Have I ever told you that I wish I could just give everything away? I really do.
The wonderful people at Zondervan have now made another chapter of Mad Church Disease available FREE online (in case you haven’t downloaded the first free chapter, Chapter 11, you can do that by clicking here).
At the end of this post is Chapter 3 in its fully designed stage (they did an AWESOME job designing this book!)
My favorite paragraph from this chapter says this, because it’s something I’m still learning!
“We should look at our past as a gift and not a burden. And as such, we should steward it like any other gift we?ve been given. We need to be grateful for our unique circumstances, not resentful. Once we accept our God-given past, we can find out what about it makes us extraordinary.”
You can pick up a copy of Mad Church Disease from Amazon, for your Kindle, or any other fine book retailer (in the US, Canada, UK, or AUS). The audio book will be released in a few months and I hope to give as many of those away as possible, too.
I don’t ever want to cross the line into pimping MCD, but I am SO PASSIONATE about the message of health in the church. So many leaders are hurting, burnout out, letting their defenses down and IT HAS TO STOP!!! So forgive me if I have ever crossed that line, but I can’t emphasize how important the message of this book is.
David Kinnaman, author of unChristian and President of The Barna Group reviewed Mad Church Disease on Barna’s website today. Below is an excerpt. If you want to read the full review, click here.
The book is deep, but not stuffy. It is funny, but not cynical. It is easy to read, without being simplistic. Anne?s writing is poignant and personal, without being tacky. It takes a long, hard look at the difficulties of church work, while asking readers to face their problems.
Ultimately, Mad Church Disease is not just about solutions, it is a solution. It is a tool that can be used by a church staff or by individuals. It contains helpful interviews with church leaders who have lived through Mad Church Disease. And it offers worksheets to start private or group discussions about the issues of personal and spiritual health. Use this great new tool to find and restore healthy margins in your life.
We are taking some of the core values from each chapter of the book Mad Church Disease and putting them on video so churches or staffs or groups of people can use them to help walk through the book and begin a discussion.
Oh, and the thing I’m SUPER DUPER jazzed about is that they will be completely, 100%, no strings attached FREE!
We start working on them next weekend, and before we do, I’d love to get your opinion on what makes (for lack of a better term) a “teaching video” helpful to you?
If you haven’t read MCD yet, you can download a FREE chapter (which happens to be one of my favorite chapters) here.
And I just got a case of books in a few weeks ago, so if you’d like a bulk discount on books (10+ copies) just shoot me an email. We’ll get ya hooked up.
I have a Genius Marketing Guy at Zondervan. Not only is he a genius. He stops me from saying stupid things publicly when certain retailers (as there are more than one) don’t carry my book in stock (and it has to be special ordered).
It’s a little frustrating being an author and getting continually asked “I went to Popular Christian Bookstore and they don’t have your book in stock.” or “I went to Popular Christian Bookstore’s website and can’t find your book.”
Evidently picking fights with Popular Christian Bookstores isn’t a good idea when you are attempting to be an author they carry.
Go to Twitter and tell us your favorite quote from Mad Church Disease, or why you think people should read it, and include the hashtag “#mcd” and the link “http://tr.im/gH3N” and you’ll be entered to win a free book.? If you don’t have it yet, you can download the sample chapter and tell us what you enjoy there.
Example: “Satan is ONLY out to destroy us! #mcd http://tr.im/gH3N”
Genius Marketing Guy is giving away 25 copies and there is no limit on how many times you can enter.? The more you enter, the better your chances, and people will be chosen at random TOMORROW at noon EST.
So you have 24 hours.
Roll!
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PS – Mad Church Disease should be available on the Kindle beginning Friday! :)
If you’d like to buy a book yourself and a book for a stranger (see the post below) you can use this nifty PayPal button. You don’t even need to have PayPal – you can use any major credit or debit card.
We have had several come in already. Thanks for your generosity and for blessing a stranger.
So, a month or so ago, I got the addresses for people who donated books to Dominican Pastors. As of this Friday (February 27) your books will be shipped. Sorry for the delay on that. Long story.
Since I will be spending a few hours at my Sylvan Park post office this coming Friday, I thought I’d throw this out there for you guys…
I have a case of books to sell.
At the same time, I know there are some instances where I need to give a book away to someone who can’t afford it.
So here’s the deal.
I’d like to sell you a copy of Mad Church Disease. It would be personalized & autographed. The catch is, instead of the $15 you’d pay on Amazon (after shipping), I’m going to charge you $25. What a huge bargain, right?! Ha. I know. It seems like a rip off.
Here’s the catch.
You paying $25 (which includes shipping) will afford me the opportunity to keep some free books on hand and give them away to legitimate people who need them. Basically your $25 buys two books. One for you. One for a stranger.
If you’re interested, you can send me $25 via PayPal (flowerdust at gmail dot com) and in the notes, put who you’d like the book’s autograph to be made out to. I will ship all these books out by Friday, February 27, so it’s a limited time offer.
Also, if you have any questions, or need to pay using cash or a check, leave me a comment.
Thanks for being such great evangelists for this message of health!
Amazon just changed the release date of Mad Church Disease to January 25 instead of February 1!? Meaning if you preordered, you’ll be getting your copy in the mail next week!
If you haven’t preordered, you can still do it here and lock in the low low price of only $11.55.? That’s for a stinking hardcover.? I took some pics of it for you guys…
If you plan on reading MCD, what’s the one thing you hope to learn?
Officially, the book releases in just a couple of weeks (it may actually start shipping sooner from online retailers!) and even though this process has been a couple years in the making, the conversation and interest around it has continued to grow.
Why?
Because we, as church leaders, are burning out…and it’s not stopping.
We’re also realizing this…and we’re desperate to do something about it!
We’ve got to fight!? IT HAS TO STOP!!
Yesterday, several bloggers have generously offered their online real estate to help champion the message of Mad Church Disease. Most of them asked me a unique question about burnout, the book, and the journey writing it. Please take a little time to click over to their blogs to read their questions, my answers, and drop them a note of thanks for helping spread the word.
Here are the blogs from the big blitz yesterday.? I’ve posted their questions…you have to visit their sites for the answers.
Is there something about our current way of doing church that?s causing so much burn out? What key changes can churches make to reduce the rate of burn out in their staff?
?When people read MCD, what will be the hardest thing they will have to face in this book? Or what hard decisions do you think people will have to make??
Church marketing seems to pair two fields that have a problem with burnout–ministry and communications. What can churches do to ensure that they still have effective marketing and communications but aren’t burning out their people?
Let?s say someone works as an assistant to a senior pastor / executive pastor / high-up-person-on-the-church-leadership-flowchart. And let?s say that someone who works as an assistant notices that his or her boss is stressed, anxious, tired – basically on the verge of burnout. Do you think there are any specific things that assistant could do for his or her supervisor to lighten the load? Or should the assistant just stay out of it? I ask this because a friend and I had this very conversation a few weeks ago – and I?m not sure we came to any real conclusions.
Pete Wilson, my pastor & boss did his interview via video:
What is the most important concept you have learned from writing Mad Church Disease? Are their any struggles of burnout that you still have to focus on today?
Brad Lomenick does a classic Top Ten list including:
#7 – [Anne] gives us five principles for fighting mad church disease tied to relational health. You?ll have to get the book to know what they are. But one includes sleeping more, which is always a positive.
Anne, from the first day I heard of your study on this, I have loved the name you chose for it. I?m curious to know what made you choose the name. What correlation do you see between Mad Church Disease and the more familiar Mad Cow Disease? Both seem to be lethal yet preventable, but are there other parallels you see?
In ministry we sometimes feel like we have to have it all together. Does that contribute to Mad Church Disease, and if so, how can delicate topics be addressed in a wise yet honest way?
Angie Smithshares some amazing insight from someone who isn’t “in ministry leadership” so to speak…
Spence Smith (whose story is in the book) talks about his own experience with health and burnout.
Tim Stevens thought he’d? hate the book.? He asks:
What were some of your thoughts about God or the church that came from watching some of the junk your dad went through as a pastor?
Shawn Wood made me hungry by asking a lot of questions & talking about food, like:
Do you look at Cows differently now?? Can you still eat them?
Your book, Mad Church Disease, is the kind of book that should be handed out with every diploma from seminary. Given the potential and deserved success of it, what plans have you put in place to avoid burning out from the promotion of a book about burnout? What are some ways we can expect you to be living out the great truth of this book as you hit the road, virtual or paved, in support of Mad Church Disease?
So those were the bloggers in the big blitz yesterday!
But, wait!? There’s more!
Like to find new blogs? Here are reviews from other bloggers who were kind enough to post their thoughts.
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I know this may seem like a shameless I-want-to-sell-books promotion, but please believe me when I say it’s not.? One, it’s nearly impossible to rake in the big bucks as a writer and two, I believe in this message SO MUCH I don’t really care if you think I’m shamelessly promoting it.? I WILL shamelessly promote health.? LIFE.? Hope.? Sorry…you can’t shut me up about this stuff.
It’s my desire that as you read these reviews and conversations, you’ll see how God is using many different aspects of this book to help others, and that you will be inspired as well – or that you’ll pass it on to someone who you know who needs it.
