Whether one writes, teaches, preaches, creates films . . . the challenge to communicate well is a weight. I’m trying to be more aware of this in my own preaching, teaching, and writing. The following categories are not original, I’ve seen them in several different venues.
INTELLECTUAL. Some people connect to God through the mind. They [...]

I recently started preaching/teaching through the Gospel of Luke @ Otter Creek. This past Sunday I worked through the first four verses of Luke’s Jesus Story. Here’s a paraphrase of Luke’s introduction (really, it’s his disclosure for motivation).
Various men and women have used their creative abilities to capture the events just as those events had [...]

The preacher stands before the congregation each week and attempts to describe what God is up to in God’s big world. The preacher uses Scripture, humor, philosophy, personal reflection, comparison, more humor, stories–all to help the listener connect with God and neighbor.
Over time, the church begins to believe that the preacher has special access to [...]

Here’s the intro from a film I recently presented at the Lipscomb Preaching Conference. The joke per China and the growth of Christianity is from Randy Harris (that got left out in the edits, fyi).
Collision

Whether it’s writing a book, crafting a story, preparing to teach a college class on spirituality, or piecing together a sermon . . . I pretty much go through the same routine (I am a creature of habit) each time I try and create something (usually a collection of words and sentences for print or [...]

It’s raining today. That usually puts me in a reflective mood. Here are some random thoughts for the weekend.
1. Technology changes everything (that’s good news and bad news). Here’s the view Lucas had from Kara’s Mac Wednesday as I gave one of the keynotes at ACU’s Summit. While I was in West Texas, he watched [...]

As I am preparing to preach/teach on Mary’s Song this weekend, I am reading these words that came to me last Advent.
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Advent reminds us that when God came among us in Jesus, he did not come as a ghost, hologram, vision, or media stunt. He came to us through a teenage girl not properly married. [...]