Tag Archives: Book Review

Leading A Special Needs Ministry by Amy Fenton Lee [Book Review]

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LSNM_Cover

This is a book review of Leading a Special Needs Ministry: A Practical Guide to Including Children and Loving Families by Amy Fenton Lee.

Once upon a time, I met an amazing young boy, a guest for the first time in our church and our children’s ministry. I greeted his parents and began the well rehearsed process of collecting the necessary data for all first time guests. Within moments, my conversation with his parents ended abruptly with an unexpected (and for no reason that I could tell) outburst from this young boy; and then I realized, at that moment, the current way of doing children’s ministry in our church needed to change…for the better.

And so began our journey, as a church, to establish a ministry to families with children with special needs.  Like a spark that starts a blazing fire in a dry forest, the need to include all kids in our children’s ministry was set aflame by this amazing young boy.

I believe the parents of this kid are heroes. Yes, all parents are heroes…I am a parent too, but some kids sail through life…when they hit a head wind, they can adjust the sails, while other kids have difficulty knowing that they need to adjust much less when to adjust. I’ve come to realize that parents of children with special needs are the ones adjusting the sails for their kids.

My question to our church leaders: How can we, as a church, partner with parents (adjust our sails) to lead all children into a growing relationship with Jesus? Will we love this kid and his parents enough for them to want more of Jesus?

You will find the answer to that question and more in the book, Leading A Special Needs Ministry  by Amy Fenton Lee.  If you’re looking for a biblical direction for establishing a special needs ministry, you will not find it in the book. It is assumed that the reader of this book has a biblical and God-filled passion to reach all kids for Jesus.

However, passion alone is not enough to organize a successful and vibrant ministry to children with special needs. A special needs ministry is very complex and can become consuming without wisdom.

You don’t know what you don’t know. Read the book. It will redeem a lot of your time with planning while possibly saving you from a few heart aches as a result of making unnecessary mistakes.

  • You will learn the need for a screening process with parents and how to make the time with parents a good experience. This is the part I really love…getting to know the child while listening to Mom and Dad.
  • You’ll learn how to offer a different lens to better understand undesirable behavior with a more compassionate and appropriate response. Another favorite…it’s awesome to have a passionate group of volunteers.
  • You will find helpful templates, resources, inclusion tips, buddy training material, handbook examples, and a parent questionnaire. This book is a work of passion so that your ministry to families and children thrives.

Get a copy of this book to know what you don’t know about leading a special needs ministry. Click here to order your copy today.

For those of you who might not know Amy, she serves as the Special Needs Consultant to Orange and has written extensively on the subject of special needs inclusion in children’s ministry and student ministry environments. Amy’s writing has been published in dozens of in-print publications, journals, and websites. Be sure to check out Amy’s personal blog, The Inclusive Church: Helping Churches Successfully Include Children with Special Needs. 

FLIGHT PATH: A Biography of Frank Barker Jr [Book Review]

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Flight Path

This is a book review of, Flight Path by Janie Buck and Mary Lou Davis.  Flight Path is the page-turning biography of Frank Barker, Jr.  This is a book of incredible adventures! It is hard to fathom how close Frank came to death many times only to be rescued by God for a greater mission in life.

The first chapter opens with a hair-raising experience on an aircraft carrier, “In a panic I jammed the throttle up. Too late! I shot off the deck and dropped like lead…My life flashed before my eyes.” [1] Frank had many “Top Gun” fighter pilot experiences!  It seemed with every close collision with death, Frank would question if God was trying to get his attention. On one such occasion, he was driving back to base, very late at night after hours of drinking a lot and raising Cain. He fell asleep at the wheel of his car but managed to wake up in time to slam on brakes, coming to a stop in a ditch.  As the dust began to settle, he looked up and saw a sign that his headlights were shining on. In large black letters was written: “The wages of sin is death.”  He marked this event as a “star” from God to get his attention. Like the Wise Men who were guided by a star to the place where Jesus was born, there were several “stars” that guided his life. [2]

The book flowed at a fast pace with humor when speaking of his reckless lifestyle, while most chapters will make you ponder and consider the “stars” in your own life that represent a reminder of God’s precise grace and action at the perfect time.  With Frank, some of those “stars” just caused him to try harder to be a better person…he did not know about grace being a free gift of God.

The authors wrote the book as if Frank were telling his own story, which made reading the book even more enjoyable and enthralling.  During the military career, Frank had the nagging thought that he should go to seminary so that his life would be more pleasing to God. While in seminary, he discovered the incredible good news of Jesus Christ. The book is filled with innumerable lessons in life.

There was the humble beginning of Briarwood Presbyterian Church, PCA meeting in a store-front, and is now a mega-church in Birmingham, AL. It is worth mentioning that Frank Barker was one of the “fathers” of the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America). Throughout the book, there are glimpses of a family learning to trust God for money to pay bills or learning to be thankful for cream of wheat for dinner when it was the only thing they could afford…because of their enormous generosity to give from their income.  You’ll read about his passion to reach the kids in the city and students on college campuses (He established Campus Outreach, a ministry to college students) and how God is faithful to answer prayers. When there was a need, Frank prayed and God provided.  I do not believe that anyone can read this exciting and moving story of lives lived for the kingdom of  God without becoming a better person through the experience. [3]

Flight Path is a fascinating read about a humble man broken to the will of God, chosen, called and guided each step of his way by our great God.  Frank Barker is an example to follow.

Footnotes

[1]  Page 14 | [2] Page 28 | [3] Page 10

Addendum:

A few months ago, my husband and I had the wonderful privilege of hearing Dr. Frank Barker share his life story to a group of college students who are involved with Campus Outreach, in Indianapolis, IN.  Frank Barker is the founder of Campus Outreach, which had its very humble beginning at Briarwood Presbyterian Church. So It was very thrilling for all of us to hear him retell some of those very funny yet scary hair-raising experiences but most importantly, to hear him tell of God’s grace rescuing him over and over again.

A note about Campus Outreach:

Each Campus Outreach region sits under the authority and supervision of a regional church. Campus Outreach partners with numerous denominations that are healthy, Bible believing, evangelical, Gospel preaching, and reformed in their doctrine. These Regional Churches provide a crucial source of accountability, leadership and a substantial percentage of the resources for the region’s effective existence.

Campus Outreach is not a para-church organization, but rather an extension of the church on the college campus. As a result, the ministry at each campus is connected to a local church near that campus. This provides our Campus Staff and students the opportunity to partner with that church by bringing non-Believers and Believers alike to sit under the teaching of scripture. It also provides connection with the larger body of Christ and instills value for belonging and partaking of the Body of Christ.

My husband and I are grateful for the opportunities we’ve had to meet Campus Outreach Staff and college students while living in Jacksonville, FL, Charlotte, NC, and Indianapolis, IN.

http://www.coindy.org

www.campusoutreach.org

Boundaries for Leaders by Dr. Henry Cloud [Book Review]

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Boundaries for Leaders

This is a review of the book, Boundaries for Leaders: Results, Relationships, and Being Ridiculously in Charge by Dr. Henry Cloud, a well-known clinical psychologist and leadership consultant and coauthor of Boundaries.

Who doesn’t want to be ridiculously in charge! I immediately began to dive into this book after reading that heading!

The principles in the book are universal. What ever you lead, you can make it thrive. This book is about what leaders need to do in order for people to accomplish a vision. It takes a great amount of time to get the people in your organization to be on the same page and working together in harmony.

Many of you reading this review are natural leaders and visionaries with an organization chart of followers or team players. Over time, you begin to realize the temperament and moods of each player on your team. You hear negative comments, grumbling, complaining…you need production and movement yet your team is stuck in a mire of negativism and lousy excuses for not producing. Soon you find yourself as a referee and “people manager” while the vision and goals you hoped the team would accomplish is sidelined.

If this is you, please read, Boundaries for Leaders. You will learn how to change your team’s moods and improve relationship outside and inside work. Dr. Cloud writes about a “working memory”…how are you establishing boundaries to include positive conditions and to rid the negative elements that stand in your way of production.  “Our brains need positive relationship to grow and function well.” [1] You want to establish a “working memory” with each person on your team.

You will learn what a “working memory” is after reading, Boundaries for Leaders.

As a leader, we don’t want people just to show up…we want them to soar! You want your team to attend  to the clearly defined vision and goals. Hopefully, you will inhibit the negative diatribes that diminish motivation and enthusiasm, and  cause them to remember .

Attend. Inhibit. Remember.

What do you want your team (employees, family, volunteers)  to remember?  Definitely not the negative comments and attitudes.

It’s all about “brain function”…find and focus on the things that you can control that affect outcomes. [2] In the end, as a leader, you are always going to get a combination of two things: what you create and what you allow. [3]  Through reading this book, I was motivated to set limits on the behaviors that sow the seeds of negative emotional climate and to realize how negative behavior infects others.

As a ministry team leader, I strive against silos, compartmentalization, personal agendas, isolation and division among people. [4] Weeks later, after reading this book, I continue to recall helpful tactics Dr. Cloud taught throughout the book. Here is one for you to save: ” …it is never about self-advancement but about seeking to meet their needs.” [5]

I highly recommend this book as instrumental with helping you align your organization (employees, family, volunteers) in order to create healthy boundaries for remarkable progress.

Boundaries for Leaders

[1] page 83 │ [2] page 130 │ [3] page 15 │ [4] page 17  │ [5] page 219

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255