Uncategorized No matter how many lies their candidate told Fast forward nine years and a majority of white Christians lined up to support someone more crude and short-sighted than Mr. Tancredo. No matter how many lies their candidate told,…
Uncategorized Book Bans? My School Doesn’t Even Have a Library How underfunding is its own form of censorship https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/opinion-book-bans-my-school-doesnt-even-have-a-library/2022/07
Uncategorized I’m Not OK; You’re Not OK Over the last twenty years, most of my work as a pastor and now therapist has been with teenagers and their families. From majority white middle- and upper-middle-class churches and…
Marketing tips, Writing tips There is nothing to join, only something to recognize, suffer, and enjoy as a participant All we can give back and all God wants from any of us is to humbly and proudly return the product that we have been given - which is ourselves!…
Uncategorized For those of you struggling with “personal branding” from @markwschaefer https://businessesgrow.com/2022/07/25/creepiness-of-personal-branding/
Uncategorized Do You Have an Audience or Just a Mailing List? by David duChemin https://mailchi.mp/e345c60e8d1a/do-you-have-an-audience-or-just-a-mailing-list?e=d157dfd2eb
Marketing tips, Writing tips Don’t worry about the audience, but do worry about audience But here’s the contradiction. While Zinsser tells writers not to worry about what readers might think, he also advises writers to work hard to keep readers’ attention, to not let…
Uncategorized Library Reopens After Attacks on Its ‘Liberal Agenda’ Force Mass Resignation https://www.thedailybeast.com/vinton-iowa-library-reopens-after-attacks-on-lgbtq-content-staff-members
Marketing tips, Publishing tips, Writing tips …unless you’re passionate about it I love this quote from Tom Peters as he revealed the inspiration for his landmark book In Search of Excellence: “I didn’t know what I was doing when I wrote…
Uncategorized How to measure the emotional tone of your content by Mark Schaefer https://businessesgrow.com/2022/07/05/emotional-tone-of-your-content/
Marketing tips, Writing tips The complexities of any issue that matters It can be hard to maintain a sense of and be faithful to the complexities of any issue that matters. Serving on a committee at one point to review a…
Writing tips Come let us hear your voice In 1984, Lou invited Fred to come again and to read in Trinity’s sanctuary in Charlotte NC. Through his novels, his sermons, his prolific published works, Fred’s words had reached…
Uncategorized Some Surprising Good News: Bookstores Are Booming and Becoming More Diverse More than 300 bookstores have opened in the past couple of years — a revival that is meeting a demand for “real recommendations from real people.” https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/10/books/bookstores-diversity-pandemic.html
Writing tips A parent’s decision about how to approach their child’s spiritual life is a high-stakes proposition with lifelong implications Parents often are very clear as they tell me the reasons they stop short of joining in a spiritual discussion with their child: “I don’t want to share my views…
Marketing tips, Publishing tips, Writing tips If you don’t have your audience nailed down, what can you do? Consider your ideal client for your business. If you’re writing a book associated with your business, then it makes sense to write a book that is perfectly positioned to appeal…
Writing tips Challenges to my Christian identity Many challenges to my Christian identity have come from my fellow Christians who advocated versions of Christianity that horrified me and made me want to run for my life in…
Marketing tips, Writing tips Personal Fit Another way to look at this idea of “personal fit” is through the lens of ikigai, an ancient Japanese ideology. A combination of the Japanese words “iki,” which means “life,”…
Writing tips If Things Aren’t Going Well Sometimes, you know that you’re not doing well. The writing may not be stuck, but it has ceased to tap anything deeper than your thesaurus. The prayer may not have…
Marketing tips What Do We Do When Our Favorite Leaders Leave Social Media Behind? by Kaitlin Curtice https://kaitlincurtice.substack.com/p/what-do-we-do-when-our-favorite-leaders
Writing tips What About Me? The book I most often recommend to writers is William Zinsser’s On Writing Well. It is wise, practical, and enjoyable to read. Friends have even heard me talk about Zinsserizing…