I was a new youth pastor and had just preached my guts out at our Friday night service. And I thought I’d done a fine job. My wife was not impressed. “You just preached that sermon like ___________________ (a popular prof at the Bible college I’d just graduated from). You even sounded like him, and …
Read more “3 Takeaways for Preaching in a Celebrity Preacher Culture”
The time I spend with my kids reminds me that the imagination we have can grow and develop, or it can recede into the shadows. As we get older it’s not that we have lost our imagination, it’s that we have given in to the lie that imagination isn’t important.
“You bring the offering, and God will bring the fire.”
I have no idea where I picked up that quote, but it fell out of my mouth…
We like distractions. These little ‘entertainments’ take our mind off of more important and pressing issues at hand. Who has time to care about the plight of mankind when we have to ask the question “Is it politically correct to say mankind, or should it be peoplekind?”
Whether you are writing a university paper, an email to a colleague or a sermon for this Sunday morning, there are times when the words and ideas just aren’t flowing. Like drinking a very thick milkshake, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t draw the goodness out! I’m in the middle of writing …
Unfortunately, it’s not just athletes and sports teams who take their foot off the gas before they finish well. Often preachers do the same with the sermon. In what ways do preachers pull up short or mail it in at the last minute? So much time during the week is spent in prayer, preparation and …
The one thing every human being has in common is 24 hours in a day. Not a minute more, and not a minute less. So why is it that some people seem to live so healthy and balanced with those hours, and some look dazed and confused like they’ve just been through a spin cycle?
Margin.
I used to get pretty sick before I preached. It didn’t matter if I was speaking before a group of youth on a Friday night, a Young Adult retreat or a Sunday morning worship gathering. The feeling never changed. My nerves set in late the night before, and by the day of the event, I …
Have you ever felt that there is not enough time in a day to finish your checklist? Have you ever found yourself cramming so many things into your day that you had little time for people? Do you ever have time for reflection where your thoughts can wander uninhibited?
Stanislav Petrov. Odds are you have never heard of him, but the world owes a huge debt of thanks to him. Crisis On September 26, 1983, Stanislav’s computer screen flashed red with the word “LAUNCH.” This was the early warning detection that five nuclear missiles had been launched by the United States en route to …
Read more “The Difference Between Clear and Nuclear Thinking”