Saturday Morning Post

Old Books Worth Reading: Fenelon's Dialogues

2010-04-30T21:06:00.003-04:00

Now this will only interest preachers and those who care about preaching. I realize that. But there are two French books now in English translation that are worth any preacher's reading.

1. Alexandre Vinet

Alexandre Vinet's Homiletics, or A Theory of Preaching is one of the best theologies of preaching in the French tradition of situating preaching underneath the umbrella of art. Unfortunately, it is only easily found in good libraries. It has been easily one of my favorite readings in the history of homiletics.

2. Francois Fenelon

Fenelon lived in the times of excessive waste under King Louis the XIV. He never breathed a day when that particular king was not alive. The ridiculous pomp of the court infected the pulpit and caused great overemphasis on style, ornamentation of words, and eloquence-so-called. Fenelon wrote a book that seems to be aimed at all the young preachers who were swept up in amazement at well-wrought words that were really lacking wisdom. It's called simply Dialogues

If you read them let me know what you think.

Old Books Worth Reading: Winter of Our Discontent

2010-04-24T09:21:00.003-04:00

John Steinbeck's The Winter of Our Discontent has mixed reception among Steinbeck fans. I have always loved my reading of Steinbeck. It takes a mature reader of course, and I think requiring students in grade school to read Steinbeck is a great way to ensure most of them will never read Steinbeck again. Steinbeck's East of Edenis widely regarded as one of the best novels ever written. It changed the way I preach the Old Testament and cracked wide open the riches of the Cain and Abel story for me. But again, it takes a mature reader.

The Winter of Our Discontent causes some Steinbeck readers to think that Steinbeck's last novel was his worst. Others have found his switching from first to third person unreflective (I disagree--I think it's brilliantly on purpose and so subtle first time readers think it an accident). Still others find it a preachy novel. Perhaps that's why I love it so much. I love preaching. And this book is fantastic preaching as secular novels go. I have read it four times and found the things most critique the book for to actually be among some of its greatest strengths. It is my most read Steinbeck novel, more than East of Eden, more than Wayward bus. I like it more than the short stories of Cannery Row and Tortilla Flats. Though not as powerful from a literary perspective, I relish it more than Of Mice and Men. Have you read it? What have you thought of the book?

Old Books Worth Reading: The Search for Significance

2010-04-17T00:00:00.001-04:00

I like old books. This last week I spent an hour on a porch in a Thai restaurant carefully thumbing through my yellowed and cracking pages of an original William Cullen Bryant poem collection. It reminded me that there were some books in my collection that needs more frequent attention. So I am starting a series on old books that are worth reading (again). This book isn't so old, but for many it will seem old. Written in 1990 its past the twenty year mark.

It's still in print for good reason. If there is anything many Christians struggle with it is a sense of worthlessness. Sin leaves its ugly mark not only in pride as we are often reminded, but also in its twin cousin shame.

Shame is a debilitating and even deadly disease. Thousands die from it every year by their own hands. Just as difficult a reality is that millions live a walking death underneath its shadow year in and year out. They are the approval addicts and the ones stuck in the performance trap this book speaks about.

I first found the book in the bottom of a garage sale book box. I looked at the cover (not the one pictured...the first edition) and was pulled in. Billy Graham said every Christian should read it after all. Well, some of you would put it down right then. But for me, I thought his opinion was worth a fifty cent stab in the dark. I read the book three times.

And so, I recommend it to you. I recommend it to all Christians who ever hear their own thoughts label them worthless, stupid, or not good enough. I recommend it to all Christians who ever wonder how in the world they could be worth the death of Christ. I recommend it to all Christians who have worked hard and long attempting to gain enough approval to finely approve of themselves. And, I recommend it to me. I am going to read it for the fourth time. Feel free to tell me what you think.

6 Unusual Ways to Save Time

2010-04-09T15:16:00.005-04:00

Saving time is a hard thing to do, but incredibly important. Really, we don't save up time for later like money piled in the bank. But we can be more efficient with it, stop committing so much of it way in advance, and learn to use it for the things we value most. This past week I have been thinking about the unusual time savers that don't seem to get mentioned much, but save the most time.

Here they are:

1. Take a typing course. I stumbled on this in college with a game loaded on my old macintosh computer (back in 1995 I was the only Mac guy I knew.) It was a fun game. I got hooked mostly because it allowed me to compete against myself in the form of words typed per minute in its training game. I spent a half hour every day on it, and limited myself to a half hour. By the end of the tests I was clocking 85 words per minute adjusted for errors. The average typing speed in America is 36 words per minute. I have recently decided that that little program has saved me more time in the last fifteen years than any other single time saving activity.

Just to test that fact, I took a typing test online without any practice to see how I was clocking now. I stopped writing this post to do it. The test had lots of '-'s in it. I have never been able to train my pinky to hit that thing. So I clocked at 76 words per minute adjusted for errors. Not bad. According to the typing test, if I only type 2 hours a day (I type more like 5) I would save 5.5 hours a week. Take the test. Then set a new typing speed goal.

2. Make a prior commitments list. I don't know where I first learned this, but it was probably when someone first pulled a "Sorry, I have a personal policy..." line on me. I don't usually use that line, but I use that principle. It's a good thing to give time to people--when you freely choose to do so and it serves a good purpose.

It is not good for you to keep giving time to people out of guilt, manipulation, fear of consequences, and other sorts of pressure games that waste so much of our time. So, I often have a "prior commitment." For the guilt givers of the world, they don't have the right to know what that prior commitment is, they just need to know I have a prior commitment. I have a list of those prior commitments just to remind myself of them. I rewrote it recently to add a few.

Here's how it works:

A student with poor boundaries and a bad work ethic asks me, "Can you get together with me for lunch next week?" I say, "I am sorry, my lunch calendar is full right now with prior commitments, I just can't make it work. Why don't you send me an email on it and we can bounce our ideas back and forth that way?" If they were to continually push me I might reveal the policy more point blank. Then if they get offended, that's their issue.

What should be on your list of prior commitments? It could even be as simple as "I am committed to reducing meetings with people who drain my energy and motivation." Then, "Sorry, buddy (with a smile) I have a prior commitment." Or if they are the persistent type who will simply ask for another time (most likely) "with all the other things I am already committed to this month, I just can't make it work. What is it you wanted to talk about?"

3. A regular bed time. I know. What a fuddy duddy thing to do. You can certainly break it now and then for parties, New Year's Eve, or a great date. But incredible amounts of time are wasted by a late night show, or a book you just couldn't put down. The next day no amount of coffee can redeem your lack of brain functioning. The best hours for sleep, scientifically, are from 10pm-2am. If you slept from 2-7am (five hours) you would not be as rested as if you slept from 10-2 (four hours). So for me, I try to get as much of those four hours as possible. That means I often am up at 5 am instead of 7. If I go to bed at 10 I naturally wake up between 4:30 and 5. If I go to bed at 11 pm I naturally wake up at 6:30 to 7 am. And I feel less rested with eight hours (11-7) than I normally do with 6.5 to 7 (10-4:30). Between the hours of 4:30 and 7:00 am I have written 578 articles in one year without adding to my work day or taking away from my family. It really does save time. Once this becomes a habit it isn't a discipline, it's a joy.

4. Do the nasty job first. To do lists are great, but they can't replace the impulse to just get something out of the way. When you have a dreaded job hanging over your head it saps your energy, distracts your mind, and usually engages you in all kinds of procrastinating. Get it out of the way and a sense of accomplishment emerges coupled with a burst of energy and motivation. If you put the nasty job you don't want to do up front, you will finish the entire list faster. A friend of mine was able to earn six figures a year working half days in the banking industry doing that. He simply made the awkward calls, wrote the difficult emails, and finished the tedious paper work first thing every day. As a result, he was almost always done by noon.

5. Procrastination. Now this seems like a complete contradiction, but it is more like the flip side of the coin. There are some things that just really should not get done right away. They are distractions and misdirections. An email comes in (ding) and the immediate impulse is to check email. A phone call comes with a number you don't recognize and you feel you should answer. Intentional procrastination can often save time. If you waited for five emails to pile up before allowing yourself to check you would save yourself a half hour a week since the average refocusing time after an email is over one minute long. The average cell phone conversation is 3 minutes and 15 seconds. The average voice mail is 18 to 22 seconds. That's three minutes of savings every time you are able to handle a message without a conversation. And frankly, you should be able to decide who you need a conversation with and who you do not after you find out who it is on the line.

6. Push up the deadline. Okay, now I am really flip flopping, right? Procrastinate, no get it done early, no procrastinate! All of these are judgment calls and cannot be used in every situation. But this one can really save you tons of time when you have an expandable job to finish. Work fills the time you give it is the old adage. And it is most often true. Do you have something that you feel will just suck away whatever time you give it? Push up the deadline. With the clock ticking down your adrenaline will kick in gear and it will get done faster than you thought possible. So in that meeting when they say "Should we expect this by next Monday?" Say, "No, I'll have this by tomorrow night at 5 pm." Just make sure you don't overdo it and commit yourself to something you can't possibly do.

As a teacher I have to give feedback on assignments. For the longest time I followed the standard rule of one week for feedback. The result? It took a lot of time and it violated #4...every teacher hates grading. And, it took a week. So, I started vocalizing my own faster deadline. "I will give you comments by tonight, or tomorrow morning at the latest." The first time I said it, I gulped. Amazingly though, adrenaline kicked in and I thought creatively (because I had to). I realized, hey I type faster than I handwrite (#1) and they can read it better anyway. Okay, that's it no more hard copy comments. I'll send an email with a bulleted list. That saved hours already. Next, I keep saying the same things over and over. Well, if I type it, I can save a text file and just copy and paste and edit it to personalize. Bingo, more hours saved.

They got great feedback because I didn't have to keep rewriting the same thoughts over and over. It freed me to give even more unique comments in less time. I didn't nitpick over all the little details that mattered less since the clock was ticking. And the students were happy to not be in performance anxiety limbo for a week. Nice. I didn't even have to organize all the papers and hand them back. I just sent an email and I was done, and so were they. The unexpected bonus was I was relieved of the meetings after class where students had to ask for a translation of my handwriting. More time saved. All because the deadline got pushed up.

What are your unusual time savers?

Why Did God Move the Stone?

2010-04-03T09:31:00.002-04:00

Every holy day season I find something in the scriptural account that causes me some questions. Last Christmas it was, "Why didn't God let Herod kill Jesus? If all he needed to do to save humanity was die, why not die young?" It led to some interesting conclusions.

This Easter, the stone is bothering me. Jesus shows up a little while after the resurrection in the middle of a room with locked doors. So according to the gospels Jesus can move through sealed and locked areas post-resurrection. Why couldn't he move through a sealed and locked stone? Wouldn't that have been more impressive? Wouldn't that have cleared the disciples of the grave robbing charge?

Do you have any ideas why it is important to the resurrection that the stone be moved?

Writing a Sermon in a Pinch

2010-03-20T05:58:00.003-04:00

One hour in the study for every minute in the pulpit. That's the old line that many, usually short winded, preachers use. But as any pastor who preaches knows, sometimes the week doesn't give much opportunity for sermon work. If you are preaching 25 minutes, 25 hours of sermon work isn't realistic on most weeks in general anyhow. Ideally of course, the sermon processes we were introduced to in seminary and modified to make our own over years of preaching keep us working ahead on crafting deep and rich sermons. Unfortunately, some times three funerals and a wedding fall all in the same week as a heated board meeting, a personal family crisis, or some other time eater. When this happens, we may need to write a sermon in a pinch. Here's how.

Go to a familiar and meaningful passage. Try to find a passage that has affected your life in significant ways and continues to do so. It can be a life verse of sorts, or a verse you just bumped into again the last week. Ideally it will be in a book of the Bible you have researched before and are familiar with without extra intensive exegetical work.

Get familiar with the passage again. Read it out loud several times. Circle a few words that strike you as interesting. Read it in a different translation. This can all be done in ten to twenty minutes of work.

Use your most comfortable sermon form. If you are a narrative preacher, now is not the time to force a point-based sermon out of your brain, or vice versa. If you typically preach with verse by verse commentary, don't change that this week. Mentally lay the sermon form like a transparency over the text. In narrative sermons something like a conflict-resolution pattern should emerge. In point based sermons a controlling thought with supporting thoughts should come to the fore. Write those elements down on a pad of paper or your computer.

Write a central preaching sentence. So far, your work may not have taken an hour. Certainly this kind of process allows little room for bringing you up short, surprising you in great ways, or fully forming you in the process. But, you are in a pinch. Let go of your ideals for a week. Write a sentence that you think summarizes the heart of what you see in the passage that can serve either as a refrain, or as a centralizing claim of the sermon.

Brainstorm sermon illustrations for each of these categories: metaphor or analogy, inspirational true story, hypothetical situation. For the first, you can fill in the blank of this sentence "In this passage God is acting like..." or "ignoring this passage would be like..." For the second category think of a true story which illustrates the problem of the text, the central principle of the sermon, or the application of the message in contemporary life. For the last, think of it like creating a parable. "A certain woman was..." or "Imagine one of us...

Do what helps you get comfortable with your sermon the fastest. For some people they have to write a manuscript before their nerves calm down. Others have to preach it out loud before they can ever feel comfortable with a sermon, manuscript or not. Some need only an outline with a supporting story, quote, image, metaphor, or application beneath each major move. Only you know what that is for your sermon.

Some general tips on writing sermons in a pinch:

* Don't be afraid to pull out and dust off an old sermon you haven't delivered at this location before. Rework the sermon to be sure it is fresh. Reengage your own life with the sermon, how should it change you this week?

* Often you cannot use an old sermon in toto, but a sermon illustration from a different sermon can give this new sermon the wings to get off the ground.

* Sometimes a good quotation from a trusted source can drive a large section of a sermon. If you find one, you can treat it as a secondary text for exposition. Walk through the quote word by word.

* This process shouldn't be your weekly pattern or over time the depth of your sermons will be shallow, the motivation you have in ministry will decrease, and your own personal spiritual formation will suffer. But for a week of crisis, you need some grace.

Before I Die or Reflections or the Business of Happiness

2010-03-13T08:00:00.002-05:00

I found a new fun TV replacement: fora.tv. Here are just a few of the things I have watched recently on this site:

Speech by Coach K of the Duke Blue Devils (a fan since third grade when by brother started pulling for UNC) on team dynamics and how who we are comes before what we do. Standards...the way we live no matter whether we win or lose. A little inspiring.
Steve Wozniak of Apple fame interviewed on creativity and the future of education. (He's the guy who figured out how to put color into a personal computer screen).
Ted Leonsis on the business of happiness.

So there's a side recommendation for you. Much more brain stimulating than Human Target or CNN's "situation room" as far as I am concerned. But the business of happiness is the one that is spinning my hamster-driven brain more than the others. I don't want to summarize his talk for you. The only idea I want to life is his idea of a happiness list, a self-actualization list, or a "Things to Do Before I Die" list. His was made when he was 26 and just sold his company for 22 million dollars. He was sitting on a plane twenty thousand feet up with no landing gear preparing for a crash landing and realized he wasn't happy with his life.

I loved the idea. I don't have a 101 item list like he does yet, only sixty, but here are most of them:

Stay faithful to Holly and my children
Start a college scholarship fund for underprivileged Marion students
Take each of my children on a world traveling trip
Hike the John Muir Trail
Write 10 books I believe will really help people
Finish my PhD (almost there)
Make a million dollar donation (a long ways away)
Go to Maui 10 times with Holly (1 down)
Get involved helping orphaned children (we hide them in the foster system)
Preach 1000 different sermons (easy for a pastor, hard for a guest preacher)
Hike the Maroon Bells 4-Pass loop trail again...it's jaw dropping.
Fish the Gunnison river at paradise hole again...paradise hole is my name, you won't find it. But my friend and I caught a trout every fifteen minutes.
Learn to scuba dive.
Give each of my children a 2 million dollar retirement start-up fund (assuming 10% interest compounding yearly and a 70 year old retirement.) Don't get too impressed, I think it would only take $4000 or so each and 2 million won't buy too much then, it will be like 500k now.
Give each of my grandchildren a three million dollar retirement start-up fund (assuming 10% interest compounding yearly and a 70 year old retirement.) Another $6000 or so each twenty years from now.
Make $1000 a month online to help fund 14 and 15 ($600 a month so far, close to $700 for this month)
This one's more personal and I don't want to share it. ;) (I deleted a few others outright...none of your business.)
Deleted...personal
Deleted...vulnerable
Deleted...can I do it? Too risky to speak in public. ;)
Become a consistent benefactor for the battling of sex slavery
Be financially independent (or capable of it) by 50.
Meet each of my great grandchildren (These are all "God willing" but it gives me something to pray for).
Support and enable Holly’s career to its fullest
Learn Latin (on the way)
Take Holly somewhere warm every winter starting 2010-11. We're moving to Indiana after all and she loves the sun.
Raise three generous Christian kids
Hike the Knobstone
Finish the Sheltowee trace trail (We only have a day or two left Adam!)
Maintain a 34” or smaller waist. I pushed the boundary last year. I set this goal in Keith Drury's class when I was in college and it seemed easier then. :)
Teach Dawson how to use a bat, chainsaw, ax, knife, compass, topo map, and fly rod (girls too if they want to).
Teach my children how to drive a stick, change oil, and rotate their tires.
Own a 1965 Shelby Cobra. Selfish me. They appreciate in value though as long as Dawson never wrecks it. (red, silver, or black)
Teach my girls to dance...working on it.
Here are...
three..
more very personal ones.
Learn cappuccino art (silly)
Run a business that makes something and sells it. In ministry there is a constant urge to actually create something tangible. I know its this-earthly, but I like that. A lot of this stuff helps me feel that all of my ministry goals that will happen more naturally (mentor 1000 preachers for example) are matched by more earthy goals I can touch.
Teach a travel course to Italy (preaching, art, and creativity).
Teach a course on itinerant preaching ministry (could go with 36 if its on the Franciscans)
Take each of my kids on a hiking trip (if interested)
Instill the love of learning in my children. I want them addicted to learning.
Take a family read-cation
Dance with Holly on a beach at sunset.
Hear “Welcome to the Company of Scholars” in person at my hooding (Doctorate)
See Holly get her masters
Become a full professor
Another personal one
Use renewable energy sources to run a home’s heating and cooling completely
Help Holly's "Before I Die" list happen (if she writes one)
Help each of my kids to make a list like this.
Help each of my grandkids to make a list like this.
Train preachers and those who will train preachers the rest of my life (even if I retire)
Mentor 1000 preachers
Build a successful membership website (30k + per year) or a successful limited email subscription (i.e. Six month email...paid… 30k + per year.

The last few (57-61) were more personal as well, but there it is. I like the idea. Inspiring. Motivating. And it makes me really ask myself purpose, meaning, and calling questions as well as personal happiness questions.

So what would go on your "Things to Do Before I Die" list?

How to Perform a Call to Worship

2010-02-27T07:25:00.002-05:00

A call to worship is one of the first moments in a church's liturgical practice. Someone stands up and has the job of marking off the boundaries between normal time (what happened before the service), and liturgical time. A call to worship sets the tone for the worship service and can help orient the congregation toward a worship mindset and attitude. Here's how to do it well.

First, direct attention Godward

Any call to worship, if it is a call to worship, gathers attention from the horizontal plan and directs it toward the vertical (metaphorically speaking). Worship is a godward bent of the mind, heart, and actions that ascribes worth to God intellectually, physically, and emotionally. In free church traditions this can take a more improvisational or extemporaneous tone. However the words are presented, they should be chosen carefully to direct the people's attention toward God.

Second, build anticipation and energy.

A call to worship tilts the service in a certain direction. Poor calls to worship reflect backward on what happened before the service, lack energy, and build negative anticipation (i.e. all signs point to a boring hour for example). Good calls to worship are energetic without being aggressive, confident without being haughty, well crafted without feeling rehearsed, and point the worshiper toward what is coming next. Whether a scripture verse, a written collect, or an individually written set of comments, a call to worship should lean us forward.

Third, introduce the worship themes for the day to focus the congregation's thoughts and worship.

A Sunday where the text is Deuteronomy 6 for example might begin this way...

'Welcome, lovers of God and those loved by God. We come today to give our hearts, minds, souls, and all our energy in adoration to God. With the Psalmist our 'hearts cry out,' our spirits 'pant,' and we will not be silenced in our search for God. Let us search for God today in song, in word, and in spirit. Come, people of God, let us worship.'

A call to worship in a more free church tradition on Matthew 5 might read this way:

'Welcome to River Crossing Church. None of us come to church today deserving of God's attention. We can not earn a glance from God, nor can we force the hand of God. Instead, whether visitors, skeptics, atheists, or long time believers we have the same need: the loving mercy of God. We need the love of God that rains on the righteous and the unrighteous alike. So, today we are going to celebrate the rain of God's grace with joy and gratitude. Stand with us and join in this song, and know that the grace of God is near to you.'

Tips & Warnings

Greet the congregation with a smile and a confident movement toward worship rather than a bland 'Good morning.
The first words should be more than casual greetings...this is a worship service.
Project your voice with breath support from the diaphragm and speak with a smile.
Raise the arms and turn up the palms in a welcoming gesture during your last sentence of invitation to worship.
Calls to worship are not long affairs. Avoid the long winded introduction.
If you are reading a call to worship avoid the reading voice with its downturned tones and predictable rhythms.
Practice reading the call to worship well enough that it lives and breathes.
Don't think you can avoid the call to worship. Whatever is spoken first (outside of song) in a service is the call to worship. So craft it well.
What would you add to these suggestions?

Pray for Chile

2010-02-27T06:30:00.002-05:00

Will this be the year of the earthquake disasters? An 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck near Santiago, Chile with an initial death toll of 47. After 90 seconds of shaking buildings were downed as well as a bridge and phone lines were down in the nearby major population center of Concepcion.

Of course death tolls are expected to rise and communication lines are established, buildings are searched, and the missing are reported. However, since the earthquake was centered farther away from major population centers than was the Haitian earthquake the damage is likely to be much less severe even though the earthquake was larger. Also, the Chilean people are better prepared and better equipped than the Haitian people.

Still, pray for Chile.

Keep Preaching, Pastor... Sit Down Pastor

2010-02-13T07:08:00.006-05:00

I have preached in a number of different settings and denominations over the last fourteen years since I preached my first sermon in a rural church in North Carolina. After a few gaffes I learned to ask first thing "How much time do I have?" The different answers are interesting and there is no way to totally categorize them. But this is what I have come to expect for a maximum:

Episcopalian church - 10 minutes
Lutheran - 15 minutes
Presbyterian church - 20 minutes
Methodist church - 25 minutes
Nondenominational/Evangelical - 30-35 minutes
Southern Baptist - 40 minutes
Pentecostal/Camp meeting - 45 minutes
Christian conference (depends on the setting)- 50 minutes

Of course those are average estimations and there are some Episcopalian churches I am sure that last longer and there are some camp meetings that only want 25 minutes. But those are my estimations.

I preached in a camp once where I lasted 45 minutes (since they gave me an hour I stretched my sermon with a couple extra stories). I really just thought I should be done no matter how much time they gave me. I had said what I came to say, and I could tell they had received it intellectually and emotionally.

Afterward three people came up to me to make sure no one told me I had to preach briefly "Don't cheat us, now" one person said. Another said, "Next time you take as much time as you need no matter what anyone told you. We came to hear the Word." Oops. Apparently they were looking for more. I had my own predetermined rules for time and was forcing it on them instead of listening to what they were looking for in preaching. So, I went back to my room and reworked my sermons to preach longer passages and add more depth instead of fluff like I did that night. I preached an hour in the morning and an hour at night the rest of the week. It wore me out and I was tired of hearing me talk, but they loved it.

So what is the understood maximum for preaching time in your church?

7 Signs You Are Addicted to Something (or Someone)

2010-02-06T08:39:00.003-05:00

Almost anything can be a drug. How do you know when you cross the line from enjoyment, hobby, or pleasure into compulsion and addiction?

1. It is damaging to you, your reputation, your relationships, your career, or your financial situation.

There are a lot of things you could be pursuing regularly and eagerly that are not damaging to you, your relationships, your career, or your financial situation. If they become damaging, yet you continue to pursue them it is a big red flag. Some addicts will manipulate their work environment in order to avoid work and pursue their addiction--big red flag. Others pour energy into their addiction while they watch their marriage and friendship wither away. Some addictions are pursued for the short term pleasure with full knowledge it will likely mean long term health conditions.

2. You have tried to stop before, and now are back at it.

This doesn't have to be present since many addictions take years to hit 'bottom' before the addict even wants to try to stop. But you can test your addiction. Fast from it for a month. See what happens. Can you do it?

3. You cannot seem to help yourself...it's compulsive.

Something drives you to do it that feels as if it is out of your control. You may even be talking to yourself out loud saying 'Don't do this' as you go in auto pilot to do the very thing you are telling yourself not to do.

4. You go through a cycle of 'It's worth it' to 'I am worthless'.

Some don't try to talk themselves out of it. If they are deep in the addiction, they instead pursue it eagerly saying 'It's worth it' when their mind warns them of possible consequences. During the hunt or the ritual for the addiction it seems that it will be worth any consequences. After the ritual is over, many addicts are flooded with shame and hate themselves for doing it.

5. You deny the above even if people around you do not.

Has someone been telling you they think you are doing it too much, pursuing something too often, too attached to someone? Have others told you "You won't stop" or "I don't think you will ever quit" or suggested your potential addiction is more important than it should be? If so, you may have an addiction especially if you want to argue about why it is not an addiction.

6. It feels like a good (even best) friend.

If you imagined your potential addiction was a person that you had to say goodbye to forever would it feel like saying goodbye to a close friend? Would you feel a deep sadness? Would there be a major hole in your life you wouldn't know how to feel? Many addicts during recovery actually have a goodbye conversation with their addiction when they are finally ready to part ways. It is usually a very painful and tearful conversation.

7. You lie to cover it up.

When you reach this level you are in deep and thick. When you start lying to cover over something you have started a cycle that many can never break. If you haven't reached this level of your addiction yet, determine not to. It can be the most difficult part of addictions to overcome-after all, if you always lie, you can't get help. If you don't get help, you won't stop the addiction--ever.

So, do you have an addiction? Of course, don't answer that in the comments section, answer it in your heart and in your close relationships.

Are you addicted to food, work, internet, tv, exercise, a person, an abusive relationship, a drug, drink, sex, lust, money, adrenaline, or something else?

What other signs of addictions would you add to this list? You can answer that in the comments section.

What the Rule of 72 Can Do For You

2010-01-30T00:00:00.000-05:00

I love numbers. I didn't use to think I did back when people tried to teach me numbers in the way schools teach numbers. I hated formulas. I always wanted to know why the formulas mattered if a short cut got the same answer. I know the reasons for higher math purposes, but for most of life, short cuts are the way to go. That's why I loved the SAT and the GRE. They don't care how you get the answer.

The rule of 72 is one of those great short cuts that you really should have in your back pocket. It deals with percentages and the amount of time it takes to double a number based on a percentage return.

The way it works is you divide the number of the percentage, ten percent lets say, into 72. So if 72/10=7.2

That means it will take 7.2 years at a yearly interest rate of 10 percent to double money.

Here's what the rule of 72 can do for you:

1. See if you are on track for retirement. Check out the average return on your retirement vehicle over the last five to ten years. (It will be low because of the downturn, but being conservative is good). Divide that return in 72. In the above example it would take 7 years (I like to round) to double whatever is in my retirement account. So, I am 32 and plan to retire at 67. That's 35 years, or 5 sevens. Since I only have a measly 30,000 in retirement right now I can double that five times and find out. 60, 120, 240, 480, 960. That's 960,000 in retirement if I don't add another penny and Social Security totally tanks. Not bad. But remember....the rule of 72 works the other way.

2. See how much money will be worth when you retire. If inflation averages 3 percent a year, I can divide 3 into 72 to find out how much money will be worth. That's twenty four. Every twenty four years inflation will have doubled the price of everything on average. I have 35 years so that's one and a half doubles (I like to round). That means a $10 item will cost $20 plus a half double or $30. In other words, my 960k needs halfed to 480,000 then half a half again so 360,000 in terms of today's buying power. Not so good. Better keep saving. ;)

3. Set a realistic plan in place for doubling your income every 7 years. Wouldn't that be nice? Now if you have been following all these numbers so far, you know how to do this already. What percentage increase would you need every year, to double your salary in 7 years? Easy... just reverse the rule of seventy two. 72/xpercent=7 or 7 times what = 72. You got it, 10 percent (rounded). Just increase your income by 10 percent every year and you will double it in 7 years. Do that for the next 35 years and if you start with the national average income 42,000 you would have not 84k, not 168k, not 336k, not 672k, but 1,340,000 a year in annual income. But of course, with the above inflation it would be like earning not 672,000 but 504,000 a year. But that ain't bad.

The rule of 72 can also help you figure out:

- How much extra you will pay in interest by the time you finish a loan.

- How much you need to save to pay for a kids college.

- How much a car will probably cost in 2026

- How long it will take your IRA to return to pre-2008 levels if it lost half its value

- What a difference 5% increase in return can make over the years.

...and the fun is endless. What does the rule of 72 do for you?

How Haiti Became So Poor

2010-01-25T11:22:00.003-05:00

Haiti's poverty-stricken situation has been a reality for a long time. My small attempts at making my own drop in the bucket over the past five years have been reinvigorated and impassioned by the terrible disaster that has occurred through the earthquakes of the last weeks. (I don't consider a 5.9 or 6.1 shake merely an aftershock no matter what the technicalities are.) Part of my own interest is to uncover the long-term root of the impoverishment there in order to help put my drops in a bucket of long-term solutions rather than short-term band-aids.

Losing a dear friend in the rubble, and waiting to hear about a child's fate with whom we are connected regularly only strengthens that concern.

So here is what I have discovered in reading so far:

1. It started with colonialism.

Haiti was the jewel of the Antilles, a rich little island with rich soil and great exportation capabilities. When Spain colonized the little island and forced its native Taino Indian inhabitants into slavery. Small pox wiped out most of the population in combination with relentless and ruthless work forced on them by Columbus and his heirs in the Spanish mines.

More and more french explorers and settlers poured into Haiti to take advantage of its resources as well. They founded Saint Domingue and imported thousands of African slaves to capitalize on its riches. The result was the genocide of the Taino Indian population through brutal slavery and sometimes outright murder, and the reinhabiting of the island with European colonizers and African slaves. Haiti at one time produced 50% of France's Gross National Product. It was a cash cow driven by nearly free human labor. Among other things, Haiti produced coffee, sugar, tobacco, cocoa, cotton, and indigo dye.

2. Colonialism became culturally entrenched.

A very small population of Haitians found a way through the impossibly difficult standards of productivity to earn freedom. They broke their backs for freedom. Others, born of one white parent and one black, the mulattos, found freedom by nature of their lighter skin color and white ancestry. This small elite group of Haitians learned the power of cheap labor and wealth accumulation for their own interests and carried it well beyond colonial times into the present era. It was the heritage of their white colonialists greed.

3. After revolution, colonialism continued.

Haiti was the second nation in the world (after the US) to free itself from colonial control. On January 1, 1804 General Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared Saint-Domingue was no longer in existence and Haiti was now born. That same year an international coalition decided they didn't like the idea of an entire nation of freed slaves, and they instigated a boycott. The jewel of the Antilles could not find a buyer until 1838 and that was at a high price. The French demanded a payback for the loss of "their" land during the Revolution. It was land they conquered and claimed by force, so when it was overturned by force what right did they have? The right of might, economic might. They demanded 150 million francs of repayment (a massive sum at the time), which Haiti finally accepted in the form of debt in order to be able to trade. The Haitians could not pay it off until 1922 by which time they had paid the 150 million francs several times in interest on the debt alone. It was economic disaster. The US, England, among other countries were all complicit in the boycott of 1803 which set up the debt demand of 1838.

4. The United States forcefully occupied Haiti 1915-1934.

German influence was growing in Haiti in the early 20th century through intermarrying with the mulatto elites ( French, British, and U.S. inhabitants were less willing to do so ironically() in order to be able to own land. Germans were also financing multiple rebel coups in order to be able to financially gain from them. United States investors banded together to take over the only Haitian national bank, then the U.S. sent 300 marines to quell the unrest in order to "protect United States and international interests". The marines were told to protect U.S financial interests. The press was told it was to quell coups, violent rebel groups, etc. The U.S. on one December day killed 2,000 Haitian civilians in order to put down an attempted revolution against the U.S. backed mulatto elite government structure. It was at this point that Hoover decided to investigate the occupation he inherited and eventually ordered disengagement which Eisenhower finalized in 1934 (Eisenhower wrote the resented constitution for Haiti which many non-elites refused to accept but was forced through). The U.S. maintained large control of Haitian external finances however through the mid-1940s. This reinforced in many minds, including many in the NAACP, the fact that U.S. involvement was primarily about protecting private financial interests in the island all along.

5. Aid-based support of corrupt government.

Post 1946 the United States has continually offered "aid" packages to oppressive but America-friendly governments to keep them in power and keep anti-American governments out. The goal was never to impoverish or oppress the Haitian people, just to protect American military and financial interests in Haiti...the result was the support of corrupt government in Haiti which oppressed large portions of the population in Haiti.

The upside of U.S. involvement was thousands of miles of roads, bridges, and the laying of piping for drinking water to major population centers. This mixed package makes it difficult to disentangle benefit from detriment in U.S. involvement.

6. Escape to and Destruction of the Mountains.

The mountainous regions became the place of retreat for the non-elite creole speaking Haitian population from the oppressive French speaking elite Haitian run governments. The only fuel being wood, the trees have been continuously chopped down and not replanted. Erosion of the rich and fertile soil has resulted denigrated the countries ability to increase exportation.

7. French language maintains control.

Just as many other Creole languages, creole emerged as a creative blending of grammars from some languages (many suggest African) and vocabulary from others (Spanish and French) as a second language for parents which becomes the primary language for the next generation. The result is an entire population with a mother tongue that the ruling class deems "degnerate" and therefore not a full language. French then is the official ruling language of the educational system and the government in Haiti, leaving ninety percent of its population functionally illiterate since they speak Creole. This functions to create a permanent underclass.

There are many other more detailed elements, but this is a beginning.

What are your thoughts regarding the roots of poverty in Haiti? What long term solutions do you see working given this complex history and current condition of poverty in the nation?

Help for Haiti: Short Term, Long Term Aid

2010-01-16T09:19:00.003-05:00

My one-time neighbor, Hebrew study partner, and dear friend is lost among the Haitian rubble. Her husband was airlifted to Florida. She has not been found. He stood ten feet from her when the four story building crumbled. Our sponsored child lives (we hope) in Haiti. Just like you, we are praying for Haiti. But we know the best prayer is active prayer, prayer with hands and feet. So how do you best help Haiti?

As in any massive crisis such as this a few guidelines will apply for the near term and it is worth revisiting those (just as was necessary for the Asian Tsunami and Katrina.)

1. Send cash first, and send it right away.

Cash gets there immediately. Aid agencies cannot commit funds they do not have and cannot reasonably expect. A credit card payment on the web shows up immediately. In other words, cash gets to Haiti faster than water, blankets, or volunteers.

2. Send cash to established organizations in Haiti.

If someone was not already in Haiti before the crisis hit, do not send them money. Plenty of shucksters and hawkers will arise like ambulance chasers. Crisis can equal money, so give to those who were committed to this extremely poor nation before the earthquake hit. The only exception is well known first responding agencies such as the Red Cross. Take Obama's advice and go through the White House web page to avoid any Red Cross look alikes (and ignore the Racist ignorant comments from Rush about it. He's worse than the ambulance chasers). If you aren't familiar with an organization check its efficiency ratings. A site like charity navigator can help you determine whether or not the organization lives up to its purposes.

3. Do not get swept into critical statements and anger over kinks in the machine.

Every time aid is involved someone abuses it. Every time. The fallen human nature won't suddenly turn rosy just because thousands are dying. Drug addicts still face unbelievable compulsion for example. Someone will report it (some already are) and you might be tempted not to give. It never gets to where it needs to go, you are tempted to think. Wrong. It usually gets to where it needs to go. We hear about the smaller percentages of abuse and generalize them. If you give, and give following the guidelines in number 2, most of it gets there.

4. Plan for Long Term Giving.

Obviously I am a fan of child sponsorship. It links you to faces, names, and lives. It keeps you from sending a check from a distance without any love. You write a note, you send a gift, you send prayers, you send pictures... you send love. One of the other long term considerations to give in helping Haiti will be of course aid for reconstruction. That will take years and years. Put Haiti into your five year giving plan. They will need it. Finally, consider giving to combat human trafficking in Haiti. Impoverished nations are always preyed upon by slave traders. Small amounts of cash will motivate people in these countries toward inhumane activities since they need food, or medicine, or water. Moreover, unsupervised children are easy targets. Think about a country already plagued by the modern slave trade, that suddenly loses thousands of parents, has an economic collapse, and can't even get clean water. You got it. The slave trade in Haiti will skyrocket. Some of them will be kidnapped, or 'rescued' by a seemingly helpful person only to be transferred here or elsewhere as sex slaves. Its more lucrative than cocaine or meth. You can sell a drug once, you can sell a person over and over and over.

White House Site for Haitian Aid

Give Aid to Haiti, Sponsor a Child, or Combat Haitian Slavery

How to Make New Year's Resolutions Stick

2010-01-09T00:00:00.000-05:00

New Year's Resolutions are a great idea. As ideas go, what a wonderful idea to think through on a yearly basis the kinds of goals you want to resolve to do in the next year. Fantastic idea. Most growth plans usu

ally fail precisely on this point... they do not create a rhythm of reflection and action. New Years R

esolutions however, do just that. Every January, most of us at least hear the phrase and think for a moment or two about what new resolutions we might make.

Why don't they work? Well that depends on the person and the goal. They could be unrealistic (too large to tackle), too vague (you never know when they are done like "be happier"), or have too many factors outside of your control (make money in the stock market).

Here are some very specific ways you can make your New Year's Resolutions this year stick into next year.

1. Revisit your goals from this year at the same time next year. All New Year's resolutions o

ght to include this one at least. What good is a goal if by next year you can't even remember what go

al you made? Try writing it down, putting it in an envelope labeled "To Me, 2011" and stick it in your night stand drawer. You just doubled your chances of reaching your other goals if you did.

2. Write both process and product goals. Everyone seems to write product goals, since they are the desire

d end result. The better goals, however, are not the products but the processes that lie in your control. For example, you can't control your marriage's improvement any more than you can control your spouse. You can control the books you read, the counseling you receive, and the conferences you attend. Set a process goal to help you reach your product goal.

3. String goals along a time line. Nothing produces results like a deadline. Taxes are due by April 15 otherwise we would all still be thinking about starting 2002 taxes. After you have discovered some process goals, put a deadline on them. Then mark on your calenda

r the day of the deadline and the goal you have to reach. If you want to lose 15 pounds by next new year, that's a little over one pound a month. You can do that. Write in the weight you need to be at the beginning of each month on the calendar. Voila, you are on your way. One pound is a lot more manag

eable than 15. (You should add a process goal too, by the way, such as exercise three times for 20 minutes a week.)

4. Set a reward

. Everybody likes a treat, a doo-dad, or a celebration. The trick is to make sure it is something you won't give yourself otherwise, to make it public to somebody, and then work toward it. If you apply, get accepted, and start your next degree this year what can you give yourself to celebrate? A new espresso mach

ine? A night away from the kids? A new briefcase or backpack? A

new or refurbished laptop? If you lose those fifteen pounds, how about three new outfits?

What do you do to make your New Year Resolutions stick? Do you have any for the coming year? How do you reward yourself for goals achieved? Let me know in the comment section below.

Green Skin is Easier than Black Skin

2009-12-26T00:00:00.000-05:00

Apparently green skin is easier to deal with than black skin. I know that first off that's a strange thing to say, and you may even think it is an offensive to write. More importantly, what possible right do I have to even be discussing it? I certainly have no expertise in issues of color and sociological reactions to it. I just have an educated hunch. We like green skin better than dark brown. What gives me the hunch? Hollywood.

Hollywood does its homework. It rarely fails to do so. When you have an operation bringing in revenue in the tens or hundreds of millions for one film you do your legwork to make sure it will fit the bill. The show that gave me the realization that minty skin was easier than chocolate was The Princess and the Frog, Disney's new movie.

We have been waiting quite some time for Disney to present a princess movie with an African American heroine. Interesting isn't it that we began with "mi

norities" (in American consciousness) that are even more in the minority before moving to African Americans? (Native American with Pocahontas then Chinese with Mulan) And when we finally get to the princess full feature cartoon with an African American main character, what happens? She spends three quarters of the movie as a frog, with green skin.

Fluke? Well I do not have an air tight argument. Just a few examples that started to form a pattern in my mind. When we wanted to illustrate the negative affects of prejudice, hatred, and nastiness toward skin color during Christmas time we created the Grinch.

That's fine and good. After all, that kind of prejudice goes all directions. So maybe a green screen affect would be good. The color green by the way is supposedly the color least like human skin color. Therefore its the most easily removed from film. That's why they use a "green screen" often in weather functions etc. But I am getting off track. Back to green skin.

When Disney's Pixar wanted to deal with being different and "ugly" again they chose green skin. Now, Shrek was played with a Scottish voice by a clearly White actor in Mike Myers, and the donkey had Eddie Murphy's forms of ebonics running in its humor (more sociological struggles here as well though with the African American humorous and disrespected sidekick). Blackface parallels aside it plays with my thesis a little. They shook it up. And the message in both of these examples is about loving people in spite of their skin color or appearance. So good.

Maybe the more important film to note is just the one that started the suspicion. In this, Disney's film, we have a black princess finally! But she is the daughter of a poor maid who works for fabulously wealthy plantation owners. She quickly loses her dark skin becoming a frog, and is supposed to fall for a prince who wouldn't pass a brown bag test among African Americans (they darkened him up after some outrage, so after release now he might pass the test...but his features and facial shapes certainly seem more European than African) Not only is the character light, the actor is white (Bruno Campos). The princess side kick? Michael-Leon Wooley, an African American, a singing alligator... green skin.

Hmmm...

Now, I could judge Hollywood and get angry (and perhaps I should). But more important for me anyway, is to realize that Hollywood is a mirror. Remember, they do their homework. Apparently Hollywood after doing its research decided the majority of Americans (white) would identify better with frogs than with African Americans. So, to make more green, green skin it is. Now that is worthy of deep grief.

We have a long, long, way to go. We have come far, and have so far left to travel. God help us.

How to Not Be A Tiger: Many Are the Fallen

2009-12-19T00:00:00.001-05:00

Tiger Woods is on every channel this week. Not in person, of course, but he is there in image and is the center of angry conversation for good reason. I keep a growing list of people whose lives have been tragically and permanently damaged by infidelity. This isn't some self-righteous activity where I can judge those people. Quite the contrary. It's a scary list. I started the list as a junior in college when a major role model failed in a very public way with a student. He was the first on the list. Then another came the next year who had significant connections with my life. Then another the next year. Tonight I remembered to add Tiger, that athlete whose seeming family focus encouraged me and skill and persistence inspired me (and still does).

I have added family members, pastors, politicians, friends, men and women. The list as I say scares me. By God's grace, my marriage is intact and strong, I have no secret relationship, and my conscience is clean. By God's grace. The list scares me because if it could happen to them, all of them, it could even more easily happen to weak and susceptible me. Some of these figures are towers of discipline, seeming paragons of self-control (perhaps thats part of the problem) and they failed by having inappropriate relationships across marital lines, across boundaries of power and authority, and reaped tragic consequences.

So, if it could happen to anybody, that means it could happen to you. When you are in your right mind, thinking clearly, and have a healthy relationship I imagine you don't want it to happen to you. How do we, while we are in our right minds, make decisions that will keep us from becoming what Tiger Woods is today when we are in our not so clear minds.

Here are some thoughts I have gathered, you will have to let me know what you think.

1. Have a few people you are committed to sharing your difficulties with.

I don't mean an accountability group as some people call them, although I suppose they have worked for some. You are only as accountable as you choose to be. Sometimes groups are a mask for a lack of will and people begin to think they are okay and secure if they have a group. It's true, as long as they are honest. I find it more helpful to have two or three safe people including my wife to whom I promise to share my temptations. It takes a lot of courage in a marriage on both parties part to share these things. It is amazing how the emotional pull or the sexual appeal of a person can diminish as soon as I start talking to a friend or my wife about it.

2. Share early rather than late.

The earlier the better. Every married person is attracted to people they are not married to. That is just human nature. The attraction can be physical, emotional, or indirect (for example, someone might represent freedom or popularity to you). The earlier you share the sooner you shortcut the building up of that attraction. The more it builds, the less you will be in your right mind.

3. Ask, "What do I really want?"

Is it adventure? Risk? Someone who wants you back? Laughter? Romance? Deep connection? Shared interests? Variety? Escape? Release? Think through what it is you really want and find other ways to get it. Your want probably isn't wrong, it's probably thoroughly good and healthy. It is the way you are tempted to fill that want that might be damaging to the rest of your life. If you put the work you are tempted to put into an affair, into your own relationship it very well might start meeting the needs you think it cannot meet. But it will be a different kind of work. Painful on the front end, joyful in the end. Tiger's tragic pain is the reverse right now.

4. Don't live with secrets.

Secrets stink. They are stressful really. I wonder how much extra stress the secrets Tiger was living with caused him? Why do you think lie detector tests work so well? The stress on the physical body of living a lie is so intense it's relatively easily measured. If you start heading down the wrong road, get off at the next exit... the very next exit. You will be scared to death of rejection. You will be afraid to tell someone for what it might cost you.In reality, the longer it hides the worse it gets. People who initiate confession and attempts at change are much more likely to be trusted and restored than those who are caught red handed at 2 in the morning.

Those are just a few thoughts, not very comprehensive. If we do not want to end up in Tiger's present situation we have to avoid his past secrecy and image of flawlessness.

Would you add to that list? Take away?

Qualified to Teach

2009-12-12T00:00:00.000-05:00

Today I received the official note in my mail box: Dissertation Proposal accepted. That means I am what people often label ABD: All But Dissertation. Traditionally, the idea of being ABD is that you are fully "qualified to teach." So, many PhD students upon reaching ABD if they find a job, go and teach while they finish writing.

This raises a question for me, what qualifies someone to teach? After all, we have many many professors begin teaching who never even care to think about reaching ABD level that seem fully qualified to teach. Karl Barth never "earned" a doctorate the traditional way even though he was a professor for decades. Was he qualified? Clearly. So it isn't the courses per se, the degree as such, or the paper at the end. What really qualifies a person to teach?

Is it the passing of a short set of courses at a high level? Is it the reading of 500 or more pages a week? Perhaps it is the habit of asking good questions on the subject. Is it the ability to recount that information in chronological order? Is it the ability to make an extended intelligent argument using all of that material? Those are the sorts of things that are intrinsic to most PhD programs.

I am not sure those should be the only qualifiers. (I don't want to get rid of them) So here is my list of some other things I think are necessary to truly qualify someone to teach:

1. Teaching is its own goal. If teaching is a means to some other end, then I think it has been turned around. Teaching can, and should, bring many benefits. Salaries and benefits are nice, and should be given. Some time off is crucial for ongoing research. But if teaching is primarily a way to earn money, a platform for writing or speaking, or a stepping stone to prestige then the teacher isn't really qualified to teach. Teaching ought to be something that you would moonlight at for free if necessary. That doesn't mean the person only knows how to teach and is one of the irritating persons in the world that always tries to teach in every conversation. Quite the contrary, it simply means that teaching holds intrinsic value for the teacher.

2. Genuine love for students. Teaching requires two fundamental materials: teacher and student. For teachers who find students to be primarily obstacles and an irritations it does call into question whether or not the first requirement is really being met. More importantly, it misses the point of cultivation, formation, and education in the richest sense of those words. The students themselves, not the subject matter, are the subjects of teaching.

3. The field of study must be a living question. Contrary to popular opinion perhaps, teachers who have figured it out and now merely want an expert soap box in the form of a lectern aren't really all that interesting, and they teach us little. A teacher is first and foremost a learner and a listener. Every teacher should expect at the beginning of the semester to say to the class in three months "I have learned a lot from you" and mean it.

4. The teacher must clearly see the reason for teaching as the improvement of life.
The reason to teach is not merely preparation for production in society, passing down of traditions and data, or even the exploration of a field of thought. The reason for teaching is a deep desire to see life improved. Chemistry saves lives and enriches them. History does the same. Geography can do the same. There are numerous occasions where the truthful ring of a poem has saved lives and certainly enriched society. Teaching exists to improve life. As a Christian professor of course my thoughts are focused on my religion which I believe improves life, saves lives, and enriches all areas of existence when pursued. Otherwise, why would I teach it?

5. A life worth emulating. If the last point is true, it seems this one must be as well. If the improvement of life is the aim, then it must be more than transmission of data and knowledge. I submit that to be qualified to teach we need to live a life worth emulating. That does not mean there cannot be some quirks and failings. I say emulation not exact copying. Yet if there are no significant elements of our lives that stand out as particularly worthy of the emulation of our students then we have to wonder if our teaching really has begun to reach its goal in even our own lives.

Of all the teachers I have respected, I respect the most those whose lives are worth emulating in some way. Some have been extremely generous, others remarkably patient, many extremely diligent in their work, most humble in spite of their wisdom, a cluster have been truly empathetic, and a rare handful have communicated deeply held respect and even loving concern. These taught more than data, they taught in a way that enriched life.

They are truly qualified to teach.

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

A Saturday Off

2009-12-05T10:12:00.003-05:00

I am taking this Saturday off for the Academy of Homiletics Meeting in Washington, D.C. These meetings keep me busy with reconnections, professional networking, and rich conversations with good friends. Back again next Saturday. ~ Dave

Occupational Hazards

2009-11-28T00:00:00.000-05:00

I was reminded yesterday that no matter what we do, we face certain risks particular to the task. I bumped into this thought again in Ecclesiastes 10:8-9. If I was to title these verses I would title them occupational hazards. Here they are in the NIV:

8 Whoever digs a pit may fall into it;
whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake.

9 Whoever quarries stones may be injured by them;
whoever splits logs may be endangered by them.

It makes sense that this is the way of things. If you quarry stones, you might have a stone injury, splitting logs might fly and hit you. That thought caused me to do some reflection this week on my own occupational hazards. I have several occupations really. I will focus in though on the occupational hazards of ministry since I am most familiar with those.

Ministry's Occupational Hazards:

1. Losing touch with normal everyday life.

I don't think this happens if you minister well and are daily involved in the lives of your community. Yet there is the danger of becoming so wrapped up in the church business and church world that you forget what goes on in factories, schools, bars, prisons, nursing homes, and other places of every day life.

2. "Saving" others, losing yourself or your family.

Ministry takes a high toll and asks for more. Every minister quickly realizes that one of the most challenging portions of her job is to set boundaries on the black hole of ministry needs. Miss that balance and you may burn out completely. You may pursue dangerous escapes that eventually end your ministry (perhaps subconsciously on purpose). You may keep going and embitter your spouse or your children or both. Most church attenders are grateful for the positive influence on their children. Most pastors are concerned about the ministry's negative influence on theirs. The "I need to save people" mentality takes more forms than just evangelical zeal. It can rear its head in the desire to be a healing presence, to counsel people well, to lead effectively, or to overcome any obstacle to others' well being. Those of us in ministry call this the Messiah complex, we think we have to be Jesus.

3. Financial dependency.

This isn't the worst hazard in the world I suppose. But it is there. Many ministers live in parsonages or manses. They don't often receive retirement benefits directly, and often boards give them salaries that reflect a monk or nun-like view of ministry - a vow of poverty. I know my first salary in ministry was below the official poverty line. If you live just a thousand or two below the poverty line in America, though it doesn't lead to starvation or freezing cold nights, just financial dependency. There are certainly people who live well below the poverty line in America and suffer the results. I just never have. If a minister in these sorts of conditions does not find a way to moonlight on the side he may end up completely at the mercy of others, and a dependent on the state. More and more churches are realizing the danger this places there retired ministers in (let alone their active ministers with large families). Yet it seems, at least in my own denomination, we have a ways to go.

4. Moral failure.

It may seem like this is a hazard of every job, and I suppose it is in some sense. Stock brokers may be tempted toward inside trading or Ponzi schemes. Business leaders may be tempted to embezzle funds. Politicians certainly seemed tempted toward use of power for illicit relationships. Ministers though have a certain type of power matched with a sense of powerlessness. As a result, many don't recognize their power. Ministers wield incredible spiritual authority. This authority leaves some individuals in the congregation highly vulnerable to certain emotional attachments or sexual fantasies due to their own brokenness. When a minister then feels powerless in congregational politics or unable to "save" people from misery, death, or spiritual depravity, he or she may see the sense of power an affair brings. It may be power, escape, a need for self celebration, freedom, or a way to medicate some other pain. Whatever the reason, ministers seem especially vulnerable to relational and sexual indiscretions and have to be on guard at all times against it.

Are there occupational hazards of ministry you think I missed? If you are not a minister, what are the occupational hazards for your profession?

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

Does God Use Pain for Good?

2009-11-21T00:00:00.000-05:00

A dear friend recently raised the question of pain and God's goodness. It is a familiar question to me. In my first two years of pastoring I held the hands of more people as they passed into the next life than I care to remember. I watched as children were left without parents, doctor's mistakes took lives, suicidal attempts were successful, and cancer robbed the final breath of dearly loved saints who did much good while living. So not only has this question come to me from the mouths of others, it has rattled around in the conversation of my mind.

This dear friend though pressed it in a difficult direction. He said he feared that God's favored means of making us good might be suffering. He wondered in reflection on Job if God actually chose pain and suffering for us more often than we knew... so that we might be better lovers, better givers, better worshipers, better neighbors, better Christ followers.

It isn't a new idea. Iranaeus and then John Hicks more recently have offered this way of viewing suffering. Hicks calls it a soul making view of suffering and God's goodness. We become more like God as we willingly face suffering as God would have us face it, or as God did face it in Christ.

But is this God's favorite way?

Does God intentionally choose this for us, or does God use it as a tool that is at hand in a broken world?

Would God prefer some other way? Might this not make us constantly watch for the other shoe to drop, God's mercy is only always followed by God's abusively disciplining hand?

Is there an entirely better way to frame suffering and evil?

Here are some other options I have heard:

1. Suffering and evil are absolutely senseless. WIthout reference or meaning. All we can do is limit, lessen, and seek to eliminate it. (Often followed with, there is no God.)
2. Suffering is against the will of God completely and God desires to end it now. Health and wealth gospels seem to go this direction.
3. God suffers. God suffered in Christ and suffered for us, so that eternity's good for us will outweigh the present evil and suffering by far. This is the "incomparably greater good" argument.
4. Then of course there is the old pulpit pounder... suffering is a judgment of God
5. Suffering is all of these things: absolutely senseless, often actually against the will of God, used by God for good including shaping our souls, sometimes an act of judgment by God and therefore part of God's will, and undergone by God so that suffering is not the final word... mercy is.

What are your thoughts? Does one option strike you as more congruent with reality or the way you view the world? Are there other options?

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

Do You Waste 1 Out of Every 5 Waking Hours?

2009-11-14T00:00:00.001-05:00

Most of us wipe out 1 of every 5 hours of our waking lives. And we do it on purpose with time wasters. Don't believe me? Here's how.

Americans sleep around 7 hours a day on average (according to the National Sleep Foundation, 6.7 actually on a weekday). That leaves you with 17 hours of waking time every day. So, in order to prove my point, I have to prove that you might actually throw away 3.4 hours of your waking day, every day, by just wasting time.

Here are the top ten ways we do it:

1. Flipping channels.

No I am not talking about regular TV watching (we should consider that purposeful relaxation or entertainment). Just channel surfing. I am assuming that if you watch TV you don't consider it wasting time. Even if it might be. So that wouldn't be fair. But channel surfing? That's a different story. You channel surf when you can't find something you want to watch. In other words, there is nothing on but you are still watching.

If you are a woman, the average is 5 hours of TV a day. If you are a man, 4 hours in America. 1/4 of that usually spent channel surfing. So, let's take the lower number and voila, we have 1 hour already.

2. Commuting.

I know you have to get to work. And I know that it may not be possible/desirable to live close to where you work. So commuting can't be a total time waster either. So, let's give each other 10 minutes of freebie time. If you live within ten minutes one way, twenty minutes round trip, for our purposes you aren't wasting time. According to the 2005 census, the average commute time is 24.3 minutes. Round it up to 25 to make it easy and that is 50 minutes. That means the average time wasted on commuting is one half hour a day. That puts us up to 1.5 hours. Half way to our goal!

3. Surfing the web.

Oops. Shouldn't say that on a blog. A study in 2005 of IT decision makers revealed that IT leaders after reviewing work logs believed their fellow office mates spent an average of 5.9 hours a week on internet time wasters at work. Heard of fantastic contraption? Maybe not. How about facebook? Divide that by seven and we have 50 minutes a day and we haven't even counted wasted time on the web at home. We have 2 hours and twenty minutes.

4. Checking email... again.

Thomas Jackson of Loughborough University, England performed a study on wasting time with email. In this study Dr Jackson found that it takes an average of 64 seconds to recover your train of thought after interruption by email. So people who check their email every five minutes waste 8 and 1/2 hours a week figuring out what they were doing moments before. Checking every five minutes was his average. That gives us another 1 hour and thirteen minutes bringing our total so far to 3 hours and 33 minutes. (Source)

And that puts us over the top.

In other words you could save 3 hours and 33 minutes a day by:
1. Turning off the TV after one cycle through the channels.
2. Living within ten minutes drive of your place of work.
3. Intentionally limiting your internet time to purposeful work at the office, and limited play at home.
4. Checking email at set times daily and turning it off in between.

What could you do with an extra 3.4 hours a day?

Here's to a more efficient you.

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

Sermon Forms and Styles

2009-11-07T07:00:00.003-05:00

I have written a little bit over the last few months about preaching here and there among other things. I thought it might be fun in this post just to gather some of those links together as a resource for this week.

1. Write Sermons People Will Remember

2. Topical Sermons and How to Write Them

3. How to Write Inductive Sermons

4. Wedding Sermons

5. Write a Narrative Sermon: The Lowry Loop

6. Ending Sermons on Purpose: Beyond Umm... Amen.

7. How to Write a Three Point Sermon

8. How to Write Sermon Openers/Introductions

9. How to Preach Shame Free Sermons

10. Holiday Sermon Writing

These are just a random sampling of my forty or so random reflections on preaching. They are too small to really be called articles except in the online world. But I hope you find them helpful. If you do, let me know in the comments section below. Have a great week!

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

7 Rules (Plus 1) for Preaching with Passion

2009-10-31T00:00:00.000-04:00

When I interview youth, young adults, and adults of all ages about what makes preaching powerful I almost always here one word: passion. "She was so passionate." "You could tell he was passionate." "I love it when a preacher has passion." Interestingly enough, I find the same word coming up even in 'less passionate' traditions. Sometimes Evangelicals are thought to be more "emotional" if at times to an extreme, but even main liners are asking (sometimes begging) for passion.

Preaching with passion, however, is much more difficult than just writing sermons. So many preachers get stuck in the rut of finding something to say Sunday. This product-driven view of preaching inevitably drains any passionate connection out of the sermonic process.

Here are my seven (plus one) rules for preaching with passion in my own life. I wonder if there are any you might add or take away?

1. Pick a passage that you think is significant

Some preachers choose among lectionary texts, others work through books of the Bible, or in topically crafted sermon series. Whatever passage selection method you choose, start with a particular passage that resonates for some reason with you that you have a hunch might be significant. The power of preaching on a passage rather than a topic is you have a much higher confidence in your content. It takes much more gifting and skill to preach topically than expositionally. It can be done, of course. It just usually is not the best idea for new or less skilled preachers.

2. Perform the text

I learned this from the main line preachers, and it is a powerful lesson. Do the hard work it takes to decide how to embody the text dramatically with vocal and physical gesture. Make interpretive decisions as you perform the text such as tone, speed, emphasis, and the center of gravity in the text. Sometimes the most central part of my preaching work is done by the time I can perform a text well. It is nearly memorized, I feel like I can get inside of the text, and I have made major decisions about what it means and how it means.

3. Search for personal life change in the text.

This is the most crucial step for preaching passionately. If something does not change your own life, then any attempt to preach passionately will either come across as fake, condescending, or angry. Wrestle with the text until you sense the Spirit pointing to a place in your own life God wants to change. Submit to that change. No body likes a high horse preacher.

4. Read the passage through other's eyes.

Ask how this passage might change other's lives as well. Think through they eyes of a widow, an orphan, an adopted child, a stay at home mom, a person of a different skin color, a more wealthy person, a more impoverished person, as well as specific people in your congregation. How do their perspectives transform your own? How might this passage bring transformative good news to them? You might actually want to get off your chair and actually ask some of these people.

5. Seek the passage's ability to transform community.

How would this passage not only change you, but the community's in which you are a part. What way of being in the world is being presented by the passage that would change life as we know it? Cast a vision for a community that lives as if this passage was speaking truth.

6. Start writing your sermon out loud

Most often a sermon is best when it starts in the audible realm instead of the written. Use your own language, your own style of speaking, and attempt to speak about the life transforming power of this passage in a private room.

7. Craft the sermon with facilitating life change in mind.

The question is, how can you facilitate the kind of life change this passage created in me this week for those who listen? There will be other applications that emerge, but your real desire is for the people to encounter God through the preaching of this passage is a way at least as powerful as you experienced this week. You cannot make that happen, only God can. Yet you can write a sermon that expects it to happen, makes space for it to happen, and points the listener in the direction of where it happened for you.

The rule that trumps all other rules?

8. Pray for passion.

It is amazing how this works. Prayer, who would have thought it? Prayer for passion, especially passionate prayer for God given passion seems to always work. Ask and you shall receive.

Did I miss something you find to be key to preaching with passion?

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

Beginning Sexual Addiction Recovery

2009-10-17T07:33:00.000-04:00

Recovering from sexual addiction is a difficult and long term process. Similar to other addictions it is behavioral disorder characterized by compulsive sexual behavior often in increasingly self-destructive forms.

Sexual addiction can range however from relatively benign sexual behavior that is deemed undesirable by the addict to thoroughly dangerous and damaging activity that is condemned by society at large. Whether you fall on the benign or the destructive ends of the range or somewhere in between, sexual addiction recovery and addiction treatment will be one of the most challenging and rewarding pursuits of your life. Follow these steps to start pursuing your own addiction treatment and freedom.

~ Admit you cannot overcome this on your own ~

Addiction treatment always begins here. If you could overcome this on your own you already would have. Resist the temptation toward prideful belief that you can try harder, do more, or do differently and recover. If you have tried to control your undesirable sexual activity in the past and failed, admit you need help. Say it out loud to yourself in the mirror, admit it face-to-face to a trustworthy and safe person. This is often the scariest step of addiction treatment, but it is one you will have to continually revisit.

~ Find a counselor to help with your recovery ~

Often a completely confidential relationship that counseling offers is the best entry point to addiction treatment for sexual addicts. The fear of trying to find a recovery group, and the shame of heading into a room reserved for such a meeting serves a high barrier to many. Start with a one-on-one relationship with a counselor. Counseling is a totally normal phenomenon people pursue for everything from anger to insecurity to more serious issues. Search for a licensed counselor in your area and ask them if they are experience in sexual addiction treatment.

~ Commit to honesty and transparency with a few ~

You do not have to, and should not, air your dirty laundry with just any body in your life. Not everyone is a safe person to share your addiction treatment efforts with. Be discerning. However, you will need a few people to whom you can turn at any time for help in your recovery process. Since addiction is fueled by shame, secrecy, and deception its greatest cure is understanding, open, and honest communication in loving safe community. Consider writing and signing a contract of honesty with one or two people. Include your counselor if she or he deems it helpful for your addiction treatment.

~ Establish a clean house ~

Your house needs to be a safe place for you to dwell, relatively free of dangerous triggers. Get rid of any explicit material, place protective software on your computers, and eliminate any previously addictive channels on your TV provider as part of your addiction treatment. You cannot eliminate all triggers from your life. However, these things are like an alcoholic keeping vodka under the sink. Recovery just won't work that way.

~ Draw up a list of behavioral boundaries ~

These will have to be continually adjusted as you progress in your recovery and addiction treatment. However, the idea is to stop doing those activities which immediately precede compulsive behavior for you and are part of a ritual you pursue as part of the addictive behavior.

~ Consider joining a recovery group ~

The freedom of sharing with others who understand, sharing successes and disappointments, and maintaining a scheduled time for dealing with your recovery is a powerful tool. Follow the guidance of a counselor as to the kind of group that will best help your particular struggles and consider combining group therapy, individual therapy with medicinal therapy as parts of your addiction treatment. Congratulations on the courage you are showing by even reading this article!

** See more tips on sexual addiction treatment and recovery below **

* Many addicts find it helpful to limit or eliminate cash-on-hand so that their purchases and financial dealings can be more easily tracked.
* Choose those with whom you share this information carefully. Does this person have a history of gracious interactions with others and an ability to understand others struggles? Can they keep confidence well?

* Avoid convincing yourself you are 'recovered' after a few months. Stay in the process of recovery as a lifelong commitment to a healthier self.

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

Sharpen Your Listening Skills

2009-10-10T00:00:00.000-04:00

Really listening well is a skill that is learned not just a gift that is given. 'You are not listening to me, are you?' That accusation is difficult to receive but may point you to a new area of growth.

Do you find yourself being absolutely unable to remember the content of a recent conversation? Do you get a glazed eye look when someone you love is talking about something important to them? Do you interrupt, fill in the blanks, or regularly feel as though you don't understand someone you love?

Follow these steps to becoming a good listener.

'To be heard and understood is so close to being loved, most people cannot tell the difference.' ~ David Augsburger.

BE FULLY AVAILABLE.

When someone is speaking to you forget everything anyone ever told you about multi-tasking or efficiency. Listening is a very inefficient activity on the front end. But failing to listen can be disastrous and inefficient in the long run. So give 100% of your physical, mental, and emotional energy. Lean forward. Give non-verbal and verbal feedback (nod the head, say 'mmm hmmm...') Rid your mind of what to say next, what to ask next, what you will do next, or the damaging conversation you had a moment ago. Be fully present.

'I am all yours.'

PAY COMPLETE ATTENTION.

Availability and attention are related. But the first is required for the second. When you are available you are finally able to pay attention. Availability is the emptying of the mind of other things. It makes room. Attention is the filling and engaging of the mind with one thing...the other person's communication.

GET INTO THE OTHERS' PERSPECTIVE.

Leave yourself out of the picture while you are listening as much as possible. Your goal is to be completely interested in getting inside the world of the other person. Try to gain glimpses of empathy and understanding. When you don't understand the perspective of the other, ask for clarification or help.

'Help me understand what you mean...'

REFUSE TO JUDGE OR CRITIQUE.

There will be a time for you to express your own opinions and thoughts. Listening is not the time. Until a person is fully heard and understood they will have a hard time hearing anything you have to say anyway. Let them empty their minds and hearts. Then you can share your thoughts... if they remain the same. Failure at this point creates defensiveness and builds barriers to true communication.

CREATE A FEEDBACK LOOP.

Ask questions for clarification. Summarize what the other said and reflect it back to them. These actions help the other person recognize where they are being understood and where they need to clarify.

'So if I am hearing you, you are saying... Is that right?'

VALIDATE EMOTIONS, DESIRES, AND NEEDS.

There are some elements of communication that are beyond judgement. We can debate logic, argue positions, and judge opinions. But emotions, desires, and needs are beyond the pale of critique. When someone feels grieved it is time to recognize that grief as healthy and be present with them in it. When someone wants to feel fulfilled in their work, it is time to validate and help them achieve that desire. When someone needs to feel loved it is time to validate that need as good and express our desire to help them feel loved.

'I can understand why you would feel that way. That makes complete sense to me.'
'I can appreciate wanting work to be meaningful. I didn't realize that you were struggling with that.'
'You should want to be loved. Everyone needs that.'

Some miscellaneous tips:
* Reign in your thoughts to hear each and every word the other person says.
* Practice these skills until they become natural instead of forced.
* Have a listening partner practice with you and tell you how well they felt heard.
* Instead of using mental energy building a response, use it to ask a clarifying question.
* Avoid reaching a conclusion before the person is done speaking.
* Be careful of completing sentences or rushing a person. Give them patient attention.
* Avoid getting hung up on emotionally loaded words. Listen for what you can appreciate, not what hurts.
(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

School Comparison and Social Justice

2009-10-03T08:23:00.003-04:00

Many parents are faced with a difficult dilemma with public schools. In most communities school systems have a reputation for excellence based upon test scores, behavioral factors, teacher to student ratios, graduation rates, teen pregnancy rates, etc. Of course, most parents want the best for their children. Parents generally speaking wish for this education to be academically enriching within a safe social environment.

The difficulty is in many communities in America, poverty is a geographical reality with poorer communities comprising sections of the town, city, or borough. Property values in some of these communities regularly decline rather than increase. Crime rates are higher, single parent homes are more common, and many more factors of a culture of poverty are present. Schools are zoned geographically for convenience sake, and are often funded by a combination of taxes gathered by the community for property values and actual attendance at the schools.

In America, these realities are highly correlated with race. White flight occurs when minorities move into areas where whites previously were predominant. Many whites assume the neighborhood is "declining" and move taking property values, taxes, and their school aged children with them. That means that in many communities in the United States the markers of educational excellence track in high correlation with the relative lightness/darkness of the skin color in the school.

All of this is part of a systemic level of both residual and ongoing affects of prejudice against "people of color." It is a deeply ingrained issue that goes way back to the roots of our democracy.

What is a socially minded parent to do? Whether that parent is chocolate, vanilla, or caramel in skin coloring it is a difficult dilemma.

Placing one's children in school systems that are plagued with the negative affects of this injustice statistically seems to mean offering children a sub-standard education while exposing them to behaviors that might be physically, emotionally, or psychologically damaging for them.

Placing children in the "better" schools (public or private) if your children are white deprives them of developing a level of multicultural awareness and skill in the educational environment. It also continues the pattern of removing help from the schools which need it most, giving it to the schools that need it least. For concerned families of various minorities, placing the children in "better" schools means putting them in a situation where they are in the extreme minority without role models or significant friendships with people who look like them or understand the subtleties of their culture.

There's the problem.

What are your thoughts? If you are a parent, how have you wrestled with this issue? If you are an educator, how do you perceive the problem?

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

Raise Your Self-Esteem

2009-09-26T00:00:00.000-04:00

Overcoming low self-esteem is a process that takes time. However, it is one of the most important things you can do for your own personal growth. Low self-esteem will keep you from performing at your highest level, limit your goal setting, and ultimately could cause an early end to your life.

Follow these steps in order over and over again to overcome low self-esteem.

1. Identify negative internal messages.

The first step in raising self-esteem is facing the internalized critic that constantly beats you down. Every person has a sort of internal dialogue that is ongoing. Don't worry, it's not craziness. Plato called thought the "dialogue of the soul with itself." So, you are in good company.

Take out a piece of paper and start listing all of the negative messages you hear your mind repeat that lower your self-esteem. Here are some examples: "You just can't get it together, can you?" "You will never be good enough." "Why try, you'll just fail." "You are a selfish person." Some people call these your "core lies."

2. Replace negative messages with true ones.

These negative messages 'feel' true, even though you know they aren't true. Often, the more you know them to be false, the more they 'feel' true. Why? These negative messages are bound to deeply painful emotional memories. Start by pullling out the old messages as often as possible and replace them with messages like: "I can figure anything out if I stick with it." "I don't have to have it all together to be loved." "I am already good enough for those who love me." "I am a loving and giving person."

3. Identify the original memories.

Try to recall the earliest memory you have attached to each core-lie memory. Close your eyes, meditate, and try to imagine it in full. These memories are the core memories that drive your negative messages. Either in close relationship with a counselor or through ongoing conversation with a trusted and safe person, explore these memories for their meaning. What did they mean to you? Why did they impact you so deeply? How could you retell these stories in a way that undoes the shame you feel?

4. Find things you don't think you can do.

This may seem disconnected but it's not. Low self-esteem often manifests itself primarily in a sense of 'inefficacy' or 'powerlessness.' It is the general sense that the way things are is out of your control. Not true. That is why you need to find things you don't think you can do. Doesn't that just lower my self esteem? Not if you continue with the next step.

5. Learn to do something you couldn't do before.

There isn't much you can do that is more powerful than this step. It will take some effort and determination. Along the way you will have to be intentional about spouting out your true messages in the face of the internal critic rearing its head at your setbacks and mistakes. But once you accomplish something, it will do amazing things for your self esteem.

6. Repeat steps four and five.

The key is to continually build a sense of personal efficacy or power. You can accomplish more than you ever thought. You can figure out and conquer most things with just enough time and effort. Don't give up! Learn to use a chain saw, bake a cheesecake, ride a motorcycle, sew your own clothing, change a serpentine belt, buy at an auction, purchase real estate, publish your work, hike a trail, start a business, or any other thing you think is beyond you. Then set your sights on the next challenge and overcome.

Some more key tips:

* Surround yourself with safe and celebratory people.
* Gradually restrict the negative voices in your life. You don't have time for that kind of energy drain.
* Write out some of your most challenging goals and enlist help staying encouraged.

Warnings:

* Don't be surprised if these negative voices take years to silence.
* Don't give up on this process just because it takes a while- it will! This process will be a great part of the rest of your life.

Related Links:
I originally published this article here.
See more about dealing with shame or low self esteem at ShameLifter.

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

Funding Retirement with Genocide

2009-09-12T00:00:00.000-04:00

Would you vote against Genocide? Would I?

American Funds is facing a decision in October. I only know, since I am a very small shareholder. Every shareholder gets a letter offering us a summary of the votes coming up. Genocide is on the ballet. There are 8 issues. Genocide is number 8.

The board always tells us the way we think we should vote in case we are too lazy to figure it out ourselves (and we are). The board recommends "voting for the first 7" and "voting against measure 8." Measure 8 reads exactly this way:

“to institute procedures to prevent holding investments in companies that, in the judgment of the board, substantially contribute to genocide or crimes against humanity, the most egregious violations of human rights.”

Now why, please do tell, would I vote against that?

In case you are skim reading, let me make it clear: the board does not want to avoid investing in companies that substantially contribute to genocide or other crimes against humanity or violations of human rights.

So, I should give them the benefit of the doubt. Here's the spin from their PR guy:

“We believe that considering these issues on a company-by-company basis and as part of the investment management process is preferable to having the fund boards make these decisions.” ~ American Funds spokesman Chuck Freadhoff.

Okay, great! So, sounds like they have some process that is more localized and places companies under scrutiny. Right?

Well, if they do, it isn't working. PetroChina is one of the large investments American funds has made. Guess where part of their business is? Sudan... Darfur. PetroChina was invested there throughout what the US labeled a genocide.

Yea, but perhaps American Funds has an answer. They do. Here it is (from their proxy voting summary)

"While some believe total divesture (getting out of investing in them) is necessary for change, others generally believe that the world stay engaged with the offending countries because engagement is the best - or only - opportunity to exert influence."

So, American Funds is arguing for us to stay invested in companies as they make money in war-torn, oppressive regines as a way of exerting influence. Hmmm. Here's how that influence went with Sudan:

"China gets oil...In return, Sudan gets money, weapons and political backing from China. Because about 70 to 80 percent of Sudan's oil revenue is funneled into its military, China's oil assets in Sudan are "an undeniable and well-documented enabler of Khartoum's genocidal policy in Darfur," according to the Sudan Divestment Task Force."' (quoted from money.cnn.com)

Though now we are seeing the "remnants of genocide" instead of ongoing genocide in Darfur, for the last seven years American Funds has remained invested in PetroChina as it pays the Sudanese government in money and weapons.

So, the facts are American Funds invested in a company that invested in Sudan knowing a majority of those funds supported the Sudanese genocidal actions. American funds goes on to say that "human rights violations are important and are among the factors that affect a company's long term prospects for success."

I am curious. What would you vote?

Would you vote for the resolution above asking them to be more careful?
Or do you agree with their logic of "influence" "fund manager" level oversight, and the ultimate goal of "success?"
Or is there just something I am missing here?

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

Residual Income: Working for Free

2009-09-05T00:00:00.000-04:00

I spend three hours writing one day. The result? Three articles. Published, live, hoorah. On the way to residual income and giving like a millionaire. What happens next? Nothing.

Sometimes (though more and more rarely now) those three articles might not earn for a week, two weeks, even three.

I remember telling myself that when I wrote about preaching online those articles were my free ministry. I never really wrote them to make money. I didn't. I wrote them to have an online database of information and practical help for my preaching students. I noticed that other articles written about my areas of interest earned more like: mortgages, foreclosures, business, economics, disease prevention, weight control, and a healthy lifestyle. But even those bigger earners didn't earn for a while.

The same thing happens often with buying rental properties. For years you can feel as though you are just scratching by with them... breaking even. Eventually though, something breaks free. Property values rise, rents rise, and you look at your mortgage realizing people have been putting money in your equity bank every month.

The principle? You have to work for no pay, before you get paid for no work. Residual income depends on it.

Those preaching articles? The funny thing is those articles that I never wrote to make money are now earning almost $4 a month each. That may not sound like much, but think about it. If my article earns $4 a month and it took me thirty minutes to write, after a year I earned $96 an hour, two years $192 an hour. And it keeps earning without me doing a thing.

If you write a book, it takes hours and hours of labor and stress. Long nights of rewriting, and early mornings of rewriting again are your pay. Even after its published the money will only trickle in at first, usually. Eventually though, the residual income streams add up and your work is more than worth it.

This is where the final few give up on residual income. Some people just never know about it. Others say they don't know how, and never bother to learn. Others are scared of the lion roaming in the street, the bull on the stock market, the cats in the rental apartments. So they don't risk. Yet out of the few who take the time to learn, pull the trigger and take a risk, many quit after a few months or a year of trying. Why? They just don't see the benefits...yet.

I often have new online writers now (I am new myself, but when you have 300+ articles you seem like a veteran to a newbie) message me frustrated saying "when do I even earn my first dime?!" My tag line at the end of a long private message usually reads "Keep writing!" It took three months before I realized I would make hundreds of dollars a month writing that way. Three months of writing an article or two a day. Now I realize I can earn thousands.

Keep writing.
Keep investing.
Keep working.
Keep learning.
Keep trying.
Keep persisting.
Keep experimenting.

You have to be willing to work for no pay before you will get paid for no work. Pure and simple. Push through the payless period and make yourself create the potential for residual income streams. It's like growing a small tree ring, it gives you the potential to take off to the sky.

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

Residual Income: But What About the Lions?

2009-08-29T00:00:00.000-04:00

I do like to quote proverbs. Here's a good one: The sluggard says, "There is a lion roaming the streets." It's an old proverb from a desert climate. If you think about it, though, you will get the picture. Lazy man sits on comfy pillows. Hard working friend says, "Hey, why don't you help me on this project and I'll split the profit with you?" Lazy man sinks deeper in the pillows, rolls his eyes, and says "Haven't you heard? There's a lion in the streets. I am not going anywhere. Too risky."

Too risky. We may not say it (then again, we might). Usually, though, risk is what keeps us from stepping out on an adventure like building residual income so you can give like a millionaire, or I suppose live like one even.

Stocks - too risky. What if the next Depression is coming?

Real Estate - too risky. I might not rent it out, or sell it, or whatever.

Writing - too risky. People might hate my writing.

Royalties - too risky. Publishers would eat me alive.

Risk is a natural part of any new endeavor. There is the risk of failure, risk of rejection, risk of mediocre performance, risk of losing resources, risk of losing relationships, risk of disappointing partners, risk of lions roaming in the street.

You might get eaten alive out there after all. So, stay on your pillows of comfort. I know, I am getting too close for comfort here aren't I? But you had to see where this has been going the last few weeks. We talked about:

1. Principles of Residual Income
2. A Burning Purpose
3. The Ability to Learn

And now we are at the next ingredient: Risk Tolerance. Three great quotes on risk, and I am all but done:

Love releases us for taking one more risk than we might dare; glory breaks through dark and danger, shows the Lord transfigured there. God who planted our affections, help your gifts to grow more free, fan in us the fires of loving, daring, dancing, Trinity. - Michael Hare Duke.

I believe you won't find anywhere absolute criteria that will give you the certainty of not being wrong, and this risk of being wrong has to be taken because you can't be a person without taking the risk of being wrong. Giuloi Girardi

If you want to help people you have got to make up your mind to write things that some men will condemn. Thomas Merton

Three questions
1. What are your lions? What risks are keeping you from acting toward building residual income?
2. What would be the first step you could take, no matter how small, to pull the trigger on a residual income venture?
3. Will you do it? Or do the lions win?

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

Residual Income: If It Was Easy...

2009-08-22T00:00:00.002-04:00

(Part IV of the Residual Income Series)

If residual income is great, Dave, why isn't everyone working on it? "If real estate was easy, everyone would be doing it." That's what my realtor friend told me as we prepared our foreclosure house for sale. I was working every extra hour of the day to get it together. We made plenty of money on the sale in a down market with a rent to own contract for a needy buyer. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. It wasn't easy. He inspired us to do it. It was more than worth it (effectively, it was a 50% raise for the year).

Here's what it takes to continually build residual income:

1. A burning purpose. (See last week's article)
2. An ability to learn.
3. Risk tolerance.
4. Willingness to work for free.

Since we covered a burning purpose in 'act like a millionaire', lets move on to an ability to learn.

The proverb reminds us to "above all else seek understanding, it is more precious than silver or gold." Understanding is a valuable asset. When understanding is applied to business and work, it's a constant money maker. This is exactly where most people get off of the residual income wagon. These kind of words run through their minds ...

I don't know how.

I have never done that before.

I am not that smart.

I don't know how she does it.

I wouldn't know where to start.

Say any one of those things early in your residual income building efforts and you probably won't get off the ground. Switch them out for:

1. I can learn just about anything if I want to.
2. Why not try?
3. If they can do it, surely I can do it.
4. Where can I learn the first step?

Something I have heard my Granddad say several times over the last few decades is this, "You can figure just about anything out, if you are willing to be patient and work at it long enough."

I remembered that today when I:
- Had to fix a sliding door the maintenance men told me 'worked fine' as long as you pulled really hard.
- Worked on a new online article on an unfamiliar topic.
- Wrestled with a few hard concepts in something called hermeneutics.
- Tried to get my 5 month old son to calm down and sleep.

You can figure out how to write, buy properties, rent properties, invest in stocks, sell e-books, own a franchise or whatever source of residual income it is that you have chosen. You can. Really. It isn't rocket science. Think about some of the people who are doing it. If they can do it, so can you. You just need to break it down into as small a steps as possible, and keep breaking it down until the first step seems so easy you have no excuses left but to start.

So, pick one of the ways to build residual income, and get started learning about it. Go to the business section of a bookstore, do a few google searches, or better, ask someone you know is doing it out to lunch.

Why not take some small step toward learning this week? What do you have to lose--it's just learning.

Tell me what you are learning about. I would love to hear it.

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

Residual Income, Act Like a Multi-Millionaire

2009-08-15T00:01:00.004-04:00

The last two weeks covered these five principles:

1. Residual income is income that keeps flowing when you stop working.

2. Small amounts of residual income make a big long term difference.

3. Retire in 14 years by just adding $50 of monthly residual income every month.

4. You can retire in 7 years by just adding $100 of monthly residual income.

5. Every small ring of residual income multiplies your long term wealth.

We also covered some types of residual income: interest income, lending income, rental income, online residual income from writing, stocks with dividends, etc.

But the big question that sticks out is why? Who cares? Why not just plug away at a job you love, be the best you can be at it, save your money faithfully, build a big nest egg slowly over time, and retire when you are sixty five?

Great questions. Glad you asked. Why not, indeed. There is absolutely no reason. Unless, of course, you have a reason.

Money in itself never made anyone happy. Usually, it makes people unhappy actually. Why do you think the lives of most of the rich and famous are such a wreck? Money never makes anyone happy for long. Oh, it's really nice for a moment, a day, a week. No lasting satisfaction will come of it though. Why do people build billion dollar estates when they have much more than they could ever need? It's not about the money for them. It's about the challenge, the game, the risk, the hunt, the conquest, or some other driving purpose.

What's your purpose?

Can I suggest a switch in mindset from the normal? Why not build residual income so that you can do good in the world?

If you can have $100,000 a year in fourteen years just by adding small amounts of money to your residual income bank every month you can do a LOT of good AND still retire at 65 like everyone else.

Think of it this way. In order for someone to give $100k a year it usually means they are giving about 10%. A lot of people seem to think that is normal or even a significant amount. That means a $100k giver is making a million a year usually. If they are retired, that means they probably have a 10 million dollar nest egg.

You can give as though you have 10 million dollars in the bank, just by adding $50 a month of monthly residual income every month for the next 14 years. Add $100 of residual monthly income every month and you could be there in 7. $200 and you could be there in 3.5 years.

You can act like a multi-millionaire sooner than you think...and give money away like crazy to great causes.

• Help stop the spread of HIV aids.
• Save hundreds of thousands of lives from Malaria.
• Give hundreds of thousands clean drinking water.
• Sponsor 208 children with food and education every year.

That makes it worth it. Doesn't it? What's your reason?

© 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.
Image © Anatoly Tiplyashin l Dreamstime.com

Residual Income Part II

2009-08-08T07:39:00.004-04:00

Last week's post showed us how we could retire in 14 years with 100k a year by just adding $50 of residual monthly income a month. Look at the tree rings above. A tree ring might be only a fraction of a centimeter wide. Each ring represents a year of growth though. Trees will often grow one, two, or three feet per ring. So the base gets wider by just a centimeter. But each centimeter allows another foot of height.

That's the way it is with residual income. If it is truly ongoing income that requires little to no maintenance from day to day, then a centimeter or two supports your financial situation for two or three feet of growth. It's just a metaphor, but it can help you stay motivated to add a small ring of residual income. Don't look at the size of the monthly, or even yearly addition. Think of it for the long term.

Here are some types of residual income
- Book royalties. Once you get beyond the initial promotional push a book can bring income for years.
- Online pay-per-click or pay-per-view writing. I am currently adding about $50 a month of residual income via online writing.
- Other online residual income opportunities: ebook with an affiliates program, membership sites that others run for you, etc.
- Large cap value stocks with strong balance sheets and a consistent dividend.
- Lending. It's a big risk, but lending gives you monthly interest income.
- Rental real estate. This residual income is often tax free due to deductions.

What residual income are you pursuing?

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

Residual Income: Growing Wealth Like a Tree

2009-08-01T08:44:00.002-04:00

The proverb says "He who gathers money little by little makes it grow." It doesn't sound nearly as exciting as the "become a millionaire in five years" programs on TV. But there is a lot of the truth in the statement.

Residual income is income that keeps coming even when you stop working. It's how people retire. We retire when we have enough residual coming through multiple sources to sustain the desired lifestyle we have set for retirement. Social security, pension funds, IRA's, stocks, and bonds are all built up to eventually give you enough residual income to stop working.

So when you retire, you need about 100,000 for every 8,000 of desired yearly income. That's a figure a lot of financial planners use anyway (some are more or less conservative). That means if you want a fixed income for the rest of your life of 64,000 (which won't be worth much twenty years from now) you need 800,000 dollars. 1 million gives you 80,000 or so (depending on economy, interest rates, etc). 1.25 million gives you 100,000. Let's go with that for easy figuring.

Here's where this gets interesting. You only need $8,333 of monthly residual income to accomplish what saving 1.25 million dollars achieves.

Yea, great Dave, but how in the world do you get to that kind of number in residual income---income that keeps earning while you stop working?

It takes work, and time, and an ability to gather money little by little.

Quick quiz: which is worth more to you?
A. An extra job that earns you $1000 a month
B. The ability to add just $50 of residual income a month?

Well if you have bills to pay today that won't wait of course the $1000. But if you are looking toward the long term, $50 of residual income. I know, $50 doesn't sound like much. But if you only added $50 of residual income a month, guess how long it would take you to retire? 13 years and 11 months. If you started that at 22 you would be retired at 36. If you started at 36, you could 'retire' at 50 and that is without any help from social security.

He who gathers money little by little, makes it grow. So, what do you think about residual income?

Next week I will write about why residual income is growing wealth like a tree.

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

How to Be a Good Guest Preacher

2009-07-25T10:12:00.002-04:00

There are good guest preachers, and guest preachers we wish we never asked to come. You want to be the first kind. And you want to invite the first kind. If you have been asked to preach as a guest in a church ministry, then you want to follow these steps to ensure you are a good guest preacher. If you are bringing a preacher in, see how many of these things they do.

GET TO KNOW WHO YOU ARE SPEAKING TO BEFORE YOU SPEAK.

Here is a beginning list of questions you should ask the local ministers before showing up to preach:

What is the average age of the group?
How would you describe the spiritual maturity of the listeners?
What is the ethnic makeup of the congregation? Economic makeup?
What is the denominational/theological flavor of the gathering?
What do you hope to see accomplished at this service?
When do I need to arrive, and when does the service end?
Will you be arranging my travel, or should I send receipts?

PREACH YOUR BEST SERMONS.

When you preach from week-to-week you are allowed to have a few bomb sermons. It is impossible not to actually. When you are a guest preacher they are usually paying you because they expect at least a double, and probably are hoping for a home run. So bring your grand slam sermon and pray for at least a double hit.

ADDRESS THE THEME OR TOPIC YOU ARE GIVEN.

Ask if the conference, service, camp, or event has a theme or topic they want you to address. One of the most common compliments good guest preachers get is 'you directly addressed our theme, most speakers just do their own thing.' Here is the trick. Do your own thing, but address the theme. Change your introduction slightly to include the metaphor or title from the theme. Drop the title of the theme here or there in the message to add personalization. If absolutely necessary write a new message. However, usually it is best to stick with a grand slam sermon and change the title and a few illustrations.

RELATE WELL WITH PEOPLE.

No one likes a guest speaker who walks on stage, does her thing, and walks out the door. Take time to shake hands, learn names, listen to stories, and genuinely care for people. Often your greatest ministry will happen after the sermon, not before.

PREACH FOR RESPONSE.

People respond in three ways: acting, thinking, feeling. Decide which of those categories you want to address primarily and carefully define what you want your sermon to do. How do you hope they will respond? Engage the whole being of the listener as much as possible.

INCLUDE THE FIVE SENSES.

This just makes for good preaching in general (as do most of these). However, it is often more possible to add layers of sensory experience to a sermon after you have preached it several times. You don't have to address all five in every sermon, but the more the better usually. Think of parallel experiences to communion (a taste they will remember as symbolic) or incense (a smell that represents an aspect of worship). Use actual visual objects when it fits the text and is appropriate to anchor the message in the mind of the listener.

HELP PEOPLE KNOW HOW TO RESPOND AT THE END.

A celebratory ending with elevated tone and volume invites applause and verbal praise.
A prayer asks for solemnity and Godward thought.
A request for decision points people toward a specific action to take.
A benediction adds closure and hope.
A question left hanging asks for quiet thought and personal contemplation.

* If there are no dedicated prayer times before the service consider gathering a few worship leaders to pray with you before preaching.
* Be sure to know if you are filling any other parts of the service beside preaching.
* Ask what the appropriate attire might be for this setting.
* In some settings it is important to thank the leaders for the honor of filling their pulpit.

* Avoid being demanding or needy as a guest preacher. Shoot to be low maintenance and receive what is given with gratitude.
* Be careful of retreating to your room too often during longer events. Be alone long enough to recuperate, then return to relational connection when possible.

INITIATE PRAYER TIMES.

If no one orchestrates times designated to prayer, pull it together yourself. Gather the early arrivers and the worship leaders. Circle up and pray for the services you have worked so hard to prepare. As Francis of Assissi taught his order to say 'Ora et Labore' pray and labor, and remember there isn't much difference between the two.

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

Pastor Appreciation

2009-07-11T00:00:00.001-04:00

October is a few months away, but many pastors dread it already. Why? It is pastor appreciation month. It is that month when pastor's are supposed to be uplifted, encouraged, and made to feel valuable to the church community they give so much sweat and tears to serve. Instead, they will get a few cheap trinkets, or a very small gift card to a Christian Book Store filled with 'Christian' junk. A few people will ask to have them over for dinner or take them out to eat. The result is their schedule gets busier and they work more.

A few cards will trickle in. A brief announcement will be made. A few people will tell the pastor they are grateful for them. The rest will assume the church is doing something and get on with life. Many pastors find October to be the most depressing month of the year.

I am not a pastor right now, and I have had unusually generous churches in the past. So, I can say this without any personal interest or vendetta. I simply share what I have heard from many pastors as I travel and speak and relate to my own close friends who pastor.

In the Black church this isn't as consistently the case as in the white church. Many Black churches see their pastor as the key representative of their community. She is a community leader, not just a church leader. Her success is the church's success, and they want to see her doing better than the average person in the community.

In the white church, though, if the pastor drives a decent car people start to 'wonder why we pay him so much,' If a raise is suggested for the pastor, a board member will pipe up and say "She already makes more than me" even though that board member may not even have a college degree and the pastor has a doctorate.

Here's the real rub though: ministry is one of the most stressful occupations in America. Dropout and Burnout rates are high. Depression is an epidemic. Pressure to perform is multiplied as pastors can be made to feel as though every member is a boss. "I pay my tithe" comments are used to make the minister feel as though they are on each person's personal pay roll. Pastor's deal with disease, death, and dying every week. They delve deep into people's pain and personal failures. They carry a good portion of the weight that doctors, business leaders, and counselors bear all in the same position.

It's a beautiful privilege to pastor. It is a wonderful gift. It is also takes its toll.

So, if you are part of a church, here are some ideas for October:

1. Dedicate fifteen minutes of a service to your pastor this month. Don't just make a brief announcement. Make it a big deal.

2. Take up a special offering at the end of that fifteen minute celebration for an appreciation gift to the pastor. Make it known the hours and time your pastor gives and ask people to give generously.

3. Assign a point person to head up the encouragement wagon and give that person a budget to work with.

4. Avoid giving overly-religious gifts. Your pastor needs a break and a re-charge. Think Caribbean cruise, not another Christian paper weight. It never hurts to simply pass on the money as a bonus. Shoot for $250-500 for every year of service at your church. "But that's a lot!" Exactly.

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

Church People Amaze Me

2009-07-04T08:32:00.004-04:00

A lot of people are fond of saying "I like Jesus but hate the church" or "I am a Christian but I don't go to church." I understand their reasons (even if I disagree with the reasons, I understand them). In my life though, I am increasingly impressed with a lot of church people. There are bad apples, to be sure. But by an large, church people amaze me.

Here are five reasons why:

1. They work full time jobs (50+ hours) then volunteer on top of that.

I watched in amazement recently at Central Wesleyan in Holland while 390 volunteers made a vacation Bible school happen all week long. They went to work in the morning, and came to volunteer with children at night.

2. They enjoy their volunteering and extra labors of love.

I am always amazed at this. People say "Oh but I love doing this... I look forward to it every week" when I ask them about their Sunday School work or their weeding of the grounds. With a genuine smile on their face they give up their time on the couch with the glowing screen, and bring a glowing face to lives and needs. Amazing.

3. They are the most generous people I have ever met.

I know the statistics on tithing that say that Christians don't give on average ten percent of their income. But those statistics define Christians pretty broadly. In other words, they ask anyone who says they go to church. Most of America says they do. But I don't meet most of America at church. I certainly don't get to know most of America. A much smaller number are actually committed to pursuing discipleship and doing good in the world...and they give more than ten percent. I know people who give thirty, forty, even sixty+ percent of their income to people in poverty, community building projects, and outreach to people who don't know they are loved by God. Amazing.

4. They are forgiving people.

We only notice when people are bitter. We rarely notice when church people forgive. But they do. Certainly, many church members have a regular practice of forgiving since every few weeks their pastor gives them a lackluster sermon that never hits the ground. They forgive it and come back next week ready to compliment the good sermon. (You try preaching every week and see if you can do better by the way.) One young man I met recently lost his 23 year old sister when she was murdered brutally in Colorado. He lives in the midwest. He told me he wants to travel to visit the murderer in jail to tell him "I forgive you." Amazing.

5. They face death with joy, hope, and courage.

Dying well is something our culture has lost sight of. We think of dying as slowly as possible, cheating death, avoiding death, even trying to extend our life past death through work, monuments, gifts, or even freezing our bodies in hope of technology. But church people face death differently. Since they talk about death and life they face it early. Death is part of the religion. It's expected. Faith for what happens beyond death keeps them giving of themselves in life (which makes life better anyway). Faith of what happens beyond death helps them see death as another part of life. Inevitable. Tragic. Worthy or mourning. All of this is true. But, it is grief with hope, not grief without hope.

A dear friend of ours, Mac MacDonald recently passed away. He had eleven days between his diagnosis and his death. When I called him on the phone to say goodbye, I was in tears (as I should be). He was joking with me. At one point he was given a few days unless "someone with infection visits you." So he told his visitors to "quick, breathe on me. I want to go see Jesus." He cuddled for a while at night with his wife of decades, then passed away the next morning.

Church people amaze me. Do they amaze you? Let me know why in the comment section.

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

Free Websites You Should Know About

2009-06-06T07:51:00.004-04:00

1. For Music Lovers - Pandora

I love this free website lately. Without downloading anything at all you can create online "radio stations" that play only music that fits your tastes. Just type in a song you like, or an artist you love, and it creates the station for you. If they get it right, click the thumbs up. Wrong? Click the thumbs down. Free streaming music anytime you want. It's legal, legit, and free. They get paid by ad clicks and song sales. Why buy though when I can listen for free?

2. For Social Site Addicts - Only Wire

If you are a facebook addict, a diggaholic, a twitter tweeter, a buzzle bee, or a de.licio.us connoisseur your taste buds will salivate with this free website. Only Wire allows you to post something to all of your social networks at once. No more bouncing from one to the other. No more weeks of attention to one, then weeks of attention to another. Gather it all in one place. Check it out.

3. For Online Writers - Free Keyword Tracker

If you write online you know about keywords. Keywords drive traffic. For example if I titled this article "Cool New Things Online" I wouldn't get any views. But since keyword tracker tells me "Free Websites" receives 1000 searches a day, then if I do my job right "Free Websites" in the title and a few times in the article will get more people to my blog. Try it out. My blog and online articles receive 800 to 1400 views a day this way. That's nice.

4. More for Writers - eHow

Another free website for writers that I have been surprised by is eHow. I started writing for them when I read an article and was disappointed by it. The ad on the page told me the author was getting PAID for writing that easy little article. I rated it low, because it deserved it, and wrote my own. There is a science to it. But once you learn it you can pull in hundreds (what I earn) even thousands (what a few long term ehowers earn) a month writing how-to articles.

5. For you raving fans of mac - iFixit

You won't need this free website often. But when you do, it's a mac saver...or at least a big money saver. I owned my ibook G4 for four years without a single problem. No crashes. No viruses (of course). No hardware issues. No malfunctioning whatsoever. I packed it in my backpack on my bike every day for a year. Carried it in my briefcase everywhere I went for three. I use it as much as ten hours a day in heavy writing periods. So...you won't need a fixit site much.

My mac started charging last week and I needed to know why. I found ifixit. I walked through their troubleshooting and it seemed it was my "dc in board" broken by using a generic plug instead of the mac approved power cable. Oops. $200 to get it repaired in town. Price to buy all the parts and tools I needed and have it shipped priority mail from ifixit? $45 shipping and taxes included. I am writing on my computer again thanks to their detailed instructions. Satisfying.

Tell the rest of us what free websites we really should be aware of in the comment section below.

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

Sayings for Church Signs

2009-05-30T00:00:00.001-04:00

Sayings for church signs can be one of the embarrassing public moments for the church in my opinion. Sayings for church signs vary from the cheesy (Our Church is Prayer Conditioned) to the ridiculous or offensive (ETERNITY: smoking, or non-smoking?).

Here is my thought on church sign sayings: they almost never work. What are signs for? Signs are for advertising. We advertise events, times, places, products. The goal? We want to make people more open to attending the event, better able to remember the time, more open to adopting the product. If we are going to 'advertise' then let's at least be smart about it.

Really, will a person currently not attending a church see a sign that says "Autumn leaves - Jesus doesn't" and think "Now, that must be the kind of place I want to go!" Probably not. Will a drunken wife-abuser look at a church sign that says "Fight Truth Decay...Study The Bible Daily" and suddenly hit bottom, and decide to finally admit the his helplessness? Nope. Or at least, if he does, it won't be directly because of the words on the sign. Something else will be causing the change.

So, all you sayings-for-church-signs folks . . . how about "Sunday Services 8, 9:30, 11:00". It's simple, to the point, and you don't have to change it often. If you want to get creative, and you are bent on using a church sign to advertise, how about "Free Donuts, Free Childcare, All Are Welcome."

Even better yet, perhaps we should take the advice of one not-so-popular saying for church signs:

"A closed mouth gathers no foot."

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

Your turn now. Do you like church signs? Did one radically change your life? Are you also offended, or just baffled by them? Pagans welcome by the way. I would actually greatly enjoy your perspective on this strange church habit. Drop me a note in the comment section.

How to Give Premarital Counseling

2009-05-23T00:00:00.000-04:00

Premarital counseling is one of the most rewarding challenges a counselor, pastor, or rabbi can undertake. Premarital counseling can reduce chance of divorce and help promote more satisfying and fulfilled marriages.

Here the steps you can take to make sure it goes well.

ESTABLISH A SESSION SCHEDULE AND PREMARITAL MINIMUM MEETING REQUIREMENT.

It is helpful to let couples know up front what to expect. Six sessions is a standard among many in the counseling profession for premarital counseling.

GIVE THE COUPLE A LIST OF GOOD DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR COUPLES TO TALK THROUGH BEFORE MARRIAGE.

Here is a list to get you started:

1. Where would you like to live long term?
2. How many kids do you ideally want to have? Pick a number, not a range.
3. Where will you spend the holidays?
4. How often do you think you would like to have sex?
5. What are the boundaries for you sexually?
6. How will you handle sharing household duties?
7. What will you do when you disagree on a major issue such as a job promotion, geographical move, or schooling for a child?
8. What are some key things your future spouse should know about relating to you?
9. What will you do when one of you starts to fall in love with someone else?
10. How open do you want to be about sexual temptation and emotional attachment issues?
11. What percentage of your budget should each of these categories receive: tithe, tax, saving, housing, entertainment, and groceries?
12. How will you work your budget? Envelope system? Excel File? Monthly, weekly, quarterly? Unified finances, divided bank accounts?
13. What is your primary love language: words, touch, time, companionship, or service?
14. What do you think you will usually do as a couple on Friday nights? Sunday mornings? Weekday nights?
15. How will you work to maintain friendship outside of your marriage?
16. Is there a relationship with either family or in-laws that will likely cause difficulties in the future? How do you plan on drawing good boundaries for that relationship?
17. When do you like to go to bed at night? Get up in the morning?
18. What were the unspoken rules of your families growing up? (i.e. No shouting, be careful around Dad/Mom if he/she is angry, we don’t talk about sex, never let people outside the family know we struggle, love is earned, love is gifts, crying is for babies, being smart is more important than anything, hard work is more important than anything, etc.)
19. What role did you play in your family? Hero, Martyr, Mascot/Clown, Peacemaker, Lost Child, Favored Child, etc. How do you think that role will have to change?
20. The most important thing you have to have in this marriage is…

ASK THE PREMARITAL COUPLE TO TALK THROUGH A DIFFICULT ISSUE IN COUNSELING.

If the couple has received this assignment to talk through issues ahead of time, they have likely had a conflict over one of these issues. Have them talk about it with you in the room. This way you can unearth communication patterns that need addressed. Allow the couple to talk in a free way. Then once you have listened and observed...

HELP THE COUPLE CREATE PERSONALIZED CONFLICT RULES.

For example:

1. No interruptions allowed (this is a culturally defined rule, some minorities may find this to be too restrictive and actually desire to be interrupted by their partner. Discuss these together.)
2. When the other is talking, give affirming feedback verbally and non-verbally.
3. Make sure your partner feels heard and understood before sharing your own perspective.
4. Imagine the issue sitting on the table, not in your partner's person.

GUIDE THE PREMARITAL COUPLE THROUGH HEALTHY COMMUNICATION PATTERNS.

Marshall Rosenburg's Nonviolent Communication is the best resource for couples I know of in this department. It is a relatively easy read, yet has enough depth to be required in many masters level counseling programs. Have the couple read this book and discuss it. Practice it's principles in one of your middle sessions.

USE PREMARITAL PERSONALITY PROFILES TO HIGHLIGHT PROBABLE CONFLICT AREAS.

Personality profiles are tools that uncover hidden land mines that are easily predicted. Consider using the Taylor Johson, Prepare/Enrich, or some other profile you are trained to administer.

IF A COUPLE IS TROUBLED REFER TO A SPECIALIZED COUNSELOR BEFORE SIGNING OFF ON MARRIAGE.

Part of the role of premarital counseling in most people's mind is gaining a certification or release to get married. They view the process as a vetting of the viability of their relationship. Don't take this lightly.

** You may need to suggest a couple reconsider whether or not they are compatible for each other if conflicts easily arise, verbal abusiveness emerges, or some form of addictive/co-dependent pattern rears its head. At the very least indicate a need for intensive long term help by a trained and licensed counselor.

EQUIP THE PREMARITAL COUPLE THROUGH READING ASSIGNMENTS.

Part of the goal of premarital counseling is to guide a couple toward resources that will help them equip themselves and establish a pattern of intentional marital growth. Assign a book list, give enough time in between sessions for the reading to be done, and offer accountability for the reading.

See the resource section link for a suggested list of marital resources.

SCHEDULE A SIX MONTH MARITAL COUNSELING CHECK UP.

Often this is as or even more helpful than the premarital counseling. A couple doesn't know what issues need addressed until they have been married for a while.

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

Inspirational Quotes of Your Own: Become a Quotable Person

2009-05-17T15:15:00.005-04:00

Great quotes come from real people who learned along the way to write in a quotable way. That can be you. There is a little bit of science to the art of becoming quotable. Whether you are writing a public speech, a novel, a non-fiction manifesto, a self-help book, or a sermon for church you can become quotable. There is no greater honor for words than to be embraced in the arms of quotation marks.

This article will teach you the science, give you the rules of art, and inspire you to do the rest. Start writing great quotes right now!

BECOME INTERESTED INSTEAD OF INTERESTING.

This insight comes from the great little book Good to Great. However, I think it is applicable to writing, not just business or teaching. It is more important to be interested, than interesting. The more you focus on trying to be interesting first, the less substance and force your ideas will have. People quote quotes because the ideas are compelling both in substance and form.

BE CONVERTED INSTEAD OF CONVERTING.

Your process of being interesting should lead you to multiple intellectual conversions. When something changes your life, you have potential to write something life changing. Unless something changes you, you shouldn't believe it will change others.

WRITE WITH ECONOMY AND BRAVERY.

Brevity is king for quotations. Risk gives you an edge. Stick your neck out a little farther as you write. Press your ideas one step closer to the cliff of public opinion. Risk is better than boredom.

HIRE METAPHOR FOR THE JOB.

A metaphor is more than a stunt double or an understudy actor. A metaphor breaks open new worlds of understanding. A metaphor paints and dances while other words crawl and creep. See the related article for how to use metaphor and simile to sound brilliant.

CREATE A PARALLEL UNIVERSE.

People often think in pairs. This isn't always true, but it's mostly true. Go ahead, go to a quotation gathering website. Look through the quotes and notice how many of them use a parallel structure. It's a structure created for the wise saying, the proverb.

So . . .

Write to create a parallel universe, we all think in pairs.
Write something worth living, then you will have something worth quoting.
Don't try to breathe life into words, let words breathe life into you.

See how it works?

WRAP YOUR WORDS WITH PRIDE.

If brevity is king, context is queen. The words around your quotable are what make it stand out like a diamond among coal. A better metaphor might be the context is the light that makes the ring of your words sparkle.

So build up to the sentence. Then say it again. After all, context is the light that makes the ring of your words sparkle. That was worth saying again.

A FEW MISCELLANEOUS TIPS:

* Study quotes to get a feel for what is quotable.
* Don't just gather other quotes, work hard to make your own.
* Test them out in conversation. Just introduce them by saying "I read once that . . ." or "I heard someone say. . ." that way you can risk a flop without people knowing it was you.

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

How to Write a Sermon for the Ear

2009-05-09T00:00:00.000-04:00

Too many preachers write sermons and then read them as if a sermon was a piece of paper, a lecture, or an essay. Others memorize sermons word for word down to the illustration or stories and simply 'hit play' on their mental tape recorder and 'deliver' the message.

The best sermons though are creatures of the moment. They rise from the warm embers of a preacher's scripture-affected heart, take flight on the up draft of the congregation's presence and involvement, and are truly a one-time event. Listeners follow the flow of thought with joy, and lean forward waiting for 'what is going to happen next?'

Follow these steps to craft the kind of sermon that is born and raised for the ear, that listeners can easily follow, and that memory will repeat.

APPROACH THE SCRIPTURAL PASSAGE WITH THE SERMON MOMENT IN MIND.

You aren't writing an exegesis paper. No biblical studies overseer will be writing in red on your margins. It is you, God, the passage, and a sermon waiting for life. Search for the sermon from the beginning. It's okay. Really, it is. But follow step 2 as you do.

FIND A SERMON THAT PREACHES TO YOU.

As you look for the sermon that is waiting to be born through the text, wait to hear the Word of God for you. If Frederick Beuchner was right, preaching is 'truth poured through personality.' If you are the preacher for the day, the sermon must come through you. Hopefully it can do so without preaching in spite of you.

As Fred Craddock said, 'Wrestle with the text like Jacob wrestled with the angel. Don't let go until it blesses you.' And I always add, you will know you have been blessed when you are wounded, and you walk away limping. Look to be dislocated. How can this text change your life this week?

Once this happens the sermon will have you, you won't have a sermon.

WRITE THE ROUGH DRAFT OUT LOUD (NOT ON PAPER).

If you want to write for the ear, you need to start with the mouth. If you want to write for the eye, you can start with the pen. It's as simple as that. If you start by writing on the page, you will be forever trying to make your sermon 'sound' more natural, conversational, etc. If you start with your mouth you can move to the pen to make it more precise, and to craft a few key phrases.

Find an empty room, an abandoned meadow, or sit in your car and preach it. The sermon already has you, so just start talking about how it has you, how it got you, and try to think of key quotes, phrases, stories, and metaphors that will help the sermon 'get' a listener.

See my articles on 'How to Write a Three Point Sermon' and 'How to Preach a Narrative Sermon' for two options on form. They are linked to this page.

WRITE DOWN THE OUTLINE OF YOUR OUT-LOUD DRAFT.

As best as you can remember, write down what you preached. This helps you condense what is most meaningful about your first verbal draft. The biggest problem with writing a sermon this way is the tendency to ramble. So don't stop with just a verbal draft! Outline it to capture the flow of thought and condense it.

PREACH OUT LOUD AGAIN FROM THE OUTLINE OF YOUR VERBAL SERMON DRAFT.

At this point, consider preaching with a clock of some kind in hand (watch, cell phone, or timer.) Try to fit the sermon within your ideal time framework. As you preach shoot for capturing the flow of thought, not the word for word precision.

DECIDE ON A HIGHLIGHTED MANUSCRIPT OR DETAILED OUTLINE.

You can use either one and still preach for the ear. People who use a written manuscript need to highlight the key transitional phrases they want word for word. Then allow the rest to flow as you preach.

Those who prefer the outline need to be sure that each section flows logically into the next. Write out a transitional phrase in your outline here and there to keep it moving. Draw symbols in the margins so you can know where you are at a glance.

FOCUS ON HELPING THE CONGREGATION GET IT, NOT ON GIVING IT.

If you focus on 'giving' or 'delivering' the sermon as if you are a mail carrier dropping off a letter you are in trouble. Engage the congregation, make eye contact, look for visible or audible response, and adjust your sermon as you go when necessary.

HINTS AND TIPS

* The first few times you attempt this, you may record your sermon and listen to see how well it flows. This helps you commit more of it to memory as well.

* Construct the sermon so that one sermon move (or point) triggers the next one in your mind. It should follow your own verbal way of thinking. If you can't think of what comes next you are probably following a 'visual' logic instead of a verbal logic. Verbal logic follows associations.

WARNING
Avoid throwing in too many of your own stories simply because that is what you think of when verbally writing your sermon. This isn't a way to dodge research, or skimp on artistry. (See my article on how to find sermon illustrations)

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

Household Budget: How to Make a Budget Work in a Recession

2009-05-05T16:36:00.007-04:00

Money, finance, and a tight budget are many parents' number one concern--especially in a recession. Especially if you have experienced a lay-off, are in between jobs, or have filed for unemployment this may be causing you a great deal of financial anxiety. If you are a single mom, you know the constant challenge of juggling child care costs which are necessary for you to work, with your small monthly check.

When the budget doesn't match the bills something has to be done. Here are some creative and practical ideas for financing your family budget on a month to month basis.

DETERMINE YOUR FAMILY BUDGET NEEDS.

If you haven't done so already, keep track of everything you spend. Go through your yearly expenses (insurance, taxes, tuition) and divide them by 12 to get the monthly amount for each. Keep track of all your spending for a month by keeping the receipts. Gather them into categories like:

- Mortgage/Rent
- Taxes (How much is withheld)
- Groceries
- Entertainment/Eating Out
- Household Cleaning/Maintenance
- Gas
- Cell Phone/Landline/Internet
- Cable TV, Satellite subscription
- Magazine, Newspaper subscriptions
- Car Insurance
- Car Maintenance
- Health Insurance/Life Insurance
- Miscellaneous Purchases
- IRA/Pension Contributions
- Add in a hundred or two for unexpected stuff even if you didn't spend any money on it.

I like to keep all of this in an xcel file. I just copy the formulas from one month to the next and fill in the new numbers. That way the computer does all the math for me. I just put an '=' at the front of a long list of receipt amounts with '+' in between each one.

Now you know the size of the budget you are currently trying to fund.

ELIMINATE BUDGET EXCESSES TO FINANCE YOUR FAMILY BUDGET.

Can you cut out big chunks of expense? Cable, land line phones, eating out costs, emotional shopping trips, golf games, unnecessary tech purchases, etc. This will all add up. If you are having trouble controlling a category move to a cash in envelope system for that budget category. When the cash is gone from the envelope, you can't spend until next month.

MAXIMIZE HOURLY, COMMISSION, AND SALARY WAGES.

If you have a job that just isn't paying enough, it may be possible to increase your wages through good old fashioned hard work. If it is an hourly job, try starting earlier and ending later. If your company allows it, thirty minutes on each side will give you twenty extra hours of work by the end of the month.

Commissions are a direct result of contact, relationship, and persistence. So, spend a little more time contacting customers on email or phone every month.

If you are a salary employee don't be afraid to ask your manager if there is any way you can earn more money. Let them know you are willing to work more, take more responsibility, and do whatever it takes to make your ends meet.

FIND A PART TIME JOB TO FINANCE YOUR FAMILY BUDGET.

If you have done all of the above, and you still have gaps you may need to find another source of income. You may have to swallow your pride and take a less than desirable job. I have done my share of burger flipping, orders taking, box moving, and small pay shipping jobs in times of tight finances. It isn't fun, but it can be done.

MAKE MONEY ONLINE TO FINANCE YOUR BUDGET.

You can earn extra income in many different ways online. Watch out for scams of course. But you may be able to set up a call center in your own home to handle a businesses outsourced calls. If you have the ability to write you can write articles for sites like this one and earn monthly income over time. It takes a while to start gaining momentum, but it is worth it in the end. Figure you can earn $1 a month per article within three months. If you write three quality articles a day you will have $300 a month of extra income in three months.

MOONLIGHT AND SELL YOUR EXPERTISE.

If you do have a certain area of expertise, then you can sell your work and knowledge to others. A job on the side can help you make big strides toward a balanced budget. Do odd jobs for friends, start a website and advertise your services, or put an ad in the paper.

SAVE MONEY IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE TO FINANCE YOUR BUDGET.

If you save $10 it is better than earning $12. You don't have spend your time earning those $10 and you don't have to pay the taxes on it. So $1000 saved is $1200 or more earned. The old saying a penny saved is a penny earned is about fifteen to twenty percent off.

MAKE WHATEVER SACRIFICES YOU CAN TO AVOID BORROWING FUNDS.

Sell a car and start carpooling or taking public transit. Live on beans and rice for a week or two. Do what you can to avoid debt. But if it is absolutely necessary, find a loan that is low in interest and won't change terms on you in the future. A short term loan (three years) is better than a long term loan since it will force you to pay if off sooner. Home Equity loans can be used, but this is one of the key ways people have been forced into foreclosure. Better to sell your home and take the equity if you can.

PURSUE FINANCIAL FREEDOM TO KEEP YOUR BUDGET FINANCED.

Find a way to save up a small emergency fund of 1,000 to 2,000 dollars. Then pay off all of your debt that isn't in a house. Then save up 3-6 months of expenses as a true emergency fund. Then invest as much money as you can so that you can have enough income streams to be free of financial pressure in the future. See the suggested reading list at the top right hand side of this page (click on the books) for more help with family finances.

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All Rights Reserved.

How to Buy Back Your Home During Foreclosure: You Can Still Prevent Foreclosure!

2009-05-02T00:00:00.002-04:00

I have a hobby of checking into real estate. It saddens me though, when I find a friend or acquaintance's name on a foreclosure notice, or sheriff's sale property list. So, I thought I would write about how to keep that from happening to YOU, or someone you love who is in trouble financially.

If the foreclosure process has started, or will soon, on your home you will want to find ways to refinance while the house is still in foreclosure, or find another way to get your house back.

Foreclosure beginning does not mean the end has come! You can keep fighting to keep your home and there are many creative ways to go about it. This article will help you think of the right option for you and find avenues to buy back your home during foreclosure.

1. GET THE FORECLOSURE REVERSED WITH A GOOD LAWYER.

You will need a lawyer for this process, and if successful, you will save much more than the lawyer will cost you in better credit, and a retained home. Pull out your yellow pages or google a foreclosure lawyer in your area. Most of the time your lender will have missed an i that needed dotted or a t that needed crossed. The bank will fix their mistakes quickly, but this will buy you some time.

2. SELL ALL OF YOUR ASSETS TO RAISE CASH AND PREVENT FORECLOSURE.

This means cars, jewelry, electronics, furniture, stocks, retirement accounts, or anything else you can think of to liquidate to raise cash. This probably won't get you fully to where you need to be to make a foreclosure stop. However, it will show all of your foreclosure help that you are serious about saving your home and aren't just looking for handouts.

3. ASK INVESTING FRIENDS, FAMILY MEMBERS, OR OTHER ACQUAINTANCES FOR HELP.

If you want to prevent foreclosure on your home you obviously need more money than you have now. Otherwise you wouldn't be in foreclosure. You are going to have to suck up any pride, shove down any shame, and start asking. You may need to bring cash from multiple sources. Many people will feel better about lending money if you sign a legal promissory note. You can get a free form off line or have your lawyer draw them up to raise more cash.

3. PURSUE A REFINANCE WHILE THE HOUSE IS STILL IN FORECLOSURE.
There are always other lenders!
If you are still in the redemption period (research the rules for your state) then you can buy back the home while it is still in foreclosure. You can do this through your own bank by paying up to date including all fees many times. They may even reinstate your old loan. Call and ask! Always in this process make yourself ask and ask more than once.

If the bank will not reinstate the old loan you will need to refinance and pay off the mortgage. You will likely need 30-35% of the loan you require as a down payment because of your situation. Talk with a mortgage broker and find out. This is why you have to raise cash from every possible source. But the equity in your home (if you have any) will count toward this amount so don't lose hope!

4. CHECK INTO GOVERNMENT SPONSORED FORECLOSURE BAILOUTS

You many qualify for Obama's new economic stimulus relief for home owners facing foreclosure. Talk with your bank, your lawyer, and research this grant on the internet. If you owe as much or nearly as much on the loan as the home is worth, you are likely to qualify.

5. CONSIDER A SHORT SALE/RE-BUY OPPORTUNITY TO STOP FORECLOSURE.

Again you have to call your lender and ask. Check with your mortgage lender to see if they will consider a short sale, which means they allow you to sell your home for less than it is worth. There are instances where they will get more money from a short sale than they would for a foreclosure since foreclosures sell at a high discount. Talk to the manager of the short sale department and make your situation sound sad. You will probably need to:

- Give permission to release loan information to a real estate agent or buyer
- Write a hardship account to send to the bank (make them weep)
- Give written and honest proof about all of your assets.

If you are able to find refinancing you can then buy back your home from the short sale buyer creating your own 'mortgage downsize' plan. Again, you will need to consult a lawyer and CPA for their time and fees are well worth it in the end. You no longer have room for error if you want to prevent foreclosure. This is a tricky move and needs to fit every single law and regulation to a 't.'

YOUR LAST DITCH STAND: BUY THE HOME AT THE SHERIFF'S SALE

You need to have a family member or investor purchase the home for you. They can then sell the home back to you, lease it back to you with an option to purchase when your credit recovers, or some other creative option the investor imagines. Somebody is going to buy your home at the sheriff's sale or afterward. It might as well be someone you know who can help you stay in your home, even if they make money off of it.

If at all possible though, do everything in your power to prevent the foreclosure process from completing itself to protect your reputation and credit. All sheriff sales are public knowledge. I am always saddened when I see a friend or acquaintances' name on a sheriff's sale bill and wonder why they never let anyone who could help know.

TIPS
* Do heed the warnings about lawyers and accountants. You will need them! Don't skip that necessary step.
* If possible show investors and lenders that your situation did not arise from negligence or lack of effort.

WARNING:
* Be careful about who you allow to help you get through foreclosure. Check any company out to make sure it is legit and not a hoax or foreclosure scam. Don't get scammed while trying to dig out of foreclosure.

(c) 2009 David B. Ward All rights reserved.

Looking for Books on Finance?
Read More of Dave's 135 Online Articles

Online Writing and Money Making Guide

2009-04-29T16:06:00.002-04:00

Want to earn money writing online? Interested in making money working at home? Here is a small collection of articles on how to make money writing online. I will add to this 'Online Writing Kit' over time. Let me know if you're pursuing it. I love to share war stories and epic successes with other writers.

How to Make $100 Your Third eHow Month

How to Write $5-per- Month eHow Articles

How to Write 100 Online Articles in Two Months

How to Find Time to Write More

How to Celebrate eHow Milestones and Stay Motivated to Write

How to Use Metaphors and Similes to Sound Brilliant

How to Find Free Sermon Illustrations (Create Them Really)

2009-04-25T00:01:00.003-04:00

Finding free sermon illustrations is really not the best way to think about sermon crafting. But that is probably what most people are looking for when they come to the internet. So I am going to tell you how to 'find' free sermon illustrations by creating them. There, I feel better about myself, and hopefully you want to read.

This is a step by step illustration creating guide. It isn't a theology of sermon illustrations or a compendium of pre-fab one-size-fits all sermon anecdotes. This article is for preachers who want to be creative (whether they know it or not) and craft instructive, delightful, and moving sermons.

PRAYERFULLY SIT UNDER A PASSAGE UNTIL IT PREACHES TO YOU.

This is a key step. This works for any sermon, any time, anywhere. How has the scripture changed you? Fred Craddock suggests we 'wrestle with the text as Jacob wrestled with the angel, saying 'I won't let you go until you bless me.'' Have you wrestled with the scriptures this way? This is the central point for creativity and illustrations that move and instruct. We can't illustrated what isn't there. Don't fall into the trap of finding stories and visual illustrations as a substitute for having something worth saying.

STATE THE GRIPPING CONCERN OF THE PASSAGE IN A PREACHING SENTENCE.

This isn't a term paper sentence. It isn't a five part thesis. In a simple, preaching worthy sentence describing how this passage grabs and takes hold of your life. I call them gripping concerns. Here are some gripping concern sentences from real sermons:

- Every single decision we make in life is a chance to worship God.
- The Spirit of Christ can, wants to, and will help you overcome sin.
- Forgiving someone else is more about cleaning our own heart than clearing their account.

These sentences, as Tom Long puts it, make a 'claim' on the listener. However, they are not academic summaries and they are not the subpoints of the message either. They are the main gripping concern.

BRAINSTORM METAPHORS THAT BREATHE LIFE INTO THE GRIPPING CONCERN OF THE SERMON.

A metaphor is formed when we use analogical reasoning - we think in analogy. One way to do this is to force yourself into an analogy game. Allow me to play with this for a minute. Let's take the first gripping concern from the last step. I take two parts of the sentence and put them into a relationship with some other strange thing. Let's try it...

A chance is to worship, as _______ is to lottery. Hmmmm what to put in the blank...ticket? opportunity? statistics. Not satisfied yet. If I am not satisfied with the blanks I might try more.

A chance is to worship as ________ is to castles. Drawbridge comes to mind. Interesting. So a chance is sort of an entryway, a passageway into something else. Every decision then, is a door I have a chance to open, a doorknob that stands between me and a mansion full of worshiping God.

So you see how we got there? It was a game of forced analogy. Here is another example:

The Spirit is to sin as _____________ is to construction. Bulldozer, jackhammer, power drill, or wrecking ball. I like those images. But what if I shifted it? What if that doesn't really fit the passage? (I really am just thinking these up as I write to show you how to go about it). The Spirit is to sin as ___________ is to weather. A hurricane, a tornado, a relentless monsoon or a slow and never ending trickle. Now which is it? The passage should tell you. Find a metaphor that

Now you have a creative image that serves as an illustration.

CRAFT A PARABLE TO BRING LIFE INTO THE SERMON.

You don't always have to 'find' an illustration. The above example helps you create a metaphor or analogy that is visual and gripping for your sermon. This step reminds us that we don't have to always 'find' the right story. Usually this leaves us telling far to many 'last week when I was in the grocery store' kinds of stories. Is preaching really about us? It should be personal, but can we reduce the 'I' language?

Ask yourself this: if you could find the perfect story to illustrate the gripping concern of the sermon what would it be? Now write that story AS a parable. Jesus did, remember?

Simply start it with the literary markers of a parable like this:
Once there was a woman who...
In a land not very far away...
John Somebody was a nobody from day one...
A certain rich man...

Never make it sound as though your crafted parables are factual historical stories or you will rapidly lose credibility. Do however, make sure they are true-to-life stories that might as well be true.

DESIGN AN EXPERIENCE FOR THE SERMON LISTENER

Another way to 'illustrate' or paint or bring light to the subject is to help the listener engage their own imagination. Visualization exercises can achieve this 'imagine you can see a door reaching from the floor of the earth to the ceiling of the sky...' These can be cheesy or overdone so be careful. Another way of engaging the mind is with a simple list of questions. 'Can you imagine for a moment what it would be like to beg on a dusty road? Can you feel the clouds of dust from a crowded street? Can you smell the dung from the animals that carry the rich? Do you hear the clamor and commotion of a marketplace filled with buying and selling and bartering?'

IF ALL ELSE FAILS, TELL A STORY TO ILLUSTRATE YOUR SERMON.

I shouldn't put it this way, I suppose. But too many sermons trade stories for substance. Share the depth of the concept and press the logic of the passage before jumping to tell a story. However, there are times when the best thing to be done is to tell a story. If you do, tell it with craft and care. Make every word count. Don't use the story as a chance to let up on your preaching effort and ramble. Seed the story with key phrases that bear theological weight. Use the story to craft a lens through which the listener can then see the scripture in a new light, in a new way, and with more personal conviction than before.

Often stories work best as illustrations of how to apply the sermon. Tell a story of someone we can emulate. Share the life of someone you have met along the way. If the only hero you can think of is you, don't let the people know it! At worst, say 'I have a very close friend who...'

Listen to how master preachers illustrate and learn from them the how, not the what.
Never allow yourself to start becoming the hero in your own sermons. We will all boo that and quietly head for the door.

PhD Degree Survival Guide

2009-04-21T10:16:00.003-04:00

This is a collection of online articles I wrote for people who live in PhD degree land (or want to move there.)

How to Get Into the Best PhD Program

How to Survive a PhD Degree

How to Study for Comprehensive Exams

How to Calm Down Before Preaching

2009-04-19T18:00:00.005-04:00

Sermons are scary things to be responsible for. That seems normal since fear of public speaking trumps fear of death. Add to that most preacher's desire to see life change and be faithful to the gospel and what serious preacher wouldn't get a little anxious? One famous preacher said that if he ever stopped getting nervous he should stop preaching. That was a way of saying that perhaps getting nervous about preaching a sermon is not only normal, but also helpful in some way. This article helps you calm those nerves and focus your anxious energy. Put your fear to good use and improve your preaching.

1. RECENTER THE BURDEN OF PREACHING AND EFFECTIVE SERMONS.

We do have a place in preaching. Certainly we have all met preachers we wish would hold up their end of the bargain a little more diligently. However, any adequate theology of the Word will remind us that the Spirit of Christ is the primary proclaimer in the sermonic moment - not us. See if you can recall an experience like this:

I walked out of the sanctuary with slumped soldiers and a shrunken confidence. I just preached one of the worst sermons of my life. The thoughts were disjointed, the outline thrown together, and I needed something more interesting in almost every move. Two funerals and a Sunday morning sermon crowded out this Sunday night message in my week's preparation. I knew that it didn't connect well with the congregation. My usual standard was well above this sermon. Then she stopped me--the old saint of the church. She looked at me with tear moistened eyes and said 'When you said...it was exactly what I needed to hear. That was God's word for me today.' I smiled and thanked her knowing full well that I never said those words. I never said anything close to those words. They were wonderful words proclaimed by some Other voice than mine.

Have you had that kind of experience? It reminds us that God is the primary preacher even in our worst moments of preaching. Do your best, pray through the process, and surrender it to God.

2. PRACTICE BREATHING PRAYER BEFORE PREACHING YOUR SERMON.

Breathing prayer simply connects the patterns of breathing with basic concepts of prayer.

Breathe in (3 count) - Recognize God's presence
Hold (3 count) - Enjoy God's presence
Breathe out (3 count) - Release anxiety to God

With each breathing pattern release your stress and anxieties to God in prayer, wordless prayer is possible.

You can add these (or any) scripture verses to this pattern if you like:
- Be still/and know/that I am God
- I am/the Lord/who heals you
- Only/one thing/is needed

You can practice this form of breathing prayer anywhere, including the chancel or front pew waiting your moment to preach.

3. ADD VISUALIZATION OF YOUR SERMON TO BREATHING PRAYER.

Do you have a particular way of preaching you are working on? Is there an emotion you are trying to present in this sermon? Is there a delivery goal you have for yourself? Perhaps you just simply want to preach the sermon calmly. As you practice this breathing prayer visualize the sermon like a movie in your mind. Watch yourself approach the pulpit. See yourself preaching calmly, confidently, or delivering the focused on emotion.

Performance and expertise theorists have studied the effects of visualization and found it to be a powerful influence on improving embodied performance.

4. KEEP A CALMING SYMBOL ON THE FRONT PEW.

This picture of a New Orleans guitarist goes with me whenever I preach somewhere. Often I stand it up in a folder on the front pew. In this picture I see a person totally swept up in the moment of their craft. There is life, energy, joy and focus. It is a very practiced image full of experience but also improvisational. It reminds me of two things, preaching is more like jazz than classical music. As Louis Armstrong said, 'Jazz is that music which is never played the same way once.' So it is with preaching. Second, it reminds me that preaching is fun. I like to preach. I am called to preach sermons. And if I can image the preaching moment as enjoyable, interestingly enough it is.

Suggested Practical Ministry Books

2009-04-17T23:59:00.001-04:00

Favorite Practical Ministry Books:

This week I just decided to put up a quick and off-the-cuff list of books I think you should read if you are in ministry, or training ministers. Most of these aren't 'academic' works. All of them have had some level of significant impact on my life and ministry. I linked a few for you to make it easy. I ran out of time and hoped to come back and link the rest. But, oh well. Busy week and Dawson's sleeping which means...I need to sleep too. Here they are in no order whatsoever:

Helping People Through Grief, Delores Kuenning
Emotionally Healthy Church, Peter Scazzero
Homiletical Plot, Eugene Lowry
Discovering an Evangelical Heritage, by Donald Dayton
In the Name of Jesus Henri Nouwen
A Tale of Three Kings, Gene Edwards
Strategic Pastoral Counseling
Financial Peace University, by Dave Ramsey
Intended for Pleasure
Non-Violent Communication by Marshall Rosenburg
Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerich
Holiness for Ordinary People by Keith Drury
The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn
Lifting the White Veil by Jeff Hitchcock
Mindfulness by Ellen Langer
Contagious Christianity, Mark Middleburg
On Christian Doctrine, St. Augustine
Causes of the Inefficacy of Christianity, sermon by John Wesley
Active Spirituality, by Ira Groff

What books would you add to my list?

Increase Your Income In Two Hours a Day

2009-04-11T07:19:00.012-04:00

Remember my post on how to save two hours a day? If you actually changed something in your life that was suggested, or that you came up with on your own ideas then you have time to fill! You can increase your income if you choose to do so. It takes creativity, hard work, and new income streams. This article describes how you can significantly increase your income this month in just a couple hours a day.

FIND EVERY POSSIBLE WAY TO SAVE MONEY.

You make more money when you save, than when you earn. Here is what I mean. When you make more money you pay more taxes. So finding a way to save ten dollars is better than finding a way to make ten dollars. If you save ten dollars it earns interest. My high interest savings account gives me 4% in a recession. So if I save ten dollars I really save 10.40 over the year. If I earn ten dollars I pay taxes and tithe. For the normal tax payer that means you earned $8. Here are some ideas to get you started:

- Go to an envelope budget for groceries and eating out. Give yourself a certain amount of cash each week and when it is gone, don't spend any more.
- Get a cash back credit card like American Express Blue Cash. I get 1.5% back on everything, and 5% back on groceries and gas. That's a lot of savings over a year. I received $800 this year since I also buy things I can sell...that's like making $1000. How would you like a $1000 dollar raise?
- Turn off lights in the house, turn the thermostat down to 68 in the winter and up to 75 in the summer.
- Cut down on the animal products in your diet. If you eat less milk, meat, cheese, and eggs you will have a heart healthier diet and will save money every month.
- Ride your bike to work. Save on gas and get in shape.
- Buy a smaller house and save on mortgage, utilities, taxes, maintenance, and furnishings (large houses cost a LOT more than the sticker price).

Most ideas on saving money require little if any extra time...they just give you extra money. In case you didn't read the old post here are some more creative ways to save money.

TAKE THE EXTRA HOUR AT WORK TO INCREASE YOUR INCOME.

If you get paid by the hour this is a no brainer. Come in early and leave late if you can. This increases your value to the company. They know you are willing to work and committed to your job. It also increases your pay. If you do this every day for a month, your income will increase significantly.

If you are a commissions based salesperson go in early to make email contacts and fill out paper work. Benjamin Franklin said 'there is gold in the mouth of every morning.' Stay later to make phone calls or have a dinner appointment. Many sales are made after business hours. Make one extra sale a day and you know the difference that can make. You certainly don't have to do this at work. You can send a couple emails early in the morning when you first wake up, or take time to call a client while you are commuting. Here's an article on how to get paid more for your work.

INVEST YOUR MONEY AND LET IT WORK FOR YOU.

Increase your income by making your savings work for you. This is why you have to start with saving money! If you have an emergency fund, put it in a relatively liquid but interest bearing savings account. I use the Wesleyan Investment Foundation since they provide 3-4% interest (5% in a strong economy) and I can have my money in two days any time I need it. If you have true emergency fund (3-6 months income) stored, you could make $700 year that way. That's a $900 raise. This only takes an hour out of one week (ever) and then it earns for you without you doing a thing.

If you have enough cash and the know how, get started in the rental business. If your area has enough rental demand you can make more in rentals than in stocks.
Even if you break even on rentals you will put money in an equity bank and save money on taxes. I recently talked to a friend of mine who pays of $4000 of equity off every year on his rentals, breaks even on his houses, and receives a thousands in tax refund this year because his income looks low to the IRS. On paper it says he lost $5000 in real estate. He didn't lose, he made money. He put a lot of time into purchasing the properties. But now he only puts in an hour a week.

Consider reading Phil Towns book on Rule #1 investing and wisely and carefully invest in stocks. Just be determined to pull out the minute it looks like you might lose any money. A recession is the perfect time to buy stocks if you don't need the money for a long time. Once you know the system this doesn't take much more than an hour a week. That translates into about eight minutes a day.

SELL STUFF YOU DON'T USE OR NEED.

Get familiar with craigslist and online auction sites (look for alternatives to ebay--they charge too much). Then hold an online garage sale. You can often make more money selling your stuff online than selling it in your front yard. It just takes a few minutes to take a picture, create the listing, and then to ship the item when it sells. Look through old books, clothes, and toys. Basically money is sitting all over your house in the form of clutter and unused stuff. It is sitting in boxes in the basement or attic. Go pull out your money!

MAKE MONEY ONLINE IN JUST AN HOUR A DAY.

You can make money writing articles online if you are diligent about it. This article was originally posted on ehow and is making about $12 a month. That doesn't sound like much. But I wrote four articles the other morning while I was up early with a baby. They probably won't make as much a month probably $2 each. That makes $20, which doesn't sound like much I know. But I write two to four articles a day in one to two hours a day. That's sixty articles a month. If those articles only average $1 a month then I am adding $30-$60 every month to my monthly income. After a year I will have increased my monthly income by $720. Thats a $8000 raise. Do you get the picture? You have to learn how to make money writing online, but it is obviously worth the investment of time and money if you like to write. You will start loving the trip to the mail box when you know a check might be there.

Tips & Warnings

- Cut out unnecessary bills and expenses. Try going TV free for a year. Sell one of your cars. Barter and swap for all kinds of things you would normally pay to get.

- Pick one way of making money to master before moving to the next.

- Find a good reason to make more money. Just making more to make more is a silly way to live. Save for your kids' college, earn more to give more to charity and fight poverty. In my family we earn more money because we have a giving vision that is larger than a salary can help us achieve.

John Wesley's maxim "make all you can, save all you can, give all you can" is the primary inspiration behind this article and this way of thinking for me. We don't really need any more money than we already get every year.

- Any of these ways to make money takes time to come to full fruition. Give it time! It took me a month before my earnings started picking up on ehow and other online income sources. It took me a year to see any real fruit in the rental business. Don't give up early and lose the chance to earn more money!

A Few of Dave's New Mini-Articles

2009-04-08T17:39:00.004-04:00

How to Give Premarital Counseling: A Brief Guide for Pastors

How to Encourage Your Husband: Your Guide to a Man's Heart

How to Make Your Dream Vacation Happen

Ways to Help Your Marriage and Encourage Your Wife Today

2009-04-03T20:27:00.011-04:00

Do you want your marriage to last and last and last?
It doesn't have to be Mother's Day or your anniversary to improve your marriage and fire up your romance. Make life happier today with a little encouragement to your wife. After all, you know the saying, "happy wife happy life," and it is true. A warmed heart goes a long way toward a better relationship. Better relationships are the most important part of life. We all handle the ins and outs of daily living better if we know we are valued, appreciated, respected, and bring something good to the world.

Here are some ways to weave encouragement for your wife into today's normal routine.

TAKE OVER ONE OF YOUR WIFE'S CHORES TO ENCOURAGE HER.

Often marriages face difficulty over tasks and duties. We tire of the daily grind and start looking for ways to cut corners. Instead, look for a way to add one corner today. Does she usually vacuum? Beat her to it. Load or unload the dishwasher, do a load of laundry, take out the trash, pick up clutter around the house, give the bathroom a quick man-clean. Find one thing she normally does and do it quietly. Don't point it out. Wait for it... wait for it.

LEAVE A NOTE OF ENCOURAGEMENT WHERE SHE WILL FIND IT LATER.

Go grade school on your marriage - write a love note on a napkin and stick it in her lunch. Write a message in the fog on the mirror so when she takes a shower it reappears. Write something on a stickie note and put it in her purse. Drop her an email while she is on her way to work. Dictate an email for free to your wife that speaks words of encouragement and gratitude.

GIVE A SURPRISE NECK OR BACK RUB TO YOUR WIFE.

If your wife loves back rubs, so will your marriage. When you get up from the dinner table stop and give her neck a rub. If she seems interested, give her a longer back rub. These small moments of touch are proven to reduce conflict, soften conflict when it does occur, and improve your marital sex life. This touch encourages her by telling her you love her, want to comfort her, know her day was hard, and enjoy serving her without being asked and without receiving in return.

SURPRISE YOUR WIFE WITH COMPANIONSHIP

Go with your wife somewhere you normally don't. Call her in the morning and ask her out for lunch. Go with her if she goes shopping today. I know you don't want to walk the hard floors and you hate the smell of the perfume counters, not to mention the creepy guys with lotion samples. Just go for one day. Bribe yourself with a starbucks. Ask her to cook dinner with you instead of fixing it apart. Find ways to give companionship especially if you know that is important to your wife.

GIVE YOUR WIFE YOUR UNDIVIDED AFFIRMING ATTENTION FOR FIVE MINUTES

It is amazing how five minutes of focused listening can encourage someone. Pat Williams said “The trouble in our marriage wasn’t infidelity, it was fidelity with fatigue, a marriage gone soft and sour due to lack of attention. It was the lack of communication that nearly killed us.” David Augsberger said "To be heard and understood is so close to being loved that most people don't know the difference." In other words...don't listen and she won't feel loved. Listen and criticize or debate, and she won't feel loved.

So, save your marriage and ask good questions. Make strong eye contact. Turn off the TV, put away the newspaper, tell the kids to go outside, and don't say anything about you. Nothing. NOTHING. Just ask good questions and listen. If you don't know what to ask try these:

1. What are your emotions like today? or Give me three emotional words for you day today.
2. What was the hardest part of your day?
3. What are you looking forward to this week?
4. What parts of our marriage are going best right now?
5. Are there any needs in your life that aren't being met?

On one of our past dates I hid a note card in my lap with a list of questions to ask Holly to keep the conversation going. We had kids, we were tired, dates just weren't always what they used to be. Our star filled eyes were sleepy. When my card fell on the floor and she saw it, I thought the game was up. Here we go, end of romance! Holly's response? "It means a lot to me that you thought ahead and planned for us to have a good conversation." What? I was confused for a minute and relieved for a lifetime. Write a list if you have to. Five minutes of listening a day goes a very long long way. However much listening you tend to do...add five more minutes today. Five extra minutes of good listening.

How else do you encourage your wife? Women you can pass on good gossip about your hubby. How does he encourage you? I look forward to learning from you!

My Favorite Mac Tricks

2009-04-01T18:14:00.008-04:00

I have to admit that I am an OLD ibook user. I haven't given in to the releases and innovative break throughs...yet. I am waiting until they are cheap and used and being unloaded on the wake of the next breakthrough like my ibook was. And for you die hard mac fans whose brains register the apple insignia in the same part of your brains as Jesus, I don't think I will have anything new for you. For the mediocre macintosh faithful, new devotees, and members of the PC borg who are considering defecting, check these out:

1. Quicksilver. It is a simple thing. But I love it so. Quicksilver is a freeware program that is quick to download and set up. It activates with a hotkey you choose. I took my brother-in-law's advice, thanks Paul Hussein, and set it up as appl(command)-space. That way I hit it with my thumb turned sideways. Then I type in the first one or two letters of the program I want to open. It comes up on the list and I hit return...bam my program opens. So I hit apple-space t and return in half a second and text edit is open and running in two. They should call it slicksilver.

2. F9 - I love to have fifteen things up and running. I know this slows the processing speed, and I know this increases the risk of crash (which has never happened in three years on this schhhhlick mac), but I do it anyway. Back off. So I love the option to hit one button and watch it zoom out to show me every window that is open. Over over a window and it gives a text summary. Click on the window and I just switched. I use tabs for internet, but for other programs I like of like this better than the dock. My screen stays cleaner until I want clutter for a moment...then clean again.

3. Zoom in on anything. Ctrl-double-finger zoom. This is a slick trick that they upped with the new mac's touch technology. I have an oldie so I hold control and double finger scroll up. Wallah I just zoomed in on a tough to read text or hard to see picture. I don't have to go to "view" or "zoom" on any toolbar. Just control and slide. Then I move around with one finger all over the screen.

4. Take a picture of anything on the screen. apple-shift-4. Then drag the cursor around what you want a picture of and release. It automatically dumps to my desktop. Here is a 8 point size font "zoom" that I zoomed in on and then clicked a picture of just now. Okay actually I used those last two tricks on every picture in this article.

What are your favorite mac tricks? PC only users banned from the comment page... I will remove you, don't make me do it. ;)

How to Succeed as a First Time Home Buyer

2009-03-30T19:25:00.004-04:00

First time home buying can be a stressful process. If you have never bought a home before you might not know anything about financing, how to buy home insurance, mortgages, mortgage brokers, home inspections and the rest. Here is a step by step guide through the most important elements for success. Learn how to save money or even make money on your first home.

STEP 1. DECIDE ON YOUR HOME BUYING BUDGET.

The single greatest mistake first time home buyers make is buying a house that is too expensive. Real Estate agents don't know your salary or budget. That is your job. Don't end up in foreclosure as a first time home buyer! Click here to read the rest of this article including additional resource articles on purchasing a home.

5 Creative Ways to Save Money

2009-03-27T21:12:00.005-04:00

We all have heard the usual suspects of ways to save money. Turn down your heat three degrees to save on heating bills. I am even guilty of posting some of these less than creative ways like saving money on cheap flights with certain searches and flying times. Are these the best ways to save money we can come up with? Here is some money saving advice I hope is a little more creative. You be the judge.

1. Buy Books for Free.

And my college economics teacher says "There is no free lunch." And he is right. So here is how you buy the books you want for free. Go to mturk.com and sign up for an Amazon payment account. Then browse through their "hits" which are assignments that take very little time and pay very little money. The most I have been paid so far is six bucks, but I have seen twelve for a hit. The real money, though, is found in the quickie 50 cent jobs. You can do some of them very quickly and rack up a book or two in an hour. So if you don't have anything else going on, instead of surfing the net mindlessly, get paid for it...in books (or some other Amazon item). So the next time you think you want a book, go to mturk and earn it.
I have ten bucks sitting in my account (see pic) I add to every now and then instead of giving into media surfing syndrome. Soon...I will buy a book or a mug or a gift for someone else. You learn some fascinating things too by participating in their newsreel kinds of hits. Read an article and post a question...get paid for reading news.

2. Get Paid to Buy Things

There are many ways to do this. You don't really make money (this isn't a creative money making post) but you do save money. Money Trooper is one place where you can do this. The best deal on their site (I think) is the American express gift card. You buy the gift card, pay a $15 fee, and then receive 5% percent of the value back. So, decide to put several month's expenses on a gift card. If you have a cash back credit card (we do) you can double dip. You get cash back from your credit card, and then cash back from moneytrooper. With our card at 1.5% back plus 5% - $15 we would buy a $1000 gift card and get $50 back even after the $15 dollar fee. There are a host of other deals on the site you might want to check out.

3. Wait, Borrow, and Receive

Follow this pattern on almost everything you want to buy. Do you think you need a second car? Wait. See if you can borrow. If you wait long enough, sometimes, often mysteriously, you receive. Keith Drury talks about this in his book Money Sex and Spiritual Power. For some reason, if you wait awhile and borrow when you have to...it often shows up for cheap or free. We still have the TV I received after deciding not to buy one, go elsewhere to watch one. Three months later I went to a friend's garage sale. He just said "do you have a big screen TV like this? No? It's yours." Somebody tried to talk him down in price by telling him the TV probably didn't work. He got angry and decided to give it away. I happened by et voila...free TV. It's ten years old now.

4. Barter and Swap

This is the ground floor of all economics. The barter system is simply the exchange of goods you have too much of for something you have too little of. If you were a farmer you had wheat. You knew a butcher who had meat. Wheat for meat, everyone wins. There are somethings that you can exchange even-stephen though. Swap babysitting with friends. Swap house sitting. Swap car pooling.

The same principle creates bartering when different things have the same value. Swap labor. I help you lay a floor, so you help me tear down a fence...and we both save labor. Swap expertise. I might know html code and you might know car mechanics. So before you go pay somebody to do something for you...think swap or barter.

5. Set a Crazy Cheap Goal...and Make it Public

Saving money usually sounds pretty boring. But some people know how to make this fun. The idea is to set a ridiculously low budget for something, make the crazy cheap goal public, and try to keep your pride. So you might be trying to figure out how to buy a new house you can afford. Set a crazy cheap goal and refuse to buy anything above it. Maybe, like my friend Jamie, you are trying to get buy on a low grocery budget. She sets the grocery goal for her family of three (in pricey Princeton with no Super Walmart) at $50 per week. Her blog makes it public. It is amazing the kinds of deals your creativity can uncover when it is a public challenge.

There you go, five creative ways to save money. What are YOUR creative ways to save money? Can you add to the list? Do you have a great story about one of the categories on the list? Post a comment and we will all learn to be cheap-os together.

Then the only question left is, what are we saving the money for? But that's another post.

Cheap Tickets, Consumer Credit, and Free Phone Email

2009-03-26T13:50:00.003-04:00

Two days left until the Saturday Morning Post. Until then, here are a few more mini articles you might be interested in:

5 Ways to Find Cheap Flight Tickets

How to Get Consumer Credit Counseling Service

Email From Any Phone for Free (Just Use Your Voice)

I am particularly geeked about this last one. If you haven't tried this out you have to. You can listen to your email on your phone from the same service.

Let me know what you think!

Dave

Save Two Hours A Day (Or More)

2009-03-20T14:42:00.009-04:00

I know it sounds like a lot to promise. However, I am actually promising more. If you haven't already implemented all of these things, you will probably save a lot more than two hours a day. My hunch is, most of you are doing at least two or three of these already. I would love to hear how many of these you have already started doing, which are most helpful, and what you might add. Any way, here is how to save two hours a day (or more):

1. Go to bed thirty minutes earlier.

Then get up any time after five when your body wakes you up. Studies show the most important hours of sleep for most people are between 10pm and 2am. If you increase your sleep by a half hour in this window of time it will often be the equivalent of an hour of sleep after five. So, do not be surprised if you go to bed a half hour earlier and get up an hour earlier. If so, you just saved a half hour. If not, you got extra sleep to be more productive. One study even claims to prove that you lose energy for the day every time you hit snooze.

2. Cut your TV watching in half.

Create a TV time budget this week to see how much you watch. Don't eliminate it. Just cut it in half. Women average 5 hours of TV time a day, Men 4 hours, Teens 3. See this survey for details. Even if you only average three hours of TV a day you just saved an hour and a half. Put that with a successful first step, and you saved two hours. If so, you got your reading's worth.

3. Cut out fifteen minutes of your lunch break.
If you typically take an hour, take forty five. Some people take as much as a two hour lunch break from the office. If that is you, you can cut out an entire hour on this one.

4. If you live within five miles of your work, consider riding a bike or walking.

In most locations traffic is worse during commute times. If you ride your bike you will add five minutes to your commute each way. When I lived in Denver this added six minutes to my commute each way. So for ten to twelve minutes of additional effort, you will get in forty minutes of aerobic exercise. Then you can cut out your scheduled exercise time since it is woven into your week. I was in the best shape of my life when I did this, and never had a scheduled workout routine (aside from the bike).

5. Answer email twice a day and handle every email immediately.

If it can be answered, answer it quickly. Delete anything deletable (you can delete fifteen messages at a time instead of deleting one at a time this way). Create files of categories for work that needs done if it cannot be handled right away. According to a study by Gartner Inc., which surveyed corporate email
users, 53 percent of users check their mail six or more times a day. 34 percent check mail constantly through the day. 42 check while on vacation and 23 percent over weekends. The average user spends 49 minutes per day managing email.
Cut this time in half and you saved twenty five minutes a day. Take an email fast one day and you save even more.

6. Create a to do list in the morning.

Prioritize it first by category A= urgent B= important C= For pleasure. Then number them based on urgency A-1, A-2, B-1, B-2. Start at the top of the list and work down. If stuck, move to the next item. Using this system from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
, I often found in an office setting that my day's work was done by noon. The amount of time spent in between tasks deciding what to do next is astronomical. If you are like I was, this alone will save you two hours a day.

7. Add one more list to your list making: a "next steps" list. David Allen's innovative book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, helped me in this area. I started going through each of the major projects I was working on and breaking them down into next steps. So, for right now my major projects would be: schedule professor's flights to Germany, India, and Africa; write a discussion paper for Wednesday, read Aristotle's Poetics, and send detailed comments to students on today's sermons. My next measurable steps would be: open up email, find that travel agent's email who always helps me in my mail account, email her with schedule for India, pick up a pen and Aristotle's poetics, finish reading Poetics today, pull out sermon manuscripts, and open email to first student. Some of these are so basic...but they are what get the momentum moving.

Here is how this saves time. When you have a huge project staring you in the face, you usually just stare back. The thought is something like "how am I ever going to get this done?" If you can define the next action step no matter how small, you just started the project momentum. And as my Dad used to say (probably still does) "a job begun is a job half done." When I start a job, it often carries itself of its own momentum. If I get stuck halfway I look to the next tiny action step in the process.

There you go. Do these things and you will probably save more than two hours a day. Now the only question is what are you saving them for? After all, if you don't define that then you will fill it with wasted time and effort. But that's a different post I imagine.

Do you have any time saving ideas that would be worth mentioning? Post them in the comments below.

Here are some bonus time saving tips for how to make cleaning a bathroom quick and easy. It doesn't have to add more than five minutes to your day.

I look forward to reading your comments!

A Few New How-to Articles

2009-03-19T13:22:00.004-04:00

The Saturday Morning Post is coming in two days. Until then, here are a few new e-articles by Dave:

How to Save Your Marriage

How to Read More Books in Half the Time

How to Buy a House You Can Afford

My Kids Don't Know a Phone from an Alien

2009-03-14T06:45:00.003-04:00

I realized when reading through riddles that neither of my two girls realize what a telephone is. I hope I am writing this before I sound too old. Reading a riddle book they were supposed to answer the riddle about something that "goes ring ring." They had no clue. So we tried to make the sound more realistically. Blank looks. No big deal, they are both under five. So we turned the page.

There was a picture of land line phone. Nothing that old, but it did have a cord. Just two years ago I used one of these every day in an office setting. "What's that daddy?' was the response. They do not know a telephone, because they have never seen one. We said "that's a phone" and they confidently said "No it's not. Silly Daddy."

They tapped my pocket and told me where my phone was. A cell phone is the only phone they will likely know. When they turn twelve and beg for a phone because all of their friends have one and i say "I remember when we didn't even have cell phones and we got along fine" I will be out of touch. If I say "You can save up your allowance for it" I will be from another planet. A cell phone won't seem to be a luxury any more, it will be a necessity.

It wasn't very long ago at all that only CIA operatives and drug users used anything remotely similar to a cell phone. They were too expensive for most of us. When I started traveling and speaking I never carried a cell phone. I carried quarters.

So, what else will go the way of the pterodactyl in our life time? Just to nail down a date I will assume I live to 80, that would be 2057. Here are some ideas of what will be gone by then:

1. Television - this seems a no brainer. Before long no one will buy a separate box to watch for movies, TV shows, and home videos. Instead, everything will be housed from the computer. You may have a screen to display when attached to your computer but we won't think of it the same way. The bunny ears days are already over. Show a picture of that contraption to a child five years from now. So we won't say things like "Cable TV."

2. Gas cars - I think in my life time I will switch to plugging in the car or running off of some alternative energy. This was sci-fi in the seventies but we thought we would be there by the millenium change. We underestimated greed and big business. But the big three don't pack as much punch anymore and they certainly don't have cash to burn. Even the energy companies are becoming energy companies, not just oil companies.

3. Irons - I hope this will be true. I hate ironing clothes. Surely we will come up with a way for everything to be truly "wrinkle free" or at least to drop the wrinkles when you wear it for half an hour. That would be nice. Someone work on that.

4. Dead bolts - We will all have digital locks on our doors with scan card entrance or just fingerprint recognition software.

5. American dominance - We won't be the sole supreme ruler of the universe. We are pretty almighty in the world right now. That won't remain the case. Perhaps this economic shakedown will do it eventually through the devaluing of the dollar and American unemployment. Maybe it will be the ongoing rise of China's economic machine. Or it might just be some unknown force we have yet to realize. But we won't be the #1 world power if I live to be eighty I don't believe.

6. HIV - I think we will find either a way to absolutely cure it, or to make it a non-issue for the developed world at least. I hope it will be available even for poverty stricken countries, but that is optimistic.

7. The public school system as we know it. Of course I am not sure about any of these, but least sure about this one. I wonder how this will look. Everyone seems to agree that what we have is a broken and unjust system. I remember in Denver the school system south of us in the burbs was posh and the whitest in the city. Ours was on the color line and seemed to be normal to us. Downtown schools didn't even have a.c. and had to close on the hottest days. Imagine the not-so-hot days. Ever tried to take a test in an 85 degree room?

8. White majority. Whites will be the minority in this country and finally feeling what it is like to have our children grow up "different". My grandchildren may even one day be praying for brown eyes instead of blue. That is if they are white. I imagine actually that about fifty percent of my grandchildren will be white.

9. The abortion debate. It already lost a lot of pull this year.

What will stay around until long after I die? Here are my thoughts:

1. Sex slave trade - human greed and depravity will keep driving this one. It is a many headed hydra.

2. Terrorism - I wonder if this is the new warfare model most of the world will adopt. Two planes did wreaked an awful lot of economic damage on this country that is still rippling.

3. Ice cream - how do you improve on vanilla?

4. Compassion International - I don't know anybody who doesn't support the idea of sponsoring children. Most would rather give to that than to a church building campaign. A lot of building campaign now pledge a certain amount of the money raised to support poverty stricken children as a way of seeming not so greedy.

5. Racism - whites may feel it more powerfully than ever before though as they live in the minority and hear their voices fading into the background.

6. Poverty - it will always be with us.

7. Global warming - even as we seek alternative energy sources this will continue to present itself as a problem. Our solutions are too gradual and the effects built up over too long. Add population growth and developing countries to that equation and we will have less ice at the poles in 2057 not more.

Oh I have more ideas on both fronts, but you are tired of reading by now. I would rather hear your ideas anyway. You can respond quickly below by checking either funny, interesting, boring, or disagree. You can also comment by clicking on comments. What else is passing into extinction? What will never go away?

NEW E-ARTICLES BY DAVE

2009-03-13T15:45:00.003-04:00

Here's a few of my new e-articles (I just write about what I am going through obviously):

How to Swap Babysitting Easily for Free

How to Care for Newborn Skin

How to Encourage Your Wife through Labor

Feel free to comment here to let me know your thoughts. The real "Saturday Morning Post" comes tomorrow morning.

A Brief Follow Up on Torture

2009-03-07T14:15:00.004-05:00

I know I already posted for the week. But I thought you might be interested in a broader poll on terror. The Washington Post published this poll in January on their site. The results show a majority opposition to torture in America at large. The categories were #1 Support not using torture at all, #2 There are cases to consider for torture, #3 No Opinion. The numbers will run from left to right for each position:

No Torture Certain Cases No Opinion

Total 58 40 2

Democrats 71 28 2
Republicans 42 55 3
Independents 56 43 2

Men 49 50 1
Women 65 31 3

Dem Men 65 33 2
Dem Women 75 23 1
GOP Men 34 65 1
GOP Women 50 45 6
Ind Men 45 55 *
Ind Women 66 31 3

Liberal 72 27 1
Moderate 57 42 1
Conservative 47 50 3

There you have it. Interesting, no? Our nine person survey was pretty close to the natural average considering ours was a bit more nuanced in terms of varieties of opinion. I think we can all understand the reason for the party affiliation split. But some were more interesting.

Why do more men support torture more than women?
Put another way, why are women more likely to be absolutely opposed?
(This was consistent in every political category breakdown)

Why are Democrats so radically united against it verses the Republican party who carries a smaller majority in support of "some cases?"

Thoughts?

My Love/Hate Relationship with Jack Bower

2009-03-05T09:49:00.007-05:00

Fox Broadcasting's 24 this season has heightened the tension between two sides of me. One side loves this stuff. The other side hates it.

DAVE #1: I love this stuff.

1. The creative "real time" concept of the drama. When this show started to become popular, I had given up on TV shows in the drama and comedy department for the most part. They all felt the same to me. This concept hooked me. In a way it is a mix between a "reality" show and a traditional TV drama. Here we watch it in real time, it has the feel of the real, but we aren't asked to pretend it is.

2. The fast packed action and quick twists of plot kept me on my feet. The show is known for killing its stars (except for Kiefer Sutherland of course... and the "sexiest man" list maker, Tony Almeida. What's the actor's name?) I like that. You can't simply say to yourself, "They are going to find a way out of this one of course." Because you have no guarantee.

3. It stared a real burning issue in the face: terrorism. Counter Terrorism Unit...CTU... plays with all of our imaginations as to what this country might be doing to keep us from being hit by a plane, a bomb, a biochemical weapon, or some other disaster again. Which leads me to why I hate the show and Jack Bauer.

DAVE #2: Here is the hate side of my relationship with Jack Bauer.

1. He is the typical American cowboy taking justice into his own hands. Forget communal conventions. Forget chains of command. Forget law. Deliver justice, and deliver it raw. As long as you are protecting innocents, kill away. Welcome back John Wayne I suppose...or "Have Gun Will Travel." I must say, I love this stuff too. Then I think about it, and I hate it. Hmmm.

2. The terrorists are the new "Indians." Forgive the word. But that is what we called them. We don't call Native Americans that any more for good reasons. After all I have friends who have rightful claim to that name. But we didn't just call our American hosts a name from the wrong continent. That would only be confusion. We named them "barbarians" "savages" and "animals." Just as the genocide proponents in Rwanda dehumanized their victims as "cockroaches." It's a little more subtle, but there it is. Terrorists. Well I suppose that is what they have become. But then we name them animals. Enter cowboy with gun to deliver justice to these barbarous, murderous half-human monsters who certainly deserve anything we can dish out.

3. Stupid logic. Now this is the biggie for me. "Torture is necessary." Stupid logic. The show's reasoning goes like this: We only have one lead. That leaves us with one option to find the terrorists. The attack is urgently imminent. Therefore, we have to torture. We don't have time to do anything else. Oh yeah, and we can completely trust what someone says when they are in fear of their own lives. Stupid.

Let me break this down for a few of its flaws among many:

- This sort of "false situation" never really happens. There are always more options than one lead. There is always one more suspect or connection to explore. And rarely do we find out about a terrorist attack five hours before it is going to happen. It certainly doesn't happen three times in one '24'.

- Torture doesn't provide reliable information. If I knew nothing about a terrorist attack, and you gave me shock treatment for five minutes--or shot me in various body parts, and then told me I would die if I didn't talk...I would talk. I would make something plausible up just to buy time. That's what any person with a brain in their head would do.

-Even if this did happen... AND EVEN IF TORTURE PROVIDED GOOD INFORMATION, it would be wrong. Dead wrong. If innocent civilians die because we refused to torture, so be it. This may sound harsh, but I would rather be a martyr for civil rights than know I lived because someone was tortured to the brink of death in inhumane ways. THAT isn't American. Hate can't drive out hate, only love can do that. Those were the words of one of our most famous martyrs. Torture flies in the face of everything we stand for as Americans.

So I love you Jack. And here is where I am part of the evil. Part of the system. Part of the market driven demonic machine. I watch you every week. You are the only show I watch. My TV is on for me one hour every week...your hour strangely enough.

So receive this letter from a fan. I don't care if you "save energy" on the set to promote positive climate change. You torture people on screen and promote bigotry, greed, and inhuman injustice. But I am still watching...for one more season at least. Go to jail. Pay your dues. And stop torturing, for God's sake. For humanity's sake, stop torturing. THE SHOW DOESN'T NEED IT! It is a gripping concept WITHOUT TORTURE. But with torture...eventually....my conscience will catch up. And I will turn you off.

Dave

Dave's Articles on Money and Finance

2009-02-27T20:50:00.002-05:00

Click on the article's title to read. you may be navigated away from this site, but all articles listed below are written by Dave:

How to Help Kids Save Money without Being Greedy

Stay Motivated to Make Money for Good Reasons

Why You Should Do Your Own Taxes

Make Yourself Do Your Taxes

Make More Money than Stocks with Rentals

Dave's Recent Parenting Articles

2009-02-27T13:19:00.010-05:00

Here are a few articles I wrote recently with practical ideas for parenting:

Date Your Daughter and Win Her Heart

Surviving Weekends with Kids: A Parent's Guide to Weekend Hope

How to Get Ready for a Baby

Two Brief Articles I Wrote on Prayer

2009-02-26T19:41:00.003-05:00

Pray the Heart of the Lord's Prayer

Make Prayer as Easy as Breathing

Dave's Recent Mini Articles

2009-02-25T19:01:00.004-05:00

How to Date Your Daughter

How to Help Kids Save Money without Being Greedy

Stay Motivated to Make Money for Good Reasons

Why You Should Do Your Own Taxes

Make Yourself Do Your Taxes

Make More Money than Stocks with Rentals

How to Pray the Lord's Prayer by Principle

How to Hike Light and Love Backpacking More: Cut Your Pack Weight in Half

How to Lose Weight One Pound a Week