i LOVE the invaluable feedback you guys have provided when i ask little questions for mad church disease. so, here’s another…
what, in your opinion, makes an environment healthy?
Category: Mad Church Disease
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a letter to my agent
my book deadline is
february 28march 14.i sent this letter to my agent a few moments ago.
Oh, my dear Beth.
I’m sure you have a calendar for each of us. And on that calendar, with all of your experience, you probably have certain days circled in red. These days would represent days like today when I email you and say I am having looking-my-deadline-in-the-eye-induced-panic-attacks.
Breathe in, breathe out.
My brain has locked up. My fingers have locked up. And (breathe) I (breathe) have (breathe) two (breathe) weeks?
I don’t know what agents do on these days. But you do.
Please send xanax, stat.
Sincerely yours,
Anne-Going-To-Hide-Under-My-Bed-Jacksonyour role in this, bloggyfriends? pray…hard…for me! being sick/asleep twenty-one hours a day lately isn’t really helping my schedule.
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chapter outline of mad church disease
so…
let me bounce something off of you.
i am going to give you a VERY VERY BASIC outline of the chapters of mad church disease.
if you can even call it an outline.
the lack of creative titles is for this post only and does not reflect a lack of creativity in my book…promise.
clear over cute for this little bloggy assignment.
so…i’ll give you the outline. you give me feedback. are there any holes? do you have any suggestions?
foreword
preface
introduction (my story)
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defining mad church disease
how the epidemic is killing the greatest call
risk factors
symptoms
getting healthy (top level)
practical tips (more detail/tangible/action steps)
prevention/how healthy organisms work
forgiveness/recovery
living an abundant life/call to action(oh crap – i just realized – this post is post #666!)
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info porn – don’t spread bad stats
“christians like info porn”one of my friends, who’s been working in research and statistics for the last decade or so, wrote that in an email to me.
what led us to that conversation were some statistics many of us have seen before. i know i have, and i was hoping to use them in my book. but having been recently influenced by my brilliant stats-minded friend, i knew i had to track down the source and make sure it was indeed scientific and unbiased before claiming it gospel truth.
the stats i was looking up:
1500 ministers leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, burnout, or contention
50% of pastors’ marriages will end in divorce
80% feel unqualified and discouraged
50% would leave ministry but fear they couldn?t make a living
70% constantly fight depression
40% have had an extramarital affair while in ministry
70% say their only time reading the Bible is when they prepare sermonsi looked around and was able to track most of them down to an informal survey focus on the family did. sounds legit, right?
not so.
the survey was conducted at seminars for pastors/marriages. something i’ve learned in the course of writing mad church disease is just because you have a group of people answer questions, well, that doesn’t make it real research.
unfortunately, these stats cannot be considered accurate for a couple of reasons:
-it’s not a representative sample. the group is pastors who went to a FOF event. totally idiosyncratic.
-the wording of the questions are biased. and grouped. you can’t ask if they feel something AND something.it would be like getting a group of 20 and 30 year old pastors together and then saying a majority of pastors are young. that’s just not the way statistics are done.
97% of christians get 80% of their stats from unreliable sources, and 73% of them will pass it on as truth. and yes, that whole sentence was a bunch of bull. christians like info porn!
moral of the story? take a stand against info porn. don’t spread bad stats!
on another note, i do have some scientific research that was conducted legitimately. and because i want you to wait a year and buy the book, i won’t put it up just yet… :)
but please let me say…things are not as bad as they may seem.
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What Causes Burnout?
What do you think are some things that cause burnout in ministry – or in general?
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exclusive preview of chapter 2 – mad church disease!
thank you all for sharing your thoughts on yesterday’s question! did you know that by responding, you all were helping me research some stuff for mad church disease? you were! so thank you again, so so much!
i’d like to take a moment to give you all an exclusive peek at chapter 2 as a token of my appreciation. enjoy! i’d love to get your thoughts…
yep. that’s it…sorry… i know. i suck. :)
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catching some Z
since i am still in my brain funk, i thought i’d share some good news with you guys before the holidays!
as you know, the book i am working on, mad church disease, will be released in february 2009.
i haven’t publicly (via blog) announced WHO the publisher is…
but why not today?
i am officially a zondervan author! woot!
the team there is amazing and they ooze creativity. they truly see this book as something that is needed in the church today! their excitement about the project keeps refueling my excitement about the project. i am so pumped to have such a strong partner for this adventure.
i am also VERY grateful for my agent beth jusino from alive communications. without beth’s knowledge of the industry, her passion for young writers and fresh ideas, and her willingness to hand-hold a rookie author, i would probably be neck-deep in things i don’t understand.
so those are a few things for which i am very thankful!!
what are you thankful for?
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mad church disease update
so, if you are part of the facebook group “fight mad church disease” or you’re subscribed to the mad church disease blog, this news is about a week old. but with the new job news last week, i thought i’d wait until now to let you guys know that mad church disease officially has a publisher!
i’m going to wait a little bit to reveal what publishing house it is as the MCD website is going through a bit of a lipstick makeover, but i couldn’t be more excited. after hearing their enthusiasm for the book, some of their design/marketing ideas, the choice was clear.
the release date is set for february 2009 – i know – it seems forever from now, but we are going to be coming up with some really cool stuff in the mean time that will start the discussion…
if you haven’t yet, sign up here to be notified when the book is available for presell.
thank you guys so much for your prayers and help in spreading the word about this book. i found out earlier in the week that whenever the website launched and you guys blitzed the internet, msnbc’s “clicked” (a part of msnbc that picks up things that are heating up the web – it’s about a quarter of the way down) had taken note! who knew?
they didn’t exactly get the concept of the book right (ok, they got it entirely wrong and i emailed them to explain the idea), but it goes to show you that there is a huge need and people are responding to it! that couldn’t happen without you, so thanks!
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monster truck rally
sunday, sunday, sunday (sorry, i’ve always wanted to do that…)
i’ll be teaching along side pastor joe carmichael at community of hope church in mansfield, tx.
community of hope is in a “…like dummies” series and this weekend will be “working like dummies.”
we’ll be talking about the effects of stress and burnout, what happened to some people who got burned out in the bible, and steps you can take to prevent it and heal from it!
very mad church disease types of stuff!
so, if you’re in the area (or want to take a drive!) here’s the info. i’d love to meet you!
community of hope
1800 e debbie lane
mansfield, tx
(directions here)
9:30 am & 11 am servicesnot in texas (or not willing to drive here? i don’t know why you wouldn’t!) check out my speaking schedule here…maybe i’ll be somewhere around where you live in the next couple of months!
(prayers also greatly appreciated…please leave them in this container as you exit the blog…)