What got me thinking about SUMS?I love reading, and I appreciate book summaries like most church leaders. But I wished a team would get serious about selection of books for church leaders, design of something great to look at, and application for the ChurchWorld context.
How have we selected books?
There are three kinds of books we are focusing on. 1) Classic leadership texts that are worth revisiting, 2) Books targeted for church leaders, 3) Current business and leadership releases. To the left is the first one in our series and and example of that the cover looks like.
Who is behind SUMS and actually writing the material?
Bob Adams is the SUMS team leader and the Vision Room curator. One time when I was eating lunch with Bob, years before he was on the Auxano team, he showed me the trunk of his car- it was filled with books.
Why? Bob's favorite thing to do is to read books so that he can give the right book at the right time to any pastor he meets. I have never seen such passion for reading and encouraging pastors in one person! Bob, as well as our Auxano navigators contribute to the SUMS material as as experienced ministry leaders.Here is the last page of a SUMS summary which is an application page we call "Go Ahead" actions. One of our navigators provides exercises for you or your team.
What do I like most about SUMS?
Because I appreciate great design, I asked the Auxano Design team to put together something refreshing. I wanted tables to make content clear and bold pull out quotes to make the best quotes pop. Time is so short and church leaders are bombarded with so much crap, I really wanted a simple, great looking product that a pastor would look forward to getting. I imagined a pastor printing it off or grabbing their iPad and going to their favorite coffee nook to digest condensed insight for the first time or to consider an important book once again. Here is thumbnail example.
How can you sign-up for SUMS?
It's simple. You get SUMS through our new online portal for all things clarity called the Vision Room. Here is the link to learn more about SUMS. When you are in the Vision Room, all downloadable content, including SUMS is free by getting a Vision Room key and setting up MyVisionRoom. It's extremely fast and simple.
Two more things...
First, here is a SUMS link to a book that has changed my life by Mortimer Adler. Sums-How to Read a Book It is an anchor summary for our first quarter.
Second, I hope you not only enjoy SUMS, but also spend some time in the Vision Room. Keep yourself clearly thinking ahead.