I really enjoyed this book by Gladwell. What might be the best part, which is expressed throughout the book, is the way he de-romanticizes the rags to riches stories our culture has come to love so much. Gladwell through telling excellent stories, reveals how so many of the successes in our cultures history are through what we like to call “happy accidents.” For example Gladwell shows how the majority of professional hockey players are born between January and May, showing how the development of skills depends on birth date. Those born earlier in the year have a head start on those born later in their development leading to making the better teams, getting better coaching and thus ending up with a better future.

He also shares stories of Bill Gates and how he happened accross being around computers by accident and ended up having so much experience with them before they ever became mainstream. This is also the case for Bill Joy and Steve Jobs.

This book helped me understand my own successes and failures in life and how they have shaped who I am today. I think it is an important read for those of us who are interested in understanding who we are today. Especially when many of us believe we have been handed the short end of the stick. Sometimes we have, but if we looked deep enough we may see some happy accidents that we may or may not have taken hold of.

So I give this book a 3.75/5 in the CP rating; it is a short read (stories tend to move me fast through a book), but it will get your mind going.

Okay, I have come to grips with the fact that I am not going to complete 48 books by the end of this year. (A baby can do that to you). But for the books i do complete I will at least post my thoughts.

Tribes was very inspirational for me. Sometimes I wonder what it is we have created with the open house, and Seth inspired me to keep going. He inspired me to push the envelope, keep trying things, and my favourite quote from the book:

Change is made by people, by leaders who are proud to be called heretics because their faith is never in question.

You have to read the book to get where he is coming from with the word heretic, but basically he inspires tribe leaders to always move forward, don’t stay safe and always re-evaluate what your doing. That has been the nature and culture of toh since the beginning.

And Seth also writes:

The yin and yang are clear: without people pushing against your quest to do something worth talking about, it’s unlikely to be worth the journey. Persist.

It was a book with nuggets of truth throughout. Seth has a great understanding of our generation and of leadership. I would recommend this book for any organic church planter looking for inspiration. My CP rating is 4/5 and is best utilized by the planter to be used as a motivator.

Here are some other quotes I wrote down from the book.

I think church people get nervous when they read this:

“Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”

And I think they have avoided truly understanding this:

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’” ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.

The first suggests that there are those people who may not ascribe to all of what Jesus teaches, but if they are doing what is good then they should be left alone… or even encouraged and learned from?

The second is even more vague. Jesus speaks of a farm that has weeds and wheat growing up together and suggests that we don’t pull the weeds, but let them grow together.

In both cases I believe control is the main issue. Jesus seems to want us to trust and release control. It is not our job to sort another persons motivation, but we should address our own.

It is not our job to remove the bad from the good (from our perspective), because we may remove some good in the process. And it’s pretty ego-centric to think that you know what is good and what is bad.

So what can we do?

We stop controlling. We learn how to be free. We trust. We have faith. We learn from everyone.

I think we have miss-read this passage:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

To test and approve we cannot conform. In order to not conform, we have to have be transformed. In order to be transformed, we need a renewed mind.

Let me translate: In order to be able to allow weeds and wheat grow together (learn from everyone) we need to see life as God sees it, not feel the need to control it. In order to not control we need to be able to observe ourselves and move forward in faith. In order to be move forward we need to rethink our whole self-centered outlook on life.

It all begins by addressing your ego.

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”

The more your ego has control in your life, the more you need to control, and the further away you are from truly learning from everyone.