Becoming the best Christian businessman in the world!

“Becoming the best Christian businessman in the world” is my goal for 2010.  I know, I know…I doubt that I will accomplish such a feat in a year but this year marks the official launch of my ambition.   And to be honest with you, I’m not sure I’ll know when I reach this goal, if ever.  All I know is that for the last 6 months I have been wrestling through where I am headed in life and how I’m going to get there.  I currently serve at Dare 2 Share Ministries as the Director of Sales and Youth Ministry Services.  It has been through this position, my personal studying, reading several books, and the mentoring of many wise people that all culminated to one critical question in life: “What will it take to be the best in the world at whatever you do?”

So here I am currently pursuing being the best Christian businessman in the world.  Some days it feels very awkward to being pursuing this goal as I went to college with the goal of being a Youth Pastor and served in two churches for a total of 7 years doing just that.  There are some days when I have the desire to pursue that calling again but after wrestling through that in 2009 I feel like I am at the place where being at Dare 2 Share and pursuing this career path is where God wants me to be. 

For those of you who are reading along, thanks for joining me on this journey!  I look forward to what God teaches me through His Word, mentors He has put in my life, the random people I will meet along the way, and the many books I plan on reading in 2010.  This actually brings me to the driving force behind this blog for this year.  I have decided that to keep myself moving in the right direction and to give myself something to measure progress against I am pursuing a practical sub-goal for 2010: read a book a week.  Some weeks I will literally read a book a week.  Then there will be books that I will choose to devour in a day or on a plane flight.  At the other end of the spectrum are books that will take me all year to read or due to their depth I might have to spend a month or so pondering their principles.  Regardless of how I get there, 52 books in 52 weeks is the goal.

Here are the 10 Commandments of reading a book a week that I will adhere to:

1. Of the 52 books, only 12 can come from the Bible.
2. I will read no more than 5 books by the same author.
3. 10 books must be recommended by my mentors.
4. 10 books must be recommended by readers of this blog.
5. I can only re-read 5 books in 2010 that I have already read.
6. Since I don’t have a formal business degree, 2 books must be textbooks.
7. I will read at least 4 different business magazines cover-to-cover.
8. 12 of the books I will read as part of a discussion group.
9. Only 5 books can be less than 100 pages.
10. I will write at least 1 exclusive blog article for each book.

Here’s to a great journey in 2010!