.

NOTE: If you have any cool products that you think would fit nicely on my handy cool tools page please forward them to me at stevesjogren@mac.com. Thanks for looking out for me!

Top Tens – Books (of all time)

It’s difficult to boil down to a short list the books that have most influenced my thinking and practical theology-leadership. The following is a stab at that task. Next year I may change my mind and have a fairly different list, who knows. I do highly recommend these books – each for their own reasons. I have been a reading Christian for over 24 years and this list has survived the test of time and my personal scrutiny.

I didn’t bother to list publication dates or publishers because I believe they are all still in print and I recommend if you desire to purchase them you take the easy route and go through Amazon.com (www.amazon.com). I have found Amazon a quick and easy way to get books no matter how obscure they may be.

Knowing God (J.I. Packer, IVPress)
If I were king of the hill I would make this required reading by all Christians. Granted, this is no light weight read – I can only take in a few pages at a time, but it does wonders for my soul as much on my tenth reading as my first. It’s a book that would serve as a tool for a new believer in Christ as well as a challenge to the most seasoned veteran in the Church.

What’s So Amazing about Grace (Phillip Yancey)
I read a lot of books. My goal is a book a day approximately. I do this by more skimming than word for word reading or studying a book. This is the first book I carefully read in a couple of years. I laughed at points, I cried and I found myself coming to the conclusion that what the modern church needs desperately is an understanding of grace. I suspect many who follow Christ the most outwardly enthusiastically are the least schooled in the ways of grace.

Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness (Jerry Cook)
Jerry Cook said in this book what I always believed in my heart about the philosophy of ministry of a Spirit-led Christian and church life. Simply put, he put my heart into words. If you’ve read any of my books you will see a fair bit of Jerry bleeding through into my thinking. I have given away hundreds of copies of this book since it first came out over twenty years ago.

Corporate Lifecycles (Ichak Adizes)
How and why corporations grow and die and what you can do about it. Adizes is a Santa Monica-based change management consultant that has written the ultimate book on organizations that are seeking to make their way through cycles of growth without killing themselves or the organization in the process. As I read this book at several points Adizes so accurately describes me and the organization I lead it is almost scary. This is mandatory reading for our uppermost level pastors at VCC. Any leader in a rapidly growing organization ought to run not walk to the nearest bookstore and begin to read this one.

At the writing of this (January, 1999) this book is temporarily out of print and about to be re-released in an updated form. You may still be able to order it or purchase it through Amazon.

The E Myth (Michael Gerber)
Michael Gerber has studied the concept of entrepreneurs for several decades (thus the “E” in the title). He has found that there is no shortage of good ideas for starting businesses, but it is a fact that over 90% of all businesses will fail in their first five years of existence. The primary reason for this failure is the inability of the entrepreneur to reproduce himself or the quality of product that got him or her started in the first place. He explores how one can reproduce oneself and one’s product over and over and over with consistent quality.

Jesus CEO (Laurie Beth Jones)
What would business look like if Jesus were in charge of a company? No doubt it would be successful, but what would he do differently than business being run in the same ‘ol same ‘ol way that it’s always been done? Jones does a great job of capturing the leadership secrets of Jesus as portrayed in the gospel accounts of his dealings with people in various settings. I have used this book at a basis for one-to-one get togethers with business leaders in the church I lead and found it a great tool.

Built to Last (Collins and Porras)
What is the difference between great and lasting and ever-improving companies and just good companies? That’s the question Collins and Porras set out to answer several years ago. They discovered there are numbers of perspective differences between the great ones and the also-rans of the corporate world. I found virtually all of the concepts present in this book to be pertinent to my leadership in the church. This would be a great book for a board of directors or elders to read through together if they hope to build an enduring church in the 21st century.

Great Divorce (CS Lewis)
I’ve read a lot of Lewis, but this is his best. This allegory of the afterlife has endured as a best seller for decades because it deals with the ultimate question of all mankind – what happens after I die. In true Lewis fashion he takes the reader on a bus ride to both heaven and hell and concludes that people pretty much get what they want when they die. (Hope I didn’t ruin it for you…)

The Jesus I Never Knew (Phillip Yancey)
One of my mottoes is, “If Phillip Yancey wrote it, I’m going to read it.” He is without a doubt the best Christian author alive today. In this candid treatment of his Christian background he admits to being brought up and following a form of Christianity that was more American and more Southern than it was biblical. That’s a problem for all of us because we are human and we are wired to think in certain ways that are inherited from our culture or families. If you are convinced as I am, that your brand of Christianity isn’t the perfect expression of God’s heart, then you will find good fellowship indirectly with Yancey in this one.

Connecting (Clinton and Davis)
Reproducing disciples isn’t a priority of the church, it is THE priority of any successful life, church or ministry. A number of books on mentoring have come out over the past few years and I have read most of them. In my opinion this is the best. When I first read it I was in my late thirties and still feeling like a novice as a pastor. By the time I finished reading it I had begun to pray and look for my replacement in ministry, even though I don’t plan to retire for many years yet.