"People don’t like the church and people don’t trust advertising. Why use a mechanism people don’t trust to promote something they don’t care about?"

^Repeatable. Thank you.

-Marshall Jones Jr.

I think we've chatted about this one before, but I'm an ENTP... and yes, it describes me well. Here's a sample of what that means:
http://typelogic.com/entp.html

Advantages: I try things out - "cut corners" as it says - when other people are scared to. I think that helps me be an encourager.

Disadvantages: Patience is out the window, which especially dangerous when it comes to relationships with other people.

Back in April, I took an evangelism class, and in the second meeting, we all took some personality tests. I liked that, but we never got into specifically how each different personality helped and hindered others. I like that we're doing that a bit here. Good post, David.

-Marshall Jones Jr.
My recent post 3 steps to creating your own version of how to make a friend

Yeah, I think they probably are some churches that purposely stay small for good reasons and some that stay small for bad reasons. The bad reasons might include clique-ishness or just a lack of care for others, lack of evangelism, whether that's on purpose or not.

The good reasons, though, might include trying to stay more relationship focused instead of broadcasting (Jesus taught many but not that many), or the church might set something up where once a certain "number" is reached, the church breaks up to reach more people in different areas. Having said that, it would be interesting to see that first version, how it would actually play out, and how biblical that approach really is.

Also, some churches stay small for good reasons even if their primary goal isn't to stay small, say if the church is near an army base or college or some area where that particular style of worship, doctrine, or even the gospel itself isn't excepted well. But I don't think this indirect smallness was what you were getting at with your question.

In general, I'm more of a small church person, just because of the dynamics. That doesn't mean I wouldn't join a large church by any means... but yeah, it's like the difference between a startup and a large corporation. Some startups, most in fact, aren't meant to be Targets or Amazon.coms.

-Marshall Jones Jr.
My recent post The 40-item checklist for washing your friend’s car

Reward trying. Usually, we just reward people when they do something inspiring, but inspiring is risky. Often it doesn't work out. But as leaders, we still have to see past the actual outcome and reward people for taking that risk.

And if we're not really doing that, then we're not really valuing inspiration.

-Marshall Jones Jr.

Ha! Before I even read through the links, which usually takes some time, I started looking for #11 over at Make a Difference To One... then I realized you already included it.

So yeah, that's my choice though.

-Marshall Jones Jr.
My recent post Contest + free stuff = My happy birthday to you!

Wow, congratulations... I guess. I had no idea this stuff happened so often. I know of a couple authors who've had this happen, though, so I guess it's not as crazy weird as it seems (to me).

Looking forward to it either way, though. Thanks for sharing.

Yes, I like John's suggestions. The chapter breakdown like that is fantastic.

At first, though, I didn't like the title. Seth Godin's worked for me because Linchpin, Meatball Sundae, or Purple Cow (not necessarily one word) create curiosity. Shift doesn't for me. (Neither did Blink or Switch, though.)

Also, one of the benefits of the common, one word title is that your book can jump to mind in everyday conversation. For example, every time I hear "remarkable" now, I think of Godin (and that's not even one of his titles).

I worry that "Shift" might not be unique/remarkable enough to carry that link from your book to everyday conversation. To me, it seems difficult to really own that word. And if you don't own it, it's just another word, not a remarkable word, and the title feels like just another title, not a remarkable title.

Just my initial thoughts, though. A strong subtitle might make all the difference. And again, John's suggestions warmed me up a little more. Looking forward to seeing how this works out.

-Marshall Jones Jr.

P. S. What about "Shifter" or a synonym that implies the same thing ("gearstick" or "shift stick" come to mind but might not go in the right direction)? It doesn't work for the chapter suggestion, but it's less common and creates a stronger picture.
My recent post “You’re not a Christian if…” (Part 2)