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 [...]

Donald Miller is back. I don’t know where he went. What he was doing. But he’s back. Back as in Blue-Like-Jazz-Back. In A Million Miles in a Thousand Years Miller takes the reader through the journey of writing a script based upon his life (with some of the key stories from Blue Like Jazz). The [...]

Stephen King is arguably the most popular fiction writer in recent American memory. In his memoir/guide to becoming an effective writer, he warns the writer that might me tempted to shape their life around their craft instead of their craft around their life.
I suggest the metaphor works well for academicians, pastors, teachers, athletes, writers, and [...]

Here are some highlights from Stephen King’s On Writing. I highly recommend this book. In addition, if you are interested in the craft of writing, you might like this book, this book, and this book.
p.50 …an original story I called “The Invasion of the Star-Creatures.” I kept hearing Miss Hisler asking why I wanted to [...]

I’ve learned a lot of lessons from writing Jesus Feast. Many of those lessons have been swirling in my head the past few weeks. Recently, a friend called to ask me about the writing process (lessons learned, mistakes, perspective, etc.). That helped me to think more concretely on why writing is such a vital part [...]

In September 2007, I was on a small plane flying from Abilene to Dallas, Texas. I had just finished teaching a class on the relationship of film and spirituality in postmodern cultures at Abilene Christian University. As we were making our way to Dallas, I started to get an idea. So, I did what I [...]

Three years ago, Andy Harrison convinced me to train and run my first marathon. It was a great experience. Then, last year, my (twin) brother convinced me to train and complete my first triathlon. You can read about that here.
My brother has not looked back since doing his first triathlon. He did another one in [...]