Tony Morgan's new book, Killing Cockroaches, is a must have for any church leader. Most of the book is a collection of Tony's blog posts and articles. I've followed Tony's blog longer than almost any blog I do follow and I remembered some of the posts. Yet, even though I know I've read most of it before it all seemed fresh. Probably because I was in different places in life and ministry when I first read them compared to now. Here are some of my thoughts about the book:
- It's a ton of wise insights spread throughout the book in no specific order or grouping. That was great for reading (well, if you're A.D.D. like me).
- I think this book would be a great reference book. Because I have a PDF version, it will be easy for me to search for the topics I want. For those of you without the PDF version, maybe you could come up with a different method. It seemed like there were great thoughts on every aspect of leadership you can imagine.
- I loved the sarcasm Tony had in some writings, especially the ones directed towards people who are anti-megachurch.
- Tony likes lists. I can't stand them. I mean, who would post with bullet points?
- A good idea would be to read one or two entries in the book each day, so you can process it and apply some of the insights. I started off like that, got sidetracked due to a crazy couple of weeks of work and school, and then read right through the rest. That wasn't as helpful.
- Tony's interviews with well known leaders were spread throughout the book and some of them were very interesting.
- Andy Stanley wrote the forward and had a great line about comfort and faith – "The only problem is safety breeds contentment, which ultimately limits the need for faith."
Killing Cockroaches was a phrase Tony used to reference how leaders often times spend too much time on urgent things and not enough time on important things. I have a tough time fighting against the tyranny of the urgent as I'm sure any leader does. I'm not sure if the book helps you fight against what is urgent, but it definitely helps you think about what is important.
