I recently started reading Scott Berkun's book, "Confessions of a Public Speaker" and I want to share this great line with you: "All good public speaking is based on good private thinking." The more I thought about that line, the more I became convinced it's true. For those of us who preach, I would modify it this way: "All good preaching is based on good private thinking, and praying, and studying." Natural talent alone is not enough. Natural talent may make you a decent player in pick-up basketball but it's unlikely to carry you all the way to the NBA. Effective lawyers don't stand up and "wing" their closing arguments because they are relying on their gift of gab. If you think about it, you can tell the difference between a speech or a sermon that is well thought out and one that isn't. I'm not even talking about the…
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Let's be honest, there are many misconceptions and misunderstandings about what "church" means. For those of us who are employed by a church, who spend six or seven days a week working on details, programming, and events, it's easy to begin to think of "church" as the collection of details. Or, to use a phrase that has become a favorite of mine lately, we get caught up in the weeds. Perhaps the most common misconception has to do with bricks and mortar. Our language betrays us ... "I'm stopping by the church on the way to dinner." "We're meeting at church to car pool to the game." What we are referring to is a physical building. I'm just as guilty as the next person on this one, though I've tried to make a conscious effort to say "church building" instead of just church. The true nature of the church is much more…
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We also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. -- 1 Thessalonians 2:13 When the Thessalonian church heard the apostle Paul preach, they had a choice: do we dismiss his message as simply a human message or do we receive it as the word of God? To dismiss it as merely human might have been the easiest route. Take the pieces you like and throw away the rest -- or, at least, dispose of the more uncomfortable parts. Instead, Paul commends them for receiving his message as the word of God. We would do well to explore the implications. If the message of the Bible is simply a matter of one human writing to another…
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I went nerdy last weekend. But first a little background. When Tonya and I moved into our new house, we received a postcard from DirectBuy about receiving a free Kindle Fire and $100 gift card if we sat through a 90 minute open house. I thought ... I can tolerate most anything to get a new gadget. The real question was: Could I convince Tonya to do the same? The open house required both of us to attend together. She went. Two weeks later we received our free Kindle Fire. Fast-forward to last weekend. I had been reading online about guys who were preaching from their Kindles or iPads. Typically, I have a small sheet of notes tucked into my Bible that I use for back-up ... for those times when my mind goes blank or I chase a rabbit. In order to fit the sheet into my Bible, I…
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Metal heads might hear the name Nikola Tesla and think he was the lead singer of Tesla. Metal heads would be wrong (that would be Jeff Keith). Nikola Tesla was a prolific inventor who died in 1943. During his lifetime he held patents for things ranging from electric arc lamp to radios and early remote controls. He was most famous, however, for developing alternating current -- the AC in AC/DC (the electrical current, not Angus Young). Tesla was known to be an eccentric. Wherever he lived, he ate dinner at the same time every night, from 8-10 pm. He squished his toes one hundred times for each foot ... every day ... because he believed doing so stimulated his brain cells (I'm squishing my toes as I type; I bet you are squishing them, too). In addition to squishing toes, Tesla had another odd habit that I liked. During thunderstorms,…
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