Ecclesiastes 12:10

  I once had an elder describe a person as a Biblical since he “ appears for a little while and then vanishes away ” (James 4:14).  Some verses are easy to apply to people.  I would like to think that someone might apply Acts 18:24 to me, ( an eloquent man … mighty in the Scriptures ), but my guess is it probably is one of these; Top Ten Verses You Don’t Want Applied To You As A Preacher 1.      2nd Corinthians 10:10 For they say, "His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible." 2.      Jeremiah 1:6 Then I said, "Alas, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, 3.      Job 19:17 "My breath is offensive to my wife, And I am loathsome to my own brothers. 4.      1 Timothy 1:7 even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. 5....

Monday Morning Scattershooting while wondering why they call it a Fiat? Probably because if you get mad enough, you can throw one.    I always thought that Bible class numbers are a more accurate measure of the health of a church than worship attendance. I think it was Ira North that said “ as the Bible class goes, so goes the church ”.  But even those numbers can be off if we don’t make Bible class a priority in the church.  I've seen lots of churches that have poor class number because they don’t really make the classes worth attending. I’m focusing on adult Bible classes since if the adults come then the children will as well. [*] Here are some things that might help to fix that:              1. It’s all about the options.     If you only give folks a choice between one type of class and not coming, more people will take that choice to not come.  More classes make for smaller cla...

Monday Morning Scattershooting while wondering,  why they have a sign road saying 'Falling Rocks'. What exactly am I supposed to do with that information? They may as well have a sign saying "Random accidents ahead"    A preacher friend once told me a lazy man can hide for a long time in ministry.  The older I get the more I see that to be true.  Ministry has totally different set of hours than any other profession.  There are times when you are so busy you can’t even eat and there will be those that accuse you of never working.  Other times you will have done nothing and people will pat you on the back for you efforts.  Unfortunately, the perception of how much you work is what people often look at, not at the real amount of work.  Some people think if your car is at the building when they drive by you are working, even if you are nowhere to be found.     The temptation comes to a minster to manipulate perception to...

Monday Morning Scattershooting while wondering,  If violence is never the answer,what if the question is,“what is never the answer”. Then it is violence even though violence is never the answer    A sports radio station I listen to is known for having hot sports opinions. They like the host to have controversial thoughts on everything. “Jerry Jones the owner needs to fire Jerry Jones the general manager!”  “The Rangers need to get some pitching right now!” “The designated hitter is ruining baseball!”  While this may make for good talk radio, I don’t think it is the best way for a preacher to operate.  I see some preachers spending a lot of time trying to stir up controversy and conflict.  They are quick to throw in their two cents on every issue.  This may stir up the comment sections and boost their fame but I don’t think it much helps the cause of Christ.  Recently I ran across a fellow that was setting some bear traps [1]...

Monday morning scatter shooting while wondering why all the gold in California is in a bank in the middle of Beverly Hills. Does this seem like sane finical planning to you?    I was reading an article this week about how no one mails out bulletins anymore.  It lamented how many good thoughts and idea are no longer spread this way.  I understand that sentiment.  I used to read twenty or thirty different bulletins a week that came into the office. But over the years it dwindled to just four or five.  The Postal service with its rate increase and every changing bulk mail requirement has effectively killed the effort.  My new replacement is Twitter and the blog sphere.  Lots of good preacher will link to their writings. It never ceases to amaze me how many good idea I get from these posts. Sometimes I blatantly use the CASE method (Copy And Steal Everything) other times one line will take me into a totally new direction.  Ideas ...

Monday morning scatter shooting, while wondering why they call something 'new and improved!’ Which is it? If it's new, then there has never been anything before it.  If it's an improvement, then there must have been something before it, it couldn't be new.   I don’t like negative compliments.  Negative compliment are like the person that tells you “have you lost weight because you don’t look as fat as you used to” but usually the negative is directed at someone else.  The person that says “the other deacons don’t do half as much as you do” or “That was a great sermon on sin, some people here really needed to hear it!”  It seems on the surface to be praise to you but it really is way to hide complaint and criticism.  (A friend that does gospel meetings tells me he cringes every time someone comes up to him while the local preacher is right next to him and says “We haven’t heard preaching like that in a long time”.)  Don’t get suckered in whe...

(When door-knocking  many times I will knock a home that I could tell that a person was home but did not answer the door. It was reminded of this old preacher’s joke I had heard years before.) It seems a preacher had gone out to visit a new member of the congregation. As he went up to the home of young couple, he noticed movement inside the house. He knocked at the door excitedly, because he knew that someone was there. He waited a few moments but no one came to the door. He knocked again waiting for the couple to recognize him and answer their door. Finally after several minutes he gave up and left his calling card in their door. Just before he did however he wrote on the back of the card Revelations 3:20, “ Behold, I stand at the door and knock ”.  The next Sunday, the preacher was pleased to see the young couple at services. After the lesson, the preacher was greeting all the members, the young women came up to him and handed his card back and left with a smile but didn...

Five reasons Jesus would have been a great youth minister 1.     He always had enough food to feed everyone.(Matthew 15:32-37) 2.   He could tell someone to put that knife down! (Luke 22:50-51) 3.   It didn’t faze him when someone busted up the roof during the lesson. (Mark 2:4) 4.   He wasn’t afraid to tell the little demons to be quiet. Mark 1:25) 5.   He wasn’t afraid to get soaked with water or play with mud.( Matthew 3:16; John 9:6