Top 5 Books of 2020

Posted on by marc ulrich

I recently posted on my social media platforms that I read 83 books in 2020.  My original goal was to read 52 books in 365 days of 2020, but stay at home orders allowed me to exceed that goal. 

Mark Batterson said, “Each book represents about 25 years of life experience in one book.” I figured at this point in my life as a follower of Jesus, husband, dad and pastor, I needed as much life experience I could get.

So here are my top 5 books I read in 2020.  They aren’t in any particular order.

  • The Relentless Pursuits of Eliminating Hurry by John Mark Comer

We are all busy. We are in the rat race.  Churches are even more active than ever, but should we be this busy?  

There are so many things to get done.  We struggle to conquer our list of “to dos” let alone complete it. 

As a pastor, it feels like we have to do all the things. We use the mission of the church as an excuse for why we are always in a hurry. It is possible to be successful as a pastor and fail at following Jesus. 

We’ve somehow made the idea of being a pastor exempt from following Jesus’ example of not hurrying. 

I would hate to pastor a church and lose my soul, family or burn out because I chose to be a good pastor over following Jesus.  It’s possible, by the way.  In the back of my mind, I knew that.  It wasn’t until I started to read this book and hear another pastor voice that possibility, that I decided to change. 

There is a way out.  First, we have to recognize that hurry and love can’t co-exist.  According to John Comer, hurry and love are incompatible. 

Can we change?  Could I change?  Could I resist the urge to become a great pastor at the cost of following Jesus?  Jesus was never in a hurry.  Jesus slowed down to pay attention to people.  Jesus rested.  Jesus took a Sabbath.  To sabbath means to stop or seize. 

It was like this at the beginning of time.  Sometimes I wonder if humans forgot how our story started.  God created humans on the 6th day.  The 7th day came around and Adam and Eve rested. They spent the Sabbath day with God.  Were Adam and Eve tired?  Was God tired?  No.  Humanity started out by being created then taking a Sabbath with their creator.  On day three of humanity’s existence, Adam and Eve got to work. 

What if we patterned our lives like this?  I grew up thinking we had to earn rest.  We had to get everything done so we could spend the Sabbath day resting.  We’ll never get all the things done.  There will always be more to do. 

What if we patterned our lives around the idea that we work from our rest.  We rest, and out of the source of life-giving rest, we have the energy to work? 

Could that be a way forward?  

2. Letters to a Young Pastor by Eugene Peterson

My family and I planted RE.THINK Church in 2017.  We are a 4-year-old church in Merrillville, IN.  I struggle to say that I pastor our church.  I’m more comfortable with the idea of I lead the church.  

In our current church culture, it’s more flashy to say that I’m a leader.  We’ve made an idol out of leadership. 

To be honest, I have worshiped the idol of leadership. 

I picked this book up on whim.  As I read these letters between a father and a son, it felt like God was confronting my worship of leadership. 

I confess my sins of worshiping at the wrong altar.  

My prayer and hope is to pastor our community better not to lead our community. 

3. Discipleship Kickstart Toolkit by Doug Paul

Jesus left this earth with clear instructions of what to do, go make disciples.  He didn’t explain how to do that.  He made disciples. Those disciples made disciples (not of themselves, but of Jesus). Those disciples made disciples and so it has gone for 2,000+ years. 

To Jesus, there is no Plan B. 

We are His plan A. 

As we make disciples of Jesus, we are partnering with Jesus in the advancement of His kingdom.

Doug explains the tension created as we follow Jesus.

Being a disciple of Jesus isn’t just about knowing the right answers or having a good character, it’s also about living and doing.  Jesus taught in parables. The characters of the parables were always doing something.  Characters in his parables are either advancing the Kingdom or interacting with other people.  The point of most of these parables wasn’t so we would have information to pass a test.  It was so we would know how to live in His kingdom.

Following Jesus is about becoming more like Jesus for the reason of becoming more like Jesus.  It’s also about doing what Jesus did for the sake of becoming more like Jesus. 

4. The Lost Letters of Pergamum by Bruce Longenecker

In Revelation 2:13, Jesus says, “I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.”

Longenecker takes a look into the cultural and historical context to speculate into what events might have led up to this moment for Jesus to mention Antipas. Was Antipas the only Christian martyr up to this moment?  No, but something must have taken place to grasp Jesus’ attention and make mention of him to John at this moment.

‘The place where Satan has his throne’ describes what kind of city and culture Pergamum was in the 1st century.

Pergamum was a city dedicated to the advancement of the political and military promotion of Rome’s Empire.  Pergamum was full of Emperor worship, gladiator games and worship of mythical deities.

All this led up to the qualification to be called the place where Satan has his throne. 

German, American and Turkey archeologists spent two decades excavating the city of Pergamum.  The team of archeologists discovered lead casements in a house. 

Pitch and wax preserved the contents inside the lead casements.  What were the contents? Letters between a man named Antipas and another man named Luke. 

These letters tell the story of Antipas’ faith and how the followers of Jesus in Pergamum and the surrounding areas influenced Antipas. The document describes the faith journey Antipas embarks on as his life intersects with followers of Jesus.

It’s so moving to see how living our faith out in real genuine everyday life can influence others.  

I wept reading the last few pages.  I could barely share them with my wife.  

5. Legacy Journey by Dave Ramsey

The day I’m writing this, I turned 40 years old.  My wife and I celebrated 18 years of marriage this past summer.  Our oldest son is a senior in high school and our youngest son is a freshman in high school. 

Growing up, I vividly remember the thought of wanting to be a father, but that thought scared me!  More like terrified me. 

I remember the night that Heather took a pregnancy test. We didn’t think we needed to, especially since it had only been a few weeks after returning from our honeymoon. 

Yep, that ‘five year plan for kids’ thing went right out the window in a matter of weeks.  I felt excited (Heather not so much) and terrified all at once. 

Legacy Journey is not just a financial book.  It’s a book with a radical Biblical view of money and generosity.  Dave explains that wealth and money aren’t good or evil.  Money is just an object.  How we interact with money is what matters.  The love of money according to scripture is the root of all evil.  When we are generous, we acknowledge that God owns it all.  We are simply stewarding what He’s given us. I want to leave our sons, and the future Ulrich generations, with a legacy.

The legacy Heather and I want to leave our sons isn’t focused on money or wealth.  Our legacy we are leaving points the future Ulrich’s to love Jesus and loving others.  We want our wealth to benefit others around us for generations to come. The Legacy Journey has given me a road map to accomplish that. 

Photo by: Eli-Francis

Uncommon Leadership

Posted on by marc ulrich

I like to study organizations and the people that makeup them up. I enjoy studying how people can have the same title and yet perform completely different. We love an underdog story. We love watching organizations with less resources out perform larger well funded organizations. Organizations with enthusiastic leaders and people will outperform mediocre ones.


What makes these realities possible?

How can people hold the same title, but be an uncommon leader?
First of all, it doesn’t take a title or position to lead. Leading is an influence. Organizations that recognize this have a shortcut to being uncommon leaders.


1. Uncommon leaders are readers.
On average, authors put about 2 years of life experience into the content of a book. 2015 I started mapping out my reading plan for my year. No matter what title I hold, I wanted to be like leaders who never stopped learning, and we’re always maturing.


Author and Pastor, Mark Batterson, read 3,000 books before he ever authored his first book. He wanted as much life experience as possible before he penned his first book.


My personal maturity map looks like reading 30 books a year, listening to 104 podcasts a year.


2. Uncommon leaders are completers.
This may sound simple, but there is something that stands out in our culture for keeping your word. If you say you’re going to do something and actually doing it, you’ll stand out in the right way in our society.
As we raise our sons, we are emphasizing this more and more. I want our sons to have a reputation for completing jobs and responsibilities. No matter their titles.


3. Uncommon Leaders Feed others.
In a world of negativity, anxiety, and depression, a person who encourages others is so crucial. Merrillville Intermediate School has a banner posted that says, Throw Kindness like Confetti. It’s a great reminder of how vital our kindness and encouragement are. Lead by encouraging.


4. Uncommon Leaders garden.
A gardener understands that gardening is a system. There is a time of preparing the soil, planting seeds, pulling weeds, watering etc. This is a system.


The harsh reality of all workplaces is that there is waste, imbalanced, & overwhelmed. Uncommon Leaders know this. They also don’t attempt to solve these issues on their own. Toyota factories have boards posted. These boards are for any associate to suggest improvements.


These suggestions used to reduce Muda (waste), mura (imbalanced), and muri (overwhelmed). Engineers and production team leaders set up a process knowing that it should change and improve. No production process stays the same. The constant process of kaizen allows for change to happen by the people who are doing the work. Uncommon leaders create a system to allow that to happen that goes beyond the suggestion box.


5. Uncommon Leaders heed.
We’ve all seen past successful businesses avoid and resist change. Companies like Sears, Blockbuster, and Kodak resisted the changing climate of business. They are now scrambling to stay relevant.


Uncommon Leaders heed the changing times and adjust. Will Netflix change with all the recent additions to the streaming market? Will we look back in 10 years and wonder how Netflix went out of business? Will they change?


No matter what capacity of leadership we are in, things change.


6. Uncommon Leaders plead.
Every leader has to hold people accountable. People will always fail at something. Uncommon Leaders know this. What makes uncommon leaders uncommon is how they address the failure.


Uncommon Leaders keep humanity while they address failures.
Uncommon Leaders plead for others to rise up to their standards.
Plead for humans to be more humane start by leading by example.
Application Step:


Which of these traits do you already show?


Which 1 of these traits will you begin to practice?

Photo by You X Ventures on Unsplash

Success for the generations

Posted on by marc ulrich

One of the most challenging parts of my role as a pastor is knowing when you’ve won.  I know most pastors will say they aren’t in competition. Not me, I’m a competitor. The problem is, is church life a competition? If so, how do you know when you’re winning? 

Our prayer maps throughout Merrillville. One of our ladies, Tanisha Washington highlighting where she has prayed over.
Our prayer maps throughout Merrillville. One of our ladies,
Tanisha Washington highlighting where she has prayed over.

As a church, our people have committed to driving down streets praying for justice, mercy, grace, and peace.  I realized something the other day as I drove through my community praying. I had the realization that I might be playing by the wrong set of rules. 

 What if winning looks like my nutrition journey instead of a game of football? 

I eat ‘clean’ 90% of the time.  As a family, we have primarily followed the paleo way of eating for the last six years.  I work out 4-5 days a week as well. I’m in a new season of lifting more weights and less cardio.  Can I get an amen?! I hate cardio! I’m using lifting as my cardio. 

When I started my adult workout journey twelve years ago, I ran all the time and lost weight quickly.  I could eat almost whatever I wanted and still lose weight as long as I ran.

I viewed succeeding in my nutrition journey as a game of the weight scale. Making sure that number went down each week was the only thing that mattered. 

Now I’m more concerned with healthy life choices that will allow me to live a long healthy time.  I am also concerned with the food that goes into my body. I’ve noticed some foods are better for me to eat.  I’ve seen eating patterns that are better for me to follow, as well. The goal now is for me to live a healthy life, not just reduce the number on the scale.  My goal now is to have more muscle mass and lower body fat percentage. 

What if we are playing by the wrong set of assumptions? 

How often do you review your quarterly reviews?  I love the concept of a twelve-week work year by Brian Moran.  His idea is about getting more done in twelve weeks than most people do in a year.

I’m an action-oriented leader.  I’d rather move forward and then plan, plan and plan some more. 

Last week, a 15-year-old girl challenged me.  She asked what our community should look like in ten years if RE.THINK Church is successful.  It was such a great challenge! At times, I’ve been so consumed with growing an audience and building my influence.  I play by the wrong set of rules. I’ve been thinking about success wrong. What if my success as a pastor isn’t about a larger church? 

What if winning as a pastor doesn’t mean my church seats are full? 

What if it means that crime rates in our community are lower?  What if it means sixteen-year-old boys aren’t murdered and graduation rates rise?  What if it means immigrants and refugees find help instead of hiding out of shame, businesses thrive and young people are safe?  What if it means racial tension is gone, even the diet racism?  What if it looks like people have found hope and true life in Jesus?  What if it looks like people finding their true potential that Jesus has for them? 

When I attempted to answer the 15-year old’s question last week, I felt so selfish and self-centered.  As a pastor, the above is what I’m going after now. My efforts aren’t to fill our church seats. My efforts are to change our community. 

This translates into positioning our church and our budget to accomplish our long term goal.  

We can fall into the trap of the shortsighted goals of monthly reviews and profit margins.  Let me echo the question to you. What does our community look like in ten years if YOUR COMPANY is successful?

Let’s start thinking and leading to impact and influence generations! 

Photo by Victor Freitas on Unsplash