Kim Gentes

[Free Devotional Download "7 Sacred Steps" from writer Dan Wilt- see at the bottom of the review.]

OK. Confession time. I'm one of those people who prays everyday, and reads most days. For a long time, I would go on the "energy" of a scripture section, allowing the concepts, fused as they are with a perfusion of love and truth, to propel me through an ongoing desire to read and meditate on the Bible. But what I found is that I actually need to be more intentional about my devotional life. Not because God is standing over me, frowning for my lack of enthusiasm, but because at the core of my human condition is a lack. A lack of the real material of heaven that is required to live life on earth.

When I feed regularly on the scriptures, my soul is filled with what Jesus promised - "a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." But often enough, as silly as it sounds, I just forget or let myself become overwhelmed with the cares of daily life that I don't leave enough space in my day for meditations on God's word. When I lose focus, I find it is helpful to reset myself by using a guidebook or plan to help structure/lead my devotional time. The last month, I was privileged to get an early copy of Dan Wilt's "A Well-Worn Path" book. 

It was just the kind of simple structured path I needed to get my daily walk into a regular rhythm again. I've read a number of things Dan has written, and this may be his most piercing work yet. He doesn't mince words or paint pictures for pages. He gets to the heart of an issue in short order. Each scripture. Each day.

In fact, as I read each day through, I felt as though the devotionals were a sort of scriptural, even prophetic, declaration over my life. "Believe, Then See", "Enter Light", "Cease Worry", "Do Good", "Create With God", and on it went. Rather than giving placid generalities, Wilt throws a spear into the heart each day, by taking the most poignant edges of scripture and punctuating it with a simple phrase of instruction. After a further paragraph or two of clarity he offers up a prayer that we can join in immediately.

The devotions are simple, one page, and a pure gasp of clean air from the atmosphere of heaven. Much of Dan Wilt's writings are crafted stories and imagery meant to bring you into the heart of the matter. "A Well-Worn Path" is much more direct and works well as a month-long progression that doesn't tire you out from his style or topics. In fact, the nice thing about using a well-written devotional like this is that the choice of topics makes the journey authentic and prone to learning. I wouldn't have chosen to challenge myself in the same way the author does, and this is good. We are often too easy on ourselves.

Having gone through the devotional, I can honestly and completely recommend it to you. It is powerful, succinct and absolutely worth-while. In my opinion, it is Dan Wilt's best writing yet.

Amazon Book Link:  http://amzn.to/18RRXdx

Review by Kim Gentes

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Free Devotional Download "7 Sacred Steps" from author Dan Wilt

Personal finance books can sometimes sound about as exciting as an economic history textbook. But personal finance has a profound impact on the average person and family. Dave Ramsey is a radio show personality based in Nashville who has become successful as a speaker and author in the area of personal finance.

His first book, Financial Peace, has grown into a seminar, course and nationwide educational phenomenon having literally thousands of centers (mostly churches) that host the personal finance course called "Financial Peace University". The goal, as the title indicates, is to train people to gain peace in the area of finances.

In reading through this book, I started off with a fairly critical perspective. I am not the kind of person who likes listening to radio personalities that publicly berate callers on the topic of their “expertise”. I knew that Ramsey had a public persona of hard-nosed and I feared his book would be pompous and self-aggrandizing. I was wrong. “Financial Peace Revisited” is a pointed book, for sure, but it is tempered with the care of a person who has lived through real life. Some of the book relates Ramsey’s personal story of rags to riches to rags and back again- including growing a successful real estate business that crashed and burned, and his later recovery and learning process out of personal debt into long term financial “peace”. It is from this personal experience that Dave Ramsey tells not only his story, but the touch-stones of common sense that led him away from the common American family cycle of financial mismanagement.

In his book, Ramsey articulates compact truths that he calls “peace puppies” that are the foundational points of his thesis. One can’t say that the points are revelatory- but good advice rarely is. “Financial Peace” expounds the simple and clear truths of personal finance that many know, but few actually live. This is Ramsey’s main contention- we don’t live out the common sense items that would allow our money and careers to work for us. Instead, we allow the borrowing of money (normally to buy unneeded things) become the master and driver of our lives. It is this borrowing cycle that drives American personal finances into common and regular ruin.

Ramsey’s biggest and most salient point in this book is the belief that debt (all debt) is to be avoided and countered. There are plenty of other items, but they all serve to address this primary issue. But the brilliance of Ramsey’s approach is not just the common sense, but the emotional recovery of the debt-laden Americans who work Ramsey’s plan to come to financial peace. The biggest of the “smart moves” that fuel a “can-do” attitude in Ramsey’s followers is his recommendation that they pay the smallest bills first, and as those smaller bills get paid off the amounts used to pay those off get rolled cummulatively into the next largest bill. His “debt snowball” is genius, but almost counter-intuitive.

But it works. By paying off small bills first Ramsey knows that his customers will be feeling the emotional encouragement of seeing bills actually paid off. This heightens their awareness of the positive outcomes of their actions, giving them emotional fuel to continue paying off debt and working their recovery plan. In addition, the monetary power of those small debts being paid off cummulatively gets unleashed on larger and larger bills. Practically and mentally, the momentum is placed in the realm of those who follow his plan. In fact, he challenges people not to try to do too much too fast, for fear that this will only cause them to hit the emotional wall when the recovery from financial distress begins to drag on for many months and years.

There are literally dozens of great points in this book, and few errors. The only complaint I have with this book is its outdated, and somewhat unrealistic “positive” saving scenarios. In the book, Ramsey expounds that compound interest works powerfully against the consumers- and this is right. He says that if we save we can reverse this trend not only by not building up more debt (breaking the cycle of increasing debt) but we can use interest bearing savings options to let the money work for the consumer. But his oft-repeated examples are nowhere close to reality. The books cites, in a few examples, 8-12% return on compounding savings, which isn’t true in any consumer bank in America (and hasn't been in recent modern history). It isn’t true in money market funds and it is barely even true in mutual funds these days. There has never been an era lasting more than a year or two when most consumers could get a reasonable return on savings (especially when compared against inflation) without playing the stock market through mutual funds, but this is not how Ramsey says it. The point is, this detail could easily be updated and adjusted to reality to give the book more credibility- and it would be good if it were. To Ramsey's credit, he does get into details about how to invest later in the book, dealing with various investment vehicles that could give the reader the returns he talks about. Just a bit more differentiation between "savings" and investment I felt were needed for the scenarios presented in the first half of the book to make sense.

Beyond that, the book is very nice to read, quick to understand and support to those who actually want to “do it”!

One very nice feature is the regular end-of-chapter summaries by Sharon Ramsey (Dave’s wife) who takes a spousal perspective on how the main points of each chapter effected her life. This is a very nice contrast to the “go get it” approach of the author and gives the book some balance. Overall, this is a very good book, that contains not only great personal financial advice but seems to have proven itself worthy of the thousands of people who have taken Ramsey’s advice and gotten themselves out of financial struggles.

Amazon Link: http://amzn.to/17G2EiI

Review by Kim Gentes

I've spent the last 15 years evaluating and recommending resources for worship ministries, churches, leaders, musicians, vocalists, audio/video techs and pastors. I've even written a book highlighting the best of those resources that I've found relevant to worship and music. But in that time and search, I've yet to recommend a resource that completely covers the topic of how to lead worship. There are several books and DVDs and resources that drill down on specific details, skills, issues or ideas- all of them good and needed. But what I was looking for was the one book that could serve as the manual or textbook for those with a calling to leading worship.  My search has ended.

In "How To Lead Worship Without Being a Rock Star", Dan Wilt has crafted a values-based approach to the calling, development and practice of worship leading. As the title indicates, Wilt is as concerned with answering the question of why to lead worship as he is to how. Right from the start, the author identifies the 800lb gorilla in church music: the fact that leadership of sacred worship has collided with the "American Idol" pop-culture on the Sunday morning music platforms of churches around the world. Wilt's pithy phrase brings these tensions into crystal clear focus in his introduction:

Excitement and danger - that is the privilege of worship leading.1

From that place, the book takes the reader on an eight chapter course that will engage all the necessary components of development to bring a person through detailed information, study, evaluation and questioning- all as a means to growth into worship leadership. The first chapter drills deep into the subject of why we worship and why leading is a part of local church expression of worship. This flows nicely into the second chapter which continues to carve out the foundations by addressing the core values that we must have undergirding our understanding and practice of worship leading. The final foundation stone of his book comes in chapter three, which is titled "The Character of the Worship Leader", in which the reader is made to face the hard questions of motivation, calling and desires in their hopes of participation in leading worship. These first three chapters are worth the cost of the book on their own, and as someone who has worked for years at developing other worship leaders the importance and value of these foundations can't be overlooked.

Chapters four and five kick into practical guidance on the skills, planning, practices and thinking behind great worship leading. Chapter four focuses on the functions, techniques and skills of the worship leader and chapter five drills down on the leadership of a worship band. Chapter six deals with the pastoral relationship and the role of mentorship as you help others in growing in worship leading. Chapter seven culminates this practical guidebook approach by articulating excellent points to helping you in "Becoming a Great Worship Leader". The final chapter revisits the main points of the book and returns the reader to foundational concepts of values that undergird this book.

Dan Wilt's book is as virtual "course in a book" on worship leading 101. If you are looking for a rock solid manual to help with teaching the foundational values of worship leading along with the essentials of practical worship ministry, you have struck gold with "How To Lead Worship..." by Dan Wilt. I would especially recommend this to those of you who may be training, mentoring or leading other worship leaders (whether Sunday morning or small groups)-- this is the one manual that can help you and those that you are mentoring! Because the book is laid out in eight distinct sessions (including salient points, chapter discussion questions and summaries), you can use it as you "ready-to-use" study that both you and your trainee will learn from. Wilt has used his years as a local church worship leader, pastor, college professor and mentor to worship leaders around the world to inform his very practical approach to creating and developing this manual- and it shines through.

There are certainly more things to learn and technical concepts to be drilled down on as a worship leader develops, but this book should be at the starting point as a foundational course text for churches, worship departments, and Christian colleges everywhere. It is practical, readable, honest, values-centered and encouraging! Get a copy of this physical printed book in your hands now! While it will be life-changing for the beginner, it can also serve as a great structural inspection for the values and operational architecture of those already operating in the call of worship leading.

Book Link: http://bit.ly/1a3U5w9

Review by Kim Gentes

1. Wilt, Dan (203). How To Lead Worship Without Being a Rock Star: an 8 week study.  (Page 4). Wild Pear Creative.

Have you ever wondered how we got to the point of automaton being a part of every aspect of our interactions with the commercial world? Wonder no longer. In his recent book "Automate This" Christopher Steiner explores the history of selected technology wizards and innovators who developed ways to use hardware and software algorithms to automate and predict human actions. It is in that realm that Steiner explores the massive influx of technology and technical talent into Wall Street and the money machine that drove the innovations of the 80s, 90s and the first decade of the new millennia.

Steiner starts with the iconic story of Thomas Peterffy, whose deterministic style and brilliant mind led him to bring the first streams of technology into the Wall Street world of high finance, commodities, options and stock trading, which eventually led to the consummation of CDOs and other debt instruments that rule the financial world and have contributed to the harried meltdowns we experienced in recent decades. Peterffy's story resurfaces throughout the book as a marker of what algorithms and their creators are all about.

The book revisits the grander history of algorithms from Euclid to Persian mathematician Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi to Fibonacci to Newton, Leibniz, Gaus, Pascal, George Boole and others who significantly contributed to the development. The book also spends a chapter exploring automation algorithms in music, from A&R evaluation of songs to writing actual music compositions that match Bach.  One chapter detours on the central value of algorithms being their speed of use in automation, and how Daniel Spivey dug a direct "dark fiber" cable from New York to Chicago to ensure he had the pipeline for the fastest speeds of trading decisions to the needed locations- a business (Spread Networks) which became the main pipeline for trading companies wanting ultimate transaction speed for their automation bots handling trading.

Steiner explores the various algorithmic systems from Big Blue to Watson to baseball stats systems, all of which use highly tuned formulas in computers to determine the best ways of winning at the big money of various gaming scenarios. The book becomes very personal, however, as it discusses physician-assisting algorithms that can already handle making diagnostic recommendations, pharmaceutical decisions and even filling the prescriptions via robots. The other well known application of automation he explores is personality evaluations for everything from dating to NASA crew evaluations. 

But the book actually comes to rest in a surprising position of recommending that big finance was somewhat of a culprit and that the new world of Silicon Valley is the place all the engineering and technical talent should be focused on. He even brings a call to people to focus on more engineering careers and pursuing computer science in college degrees. His premise lands with the ideas that high finance had previous siphoned off all the high quality technical minds to develop transaction splicing algorithms during the 80s-00s, but that now Silicon Valley needs those minds and talent for real development.

The book is well-written and interesting, though seems rather self-serving, since the author is notably one of those crowd who has defected Wall Street for the glamour of Silicon Valley. The history, back story and prospects of algorithmic work is very interesting and very compelling. Steiner leaves out three of the most important examples of algorithmic influence in companies: Microsoft, Google and Amazon. For some reason, the author decides to ignore these icons, even though it would be hard pressed to find (outside of Facebook) larger success stories based on just the kind of development and algorithms he explores in the book.

Overall the book is definitely worthwhile, as it is a short read (just 250 pages) and very well researched. The style is conversational and non-tech people will not have any problem following the dialog here.

Amazon Link: http://amzn.to/18ZFdOM

Review by Kim Gentes

After reading Steven Pressfield's "The War of Art", I jumped at the get-it-done companion called "Do The Work".

There are two reactions to it that must be clear. First, if you are a technical person who is not a natural creative- this book is perfect for you. Second, if you are a natural creative who has too many ideas and not enough completed projects- this book is also for you. The problem is, you must digest it with the right understanding of who you truly are. Let me explain.

Pressfield's approach is attuned mostly to technical people who don't trust their creative juices. This group of people understands the nuances of self-criticism, evaluation, re-writing and more. What they struggle with is that they over-analyze and over-prepare so much, they become weighed down by the weight of this mind-heavy preparation and either never start the project in earnest or become crushed under their self-criticism. Pressfield has excellent advice that will allow those people to properly set aside self-critism to a proper time in the process. The goal for them is to get them moving and trusting the creative process and ideas in them.

For the truly creative person with little ability to filter and less ethic to complete a project, "Do The Work" lays out a plan that they can take advantage of their creative juices but put meat on the bones before the next wind blows in and grabs the creative's attention away from their current work.  For those people- read the book, and do the work. Follow the instructions and channel the inspiration as told by the author.

The problem with this book is that the technical or creative person may well misunderstand who they are and not approach this kind of advice properly. The book is solid, but it doesn't help the reader distinguish how to navigate their absorption of the material. Hence, I see several reviews of this book from what I call "high technicians" (people who aren't true creatives) who criticise the book for encouraging people to follow their instincts. But true creatives should ignore those reviews. This book is easily interpretted for true creatives and they can take the writer at face value and follow instructions as stated. For technicians (who often erroneously think they are creatives), you should realize that you will automatically have the tools of self-criticism and correction that will allow you to make the detail and methodical adjustments that every project needs in the revision phase- don't misinterpret Pressfield's guidance to let the inspiration "flow" in the beginning of the creative cycle sound like "throw caution to the wind" for the entire process. A proper reading of hte book and self-awareness and sel-understanding will make this clear.

Personally, I came away with 2 excellent and helpful tips from the book. Important things that I will never forget and have already begun to use.  Because Pressfield assumes that deeply creative people will be the users of his book, he doesn't take time to nuance how the book should be approached. I felt this might help some of those who were coming at "Do The Work" from a couple different vantage points.

In light of that, it's a very good book and I highly recommend it. 

Amazon Book Link: http://amzn.to/Wbs0M0

Review by Kim Gentes