The “Big Idea” About the “Golden Egg Format”

About a month ago I introduced you to what I deemed to be the “Golden Egg Format.” The purpose of the format was to give readers a simple and  coherent summary of a book. After reading this book preview, one should have a better idea whether or not they should purchase and read the entire book.

The driving force behind developing a user-friendly book preview format was for a new project that I was helping with called LeVite Camp. LeVite Camp is a website devoted to generating conversations about worship design in a way that goes beyond the “worship wars” of the 90s. LeVite Camp is a resource for young worship leaders, pastors, and the global church who desire to journey from a “professional pragmatism” concerning worship  to one marked by “doxological excellence.”

The feedback I got from fellow bloggers, J.D. Walt (http://www.jdwalt.com/) and Chad Brooks  (Outside is Better and PostModern Eschatology) is that the nomenclature in the format needs to be even more clear (plus the language of “Golden Egg” may be proprietary). Therefore, the format of previewing books will be now be called “The Big Idea.” It will still consist of 3 main parts: The summary and introduction, the “Big Idea” of the book, and 2-3 “Ideas” that are seeds for later thought development.

Chad sums up the purpose of blogs and of this book preview format when he says, “With blogging, especially doing this type of book preview (which is really good and needed) I think you should keep it as simple as possible…avoid anything that might either confuse or alienate people.”