Note: Podcast #64 (The Christian Educator's Reading List - Part 4) can be found here.

Hello fellow educators, welcome to podcast #63. Today we continue our series on the “Must Reads for Christian Educators.” Last week I spoke to my favourites in pre-Christian Classical Literature and some great classics from both Milton and Bunyan. We also talked about some of my favourite novels, science fiction and allegorical fantasy. Today I hope to jump into the more serious side of reading, although, you don’t need to depart from fiction to get very serious and important content, just read some of the titles I spoke about in my last podcast. Sometimes fiction is one of the best ways to get ideas across that make you think and consider things in the context of a story. I just read a very interesting and frightening book entitled One Second After by William Forstchen. This book shows how dependent we have become on technology and electricity. It is the fictional depiction of what would happen if terrorists were able to detonate an EMP weapon above the United States. Essentially an EMP exploded high enough in the atmosphere would short every electronic device and system within its line of sight creating the complete disruption of every computer, car and electric circuit. It illustrated to me the enormous dependency we have upon electronics and the multitude of skills we have lost because of this dependence. I will have more to say about this as I get into my Science pics.

I was hoping to get a few more responses back from you about your favourite fiction reads. I did get a lot of verbal feedback but my mind fails me when it comes to this type of recall. Here are the few comments I did receive:

Pat Mackesy from HCOS and a frequent contributor gave me her favourites from the last two weeks:

“My book list: Future Grace by John Piper radically changed my thinking many years ago.  Most recently I have been re-reading the challenges by Mark Buchanan in his book Hidden In Plain Sight... exploring the passage on practicing godly virtues from II Peter 1: 5-7.  His book The Rest of God – what is Sabbath? – also speaks powerfully to our understanding of who God is and what He graciously commands / provides in Sabbath rest. Also in the category of fiction, The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel by Diane Setterfield is the best novel I’ve read in a while!  A captivating story.”

The other comment I received from Matthew Baker. You might remember that Matthew was the young man I interviewed in podcast number 59 when we spoke about Special Need’s education. Matthew has to be my most consistent listener and sends me an email via his Dad every week. Here is what he writes

“I enjoyed your podcast today about all kinds of books. I also like how you talk about the Lord of the Rings books it was good to hear.”

Thanks for the endorsement Matthew.

As I stated or rather preached at you in my last two podcasts the Christian Educator has to make time to read. If you missed podcast number 61 I would recommend that you go back and hear my solution to the busy life of a traveller, audio books. When someone tells me they have no time to read then I would suggest they need to some control back in their busy lives. My next category will help: Personal Development:

The first book I want to share with you has become one of the most important books in my personal life. There are multiple concepts that helped me become the kind of leader, father and educator I am today in this book. The book I am referring to is Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I must admit that I have never been much of a fan of the Self Help genre. But, no matter what book you read in this genre they all seem to quote from Steven Covey. I must point out that Covey holds a Doctorate in Religious Studies from Bingham Young University and the Mormon Church. His theology, from my perspective is flawed, nevertheless his principles in the Seven Habits are universal and don’t lead you directly to his religious dogma. In my last podcast I recommended the writing of Orson Scott Card, also a devote Mormon. At risk at being offensive to my Mormon friends, I think if one completely held to the tenets of faith, as laid out by the Church of the Latter Day Saints, you would completely miss out in a relationship with the Jesus Christ of the Bible. I pray for those in the Mormon Church and continue to have interesting encounters and friendships with those in their Church. But, when pressed I will admit that you cannot be a good Mormon and be a Christian. This, of course, does this mean that people with faulty theology cannot still be great contributors to the areas of self help or fiction as is the case of Steven Covey or Orson Card. As a Christian we must be aware of their worldview and take what they say with a grain of salt. We must, as we teach our students, be critical thinkers as we read any book, watch any movie or listen to any sermon, including this one. In case of these and other Mormon writers we can enjoy a common foundation of understanding in the Supremacy of God, the importance of faith, the importance of family and the commitment to one’s beliefs. Let me make one more point whilst I am on my soap box. I think many of us would be surprised how much wisdom can be gleaned from our fellow men and women outside of our evangelical circles. If we always stay within the safe lines of the Christian bookstore shelves we may find that we have become somewhat ingrown. God is the God of all peoples everywhere. He has not withheld his wisdom and truth for just a select few. Because we tend to stay within our Christian ghettos and cliques we fail to see the wisdom of God through those that don’t even know him. That being said I still hold to the orthodox truths of the Christian faith. I believe the Bible to be the single most important determinant for truth about God.

Back to the Seven Habits and why this is such and important book. This book gave me the language and the system to take a “proactive” (Covey’s word) approach towards my life. One of my favourite all time quotes comes from this book, “some people climb the ladder of success only to find it was leaning against the wrong building.” His chapter on Putting First Things First gave me a system of time management that gave me a sense of control on a life size scale, then to day to day, then hour by hour time management. His next three principles of interpersonal relationships have helped me to gain a “win win” attitude towards any negotiation. Again Covey’s languages here which I am sure most of you have heard before. His chapter on “Seek First to Understand, then be Understood” explains one of the most important ideas about communication. This principle has helped me in almost every interpersonal relationship. I can go on and on about this book. It is a must for every Christian Educator. I have taught classes entitled Seven Habits of the High Effective Christian. We could and should use it with our students and families. This is a keeper and a must read.

The other author whom I have met and spent time with is Richard Swenson. He is a medical doctor, a physicist and somewhat of a futurist. He comes at the questions of self discipline and help from a more corrective posture. He sees our lives struggling with issues of overload and exhaustion. He has written Margin and the Overload Syndrome to help us understand the busy lives we have embraced. Though I think Richard can be a bit of a pessimist, and I have told him thus, I do think his guidance for personal margin and balance are exceptional. I hope to do an interview with him for a future podcast. His book is very practical and will help bring the Margin back into our lives that many of us have lost.

I want to also recommend John Maxwell’s books and articles, although none of his specific titles stand out to me. I have enjoyed The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork, The 21 Irrefutable Qualities of a Leader, and Leadership Gold: Lessons I've Learned from a Lifetime of Leading.

I know there are many more excellent books on Leadership and Self Development but I am trying to keep the list short so that you would consider taking the time to read some of these recommend titles.

The next category defies any solid description except possibly the writings of futurists. These are books that try to predict where things are going so that we can prepare for and adjust to the future. In most cases they are the author’s assessment of what trends and currents they are seeing in the genres they are most interested in and predicting where things are moving. My own book, Discipling this Generation for a Digital World was an attempt at doing this in the genre of Christian Discipleship. I think it is important to read a bit in this genre if only to make us look forward and begin to see where people think we are going. If you were around in the 80’s you would remember the book Megatrends by John Naisbitt. He made eight significant predictions that all have come to pass these last 27 years. If we don’t take time to read in this genre we could find ourselves lacking certain vistas of the future. It is hard to pick any two titles that are generic enough and would still make this list. The one book that helped me shape some of my thinking in my research for my book years ago was, The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. He has since written a sequel that I have only briefly perused entitled Hot, Flat and Crowded. Friedman writes in a very accessible manner and is referenced by most of those who write in the genre. He has affectively written about how technology is taking us to a more Globalized world where the new communication pathways are changing everything about commerce, politics, education and how we relate to this new world. Another book that I have just finished and would recommend is also along the lines of globalization, politics and economics by Farheed Zakaria entitled, The Post-American World. This book helped me see the context and speed of the “Rise of the Rest” in this next century. It was helpful to understand the pace of both India and China as the world begins to reshape itself into a new political and economic hegemony.

I think it is also important for the Christian Educator to understand the nature of the changes that are taking place all around us. We live in a world of change and our culture is fast evolving into something very different than the world we grew up in. Here are a few of the books that I have been reading to help equip my own thinking about these changes particularly how they will affect our calling and methods of education. I want to be equipped in such a way as to prepare our students for the future. In our schools we are training people who will enter adulthood in 2022. What will they need us to give them.

One book that I found helpful in understanding cultural change is Malcom Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. This book is a great study in the psychology of change as it affects our own culture. Like Friedman’s, The World is Flat and Covey’s Seven Habits, The Tipping Point is one of those books that has had a significant effect upon our modern vernacular. Gladwell coined certain terms like “early adopters” and the overused, politically charged term, “maverick.” I found this book helpful in giving me the language of change. Being involved in such an innovative project as the Online School I found that Gladwell seemed to give me a frame of reference why some of the changes are readily embraced by some and resisted by others.

There are a couple books that I would recommend particularly to educators as we consider preparing the leaders and adults of the future. One book I recently read is Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind.” In this book the lawyer, educator and parent writes about the skills necessary for our new digital generation. What I appreciated here was the counter-intuitive nature of his findings and predictions. He makes a great case for developing the Right Brain skills of our students. In this day and age where Mathematics, Science and Technology rule the curricula we tend to underplay the types of skills and intelligences that we have come to associate with right brain thinking. Pink shows that it is the creative and innovative nature of right brain thinking that adds true value and significance to our world. It is his thesis that this will become some of the most commercial skills in a world that is experiencing abundance, is automated and flooded with the Asian mass market. When I presented this idea to our campus school staff a unanimous sigh of relief emerged as we have placed big stakes in developing some of these right brain skills in the lives of our HCS students.

There is one more very important book that we should be talking about and reading as we consider education, our culture and the future. This book has an Orwellian feel about it. Though it isn’t in the style of fiction as the great novel 1984 presented, it does seem to point to the same consequences. This is the crucial book by the recently deceased Neil Postman entitled Technopoly. If you read or listen to any of my articles, books or sermons you would have heard multiple quotes from this book. I consider this such an important read for our generation because we have blindly allowed technology to take over our lives. Technology is not only promoting our culture but in the words of his mentor Marshall McLuhan “the medium is the message.” As we podcast and twitter this message to you, I am ever aware that my life and ministry is responsible for encouraging people to embrace technology, to master it and then to use it for the sake of the Gospel. Postman helps us understand the consequences and compromises we have to make in order to navigate in this new world. He points out that yes, technology I our friend but it has a dark side to it. It is changing us. Yes it is helping us gain new advantages and perhaps some new abilities but it is also undermining our former skills. I saw this very plainly in fictional form with the book I spoke about earlier, One Second After. If we are going to avoid following the crowd like blind sheep into the abyss of technological uselessness then we must listen to this secular prophet as he warns us of the dangers on the path we have chosen. Unfortunately, Postman’s answer was somewhat understated. He proposes that a simple approach to education is the only way out. Sorry Neil we have already taken the blue pill. The reality of our world today will mean that any student who graduates our systems or home schooling must become proficient in the new digital world technologies or else be sidelined. Regardless of his underwhelming answer, his understanding of the day we are in is absolutely prophetic and a must read for any Christian Educator.

Next week I hope to tackle some of the important works in the categories of History, Biography, Home Education and some of the other topics relevant to our schools. I also hope to have at least one or two of your all time important reads in leadership, self development, and the future. Please email us your comments and thoughts on today’s podcast. Also, if you would like us to mail you a free copy of my book or send you the download link for the audio version of, Discipling This Generation for a Digital World, simply send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and let us know what type of an educator you are, home schooler, classroom teacher, school administrator, or interested parent. Please let us know how you heard about the podcast and, of course, please include your mailing address. Thank you for listening and thank you for your commitment to discipleship-based Christian education.