The Power of a Half Hour by Tommy Barnett Review:

The Power of a Half Hour by Tommy Barnett is a book about living life and completing tasks in a half hour. What I learned from this book is that living life without a certain time limit is not a good life. Personally for me I live my life in one hundred minute blocks (100 minutes) as it allows me to get tasks done and to live my life to the fullest. What I also learned was that if you do not control your time and have a plan then life will control you. ( )

I did expect more time management. The clue was probably the words in the title: “the power...” ie- not: “organise your day in....” or: “the productive...”
The book is much more how to spend many half hours to devote yourself to Jesus/God.
The work of the pastor and his church were clearly very altruistic and I was impressed by his efforts. ( )

If we dedicated some time–even thirty minute increments, towards impacting our lives–clarifying our purpose, strengthening our faith, building our character, advancing our dreams, improving our relationships, or changing our world–we would be completely different. We would have a significant impact on those around us and live significant lives before God and others. We would live our dreams and do the sorts of things we wish we were doing now.

Tommy Barnett is the senior pastor of Phoenix Assembly of God. As a pastor, he has ‘devoted his entire adult life to helping people connect with God and find better ways to live’ (vii). What is Barnett’s method for helping people achieve their full, God-given potential. It is two things: time and intentionality. In The Power of a Half Hour, Barnett advocates carving out 30 minute time frames for: personal development (part one and two), cultivating spiritual health (part three), moral formation (part four), achieving success (part five), attending to our relationships (part six) and changing the world (part seven). Each section of his book is made up of pithy chapters meant to inspire you to invest your time and intention in growing in that area. The end of the book contains thirty, thirty-minute action plans which help readers put the book’s message into practice. There are also questions for group discussion corresponding to each section.

Barnett offers some good advice: if you want to make, real lasting change to your life, grow spiritually and impact those around you, it will require time and intention. Carving thirty minute increments devoted to personal growth seems like great advice. Barnett also illustrates this with countless stories of lives he impacted through consistently investing thirty minutes (for prayer, for reflection, for relational encounters, etc). Half an hour is a magically time frame because it is short enough to not feel burdensome, and long enough for something substantial to happen. I found lots of practical insights in this book.

However I did find Barnett’s recipe for personal success overly simple. Many of the stories he shared recount thirty minute personal encounters and prayer times. Yet these are only part of the picture. The effect of his thirty minute plan is cumulative. People change because of their continuing commitment to a set of principles, practices, and persons. Barnett understands this (as many of his examples attest) but the thirty minute rhetoric does not bear the freight of his message. I found myself agreeing with much of Barnett’s advice while feeling like his account of personal transformation was somewhat truncated by the temporal constraints he puts on each growth opportunity. Perhaps he just finds it easier to think in half hour chunks, but I don’t.

I think there is some helpful insights in here and I found myself touched by several of Barnett’s stories, but I did not resonate with the overall tenor of the book. I think that his action plan will be helpful for those seeking to make significant change to their lives. I give it three stars.

Notice of material connection: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

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Don't make the same mistake I made. I assumed this book was a primer on boosting efficiency and maximizing the hours in your day to enhance productivity. My bad. It's a book on strengthening faith and religion. Nothing against faith and religion -- but that's not what I was looking for. Message to self: don't settle on a book based solely on its title and subtitle. I waded through about a third of the tome. It's well-written and serves up some nice anecdotes. But the underlying message seems to be this: a lot can happen to someone in 30 minutes. ( )

I read The Power of a Half Hour: Take Back Your Life Thirty Minutes at a Time by Tommy Barnett, in exchange for honest review from Blogging for Books. I was provided a hardback copy and e-copy for review.

Barnett discusses how we can use 30 minutes to change lives. In 30 minutes, we can read the bible, check Facebook, or watch TV. Maybe we can serve food to the homeless or visit a sick relative in the hospital. Barnett said God has a unique plan for our lives. An unique vision. An unique passion. But God has to trust we will follow through with the passion and vision, which means we have to set aside time.

The chapters are written to be completed in 30 minute segments. Time is a gift from God. You can't get time back. We honor God when we use time well. When we serve him, using the best use of our time.

the full review will be on my blog: http://sdwperfectchaos.blogspot.com ( )