My Relationship With Books
I can’t resist the opportunity to talk books, so when I was tagged with the following questions I welcomed the opportunity to respond. 1. What author do you own the most books by? Soren Kierkegaard, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Haddon Spurgeon are the authors taking up the most space on my shelves, but if you throw in all the mass market paperback books shoved in my closet the answer would probably... [Read more]
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life
Recent research conducted by the Barna Group found that religious leaders struggle when asked to describe what it means to be spiritually mature. How can one facilitate the spiritual growth of those within one’s sphere of influence if one cannot even describe the goal towards which we aspire? Understanding spiritual maturity really isn’t that difficult. In Spiritual Disciplines for the... [Read more]
Incorporating Stories Into Christian Writing
I was recently asked to respond to the following note . . . Hi, I was wondering if [X] had any book recommendations for me on the subject of storytelling and incorporating stories into writing. What I’m looking for is very similar to what pastors would read and study as they prepare for their sermons. . .and exactly what [X] does. . .telling a story at the beginning of sermons and then using that... [Read more]
The Art of Simple Writing
I love my college students, but it is laborious to read some of their papers – long rambling incomplete sentences (if you can call them sentences), weird paragraphing, non-existent organization of the material into an argument, and multi-syllable words used in ways that only a contortionist could appreciate. The best writing advice I can give to them is that was shared by Mark Twain in a letter... [Read more]
Summer Listening
What’s on your iPod? It is common for people to talk about Summer Reading — what about Summer Listening? May I make a suggestion? How about using this summer to listen to one of the many free Seminary classes that are available for free online? I have listed below two sources for audio from actual seminary classes that are available for free online. You can listen to them as streaming... [Read more]
Enthusiasm - Select Quotes
Knowledge is power, but enthusiasm pulls the switch. ~ Ivern Ball Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. ~ Sir Winston Churchill The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which mean never losing your enthusiasm. ~ Aldous Huxley If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm. ~ Vince Lombardi Enthusiasm... [Read more]
