The Blog That Binds

No one will be more critical of my preaching than I am myself I will lose sleep over Sunday’s message…and next Sunday’s too I will not try to hurt you That if you hear me long enough you will disagree with me on something That I don’t mind your coming to me about whatever that thing is That if you hear me long enough I will offend you – it won’t be on purpose That if you hear me long enough you will think I am preaching to you – I probably am – at least if you want to grow that is what you should believe and then evaluate any changes needed I will be prepared I will not be as prepared as I wish I was That I will try to bring my best every time I stand before people with the inspired Word of God This will not be the best sermon on...

“Music is a universal language” – yeah, universally divisive!  I thought of this yesterday at a funeral of an old friend.  I have a pretty broad taste in music (Bare Naked Ladies, Whitney Houston, Elton John, Weezer, Dave Matthews, Maroon 5, Yanni, Alicia Keys, Beatles, Harry Connick, JR, Barry Manilow, Mannheim Steamroller, Pink Floyd, The Statler Brothers – need I go on to prove the diversity of my play list?) but this guy liked Scottish Bagpipes.  I see it in “church” music.  Wanta start a fight in an adult class at church? Talk about “old” songs verses “new” songs.  For me I LOVE both older and newer songs.  I love the deep and majestic hymns and those critically called “7/11 songs”.  I absolutely love to sing...

One success does not a career make: Scott Trattner is returning to Apple – don’t know who Scotty is – well, I didn’t either.  He’s the ad exec who did the “Hello, I’m a Mac” commercials.  Sometimes we think because someone did one thing well they do everything well. The other side is, if we can learn to do one thing very well then we will do well to do it well. Spring? It’ll come. In 8 weeks most will be wishing for cooler weather. The easy thing may not be the right thing.  Easier to just give money than to help someone be responsible. Easier to just do many jobs than to learn to involve others and develop their abilities. March Madness – something, something, something. And something. Amazing. Harvard and Florida Gulf Coast,...

BETTER ’13 is April 15-16 at the Spring Meadows church building in Spring Hill, TN. 1. What are you planning to do this year to help make you a better presenter of God’s Word?  If you are not growing you are going backward! This is continuing education hours for the preacher. 2. Where else can you hear these ten guys in a 24 hours period? 3. I don’t know why we wouldn’t have 150 preachers at this event. 4. GET THIS!!! If we hit 100 paid participants we will give away 3, that’s right 4 iPad Mini’s!!!! Yes, 3. 5. SIGN UP NOW HERE!  GET READY FOR THIS – if we past 75 people registered before Saturday we will IMMEDIATELY have a drawing for ANOTHER iPad Mini Sunday! That’s right, one of you will get an iPad Mini when...

First off – with the impending “death” of Google’s Reader any of you who use this awesome tool will need to figure out what’s next.  Here are two suggestions: 1. Send me an email and I’ll add you to my list that informs folks when new posts come out. This is the best method because email is probably not going away anytime soon. 2. Subscribe to feedly.com. I’ve read some who think it’s better than Google Reader but I’m not sold on that yet. —- BETTER ’13 is drawing near.  This is the program to help preachers learn to actually preach better. The idea is to focus with some of the best on the art of preaching itself.  The lineup this year includes: Jeff Jenkins, John Dale, David Young, Jay Lochhart,...

With apologies to Alexander I went to sleep with two teenagers in my den and now there’s teens sleeping till noon on my couch and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on my XBox and by mistake I dropped my iPhone in the tub while the water was running and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad ministry day. At Starbucks Anthony found an awesome new YouTube Video and Nick found a free book offer on his Kindle but on my tablet all I found was a dead battery. I think I’ll move to another congregation. On the church van the driver let Jon select the CD we listened to. Josh and Eric got to select music too. I said I wanted to listen to Andy Stanley. I said I wanted to hear Skit Guys. I said, if I don’t get to pick a song...