If you believe 'everyone has a book in them' then church leaders have anything from a bookshelf to a library within them.
There are few people who are such prolific content generators as those who prepare to stand at the lectern and speak to a congregation every Sunday.
Week in week out, year on year out, church leaders prepare series of messages to encourage, inspire and resource others. So why not turn them into books?
During the pandemic lockdown I couldn't hold the preacher within me down, so like most other leaders I morphed into an online presenter. Each Sunday morning I'd pop my phone on a tripod, switch on live streaming, sit on the sofa and present my distilled thoughts to the world. I almost felt like a TV star.
To make this sustainable I'd prepare a speaking series. It was only afterwards that I thought I could turn each of the series of messages into a book. This is exactly what I did and before I knew it had published another handful of books.
If as a public speaker you speak out 125 words per minute, a 24 minute talk will generate 3,000 words. Do that ten times and you have a ten-chapter book totalling 30,000 words – the average length of a decent book.
Even if you only take your two best teaching series you could be publishing two books a year. Everyone has a book in them and as a church leader you have more than you might have first imagined.
You also have a biblical mandate to write down what God has said to you. The prophet Habakkuk (2:2) said: "Write down the revelation!" If God has entrusted you with revelation there is a responsibility you have to write it down and put it out there.
As we know the stuff that gets written down gets remembered, stuff that doesn't get written doesn't get remembered. It's as simple as that – so let's write down what God has told us!
Besides God inviting us to and jogging our forgetful memories there are many other reasons for writing books.
As an expression of a leader's ongoing commitment to personal development it is often said 'leaders read'. I would also add that 'leaders of leaders write' - leaders of leaders are committed to influencing, developing and resourcing others. If you desire to be a leader of leaders then put your words into print.
Just imagine for a moment what sort of Bible we would have if Moses had not written the Pentateuch, David the Psalms, King Solomon the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon, the apostle Paul the New Testament letters or John's revelation on the island of Patmos.
So how can you write the first book on your bookshelf or in your library? PublishU has created a unique step-by-step methodology together with support and accountability to enable you to write your book.
A church leader recently said, "Matt and the PublishU team not only gave me the tools to plot and write my book but also the road map to get it published. A friend emphatically stated, 'Anyone can start writing a book but will you finish it?' Yes, I did!"
Eight of ten PublishU students complete the manuscript for their book within 100-days. As people of faith know just because something sounds hard to believe that doesn't mean it isn't true!
Matt Bird is the founder and CEO of social enterprise, PublishU.
