Journeys to Significance Wins an Award

Journeys to Significance was a very personal work of mine that took me 16 years to write. I just found out this week that it has won an award from Outreach Magazine as one of their top resources of the year in the field of outreach, specifically under the category of leadership.

Here is how the awards are decided:

About 170 resources published between Nov. 1, 2010, and Oct. 31, 2011, were submitted to Outreach for consideration—the most submissions in the last four years. Outreach editors narrowed the field to 122 and placed them in categories.

The magazine then enlisted the help of an expert in each category to consider the resources. 

"Each year, we are humbled by the involvement of so many people at the top of their fields who volunteer their time to evaluate the resources and choose the best,” Orme said. “We are truly grateful for the participation of the expert panelists.”

Each panelist independently evaluated the resources in his or her area of expertise and selected what he or she thought were the best. The experts chose how many resources to recognize in their respective categories.

I was very pleased that Bill Easum chose Journeys as one of the best. As many of you know I have written several books and each one is important to me, but this one is very personal and different from all the others. That it was selected means much to me. 

If you have not read it because you are not interested in house church, than you are misjudging the book (its not about house church, though it does touch on catalyzing missional movements). If you thought that you had figured out Neil Cole and his "stuff" you may be pleasantly surprised by this book. If you chose not to read it because you thought it was simply a book on Acts or on Paul than you are not completely right. As others have found, the book has as much to do with YOU and your journey as it does with Paul. 

Here are the kind words that Easum used to describe the book:

“Journeys to Significance is one of the more interesting books to come along in a long time. Based on the life of the apostle Paul and his journeys, Neil Cole’s book explores the various stages in life a leader has to pass through and how each stage affects the next stage until the leader reaches a point of maturity in which ministry is maximized and contentment with oneself is achieved (unless the leader gives up along the way). There are two reasons to buy this book: one is to read a new and creative interpretation of the life of Paul; the other is to compare the lessons Paul learned on this journeys to how God is working in your own life.”

—Bill Easum, from the March/April 2012 issue of Outreach magazine

I think you will find the book surprising and helpful for any of you struggling through life in the midst of your own journeys. It is easy to read because it has a narrative story throughout. It is also one of the shortest books I've written. Even my family agrees that it is their favorite book of mine. 


Thanks to Outreach Magazine, Bill Easum and all the  members of the academy. Ah shucks.