Getting rid of the noise

I talked recently to a friend who’s planted and grown a well-known church. He told me that one of the smartest things they did was to not read a lot of books on how to plant a church before they started.

The past three weeks, I’ve been on a tear. I’ve unsubscribed from countless e-mail newsletters, magazine subscriptions, and blogs (not yours of course). I’ve been drowning in too much noise.

(More on de-cluttering from e-mail here.)

A lot of what I was reading is good, but there comes a point where too much of a good thing is a bad thing. The signal to noise ratio can get out of whack and I can stop hearing from the One who doesn’t always speak loudly.

There’s still a place for input, but I’m finding less of the how-to stuff helpful. I don’t need another model that promises the world. The best stuff out there doesn’t offer ready-made solutions as much as it engages deeper issues, where the real thinking has to take place.