I’m currently sitting in the performance hall for Poets, Prophets and Preachers and I thought I’d go ahead and post a mini-entry about one of the things that captured me last night.

Rob Bell said he was speaking with a book editor a few weeks ago. This editor goes through hundreds of books on a regular basis. She told Rob that when she starts going through a new book to see if it’s worthy of publication, she necessarily does so with her editor’s hat on looking for the things that an editor would look for; she doesn’t really get to enjoy and take the book in.

But she told him there are rare occasions where she can remove her editor’s hat completely after the first few well-written pages because she says, “I know I’m in good hands.”

Bell went on to explain that the preacher should be able to evoke the same trust within the first couple of minutes of a message. To put in the hard work required to master the art of the sermon is to allow other people to let down their guard, put away their critique, and “know they are in good hands.”

Tags: Poets, Prophets & Preachers, Rob Bell, Mars Hill Church

I want to apologize in advance for failing. Day 2 of Poets, Prophets and Preachers: Recalling the Art of the Sermon will be impossible for me to recount in any sort of encompassing manner. We listened intently for around eight hours of pure brilliance today; trying to summarize it would be difficult.

So I’ve decided to take a different approach. Tomorrow is the final day of the conference; instead of giving a “play-by-play” I’m going to take tomorrow and Wednesday to process some of the things we’ve been discussing. I’ll then post a few entries to let you know the things that resonated with me most deeply and why.

Please continue praying for us. It’s been a great week, but we still feel like there’s so much more to learn and take in.

Shalom,
Josh

Tags: Rob Bell, Mars Hill Church, Poets, Prophets & Preachers, Shane Hipps, Peter Rollins

1. witness (testify to the truth you have learned)
2. remind (point to the fact that God has more in mind than this)
3. return (call for repentance and change)
4. sub-vert (show there’s another story going on besides what we see)
5. provocate (use loaded language to warn)

Tags: Rob Bell, Mars Hill Church, Poets, Prophets & Preachers

All this week I’m in Grand Rapids, Michigan attending a pastor’s conference. It’s being put together by Mars Hill Bible Church, home of Rob Bell, and it’s called Poets, Prophets and Preachers: Recalling the Art of the Sermon.

I’m really looking forward to it. Preaching and teaching make up a big part of what I do at Milestone Church and I’ve definitely discovered something in the last twelve months: preaching 40-50 times a year is a challenging task. It’s difficult to stay fresh and continue to pump out edifying content to grow the saints while keeping it interesting and relevant week in and week out.

I’ve got a couple of weeks of sabbatical coming up at the end of July and the first of August. This conference comes at a perfect time and will hopefully serve to give me some food for thought heading into that period of rest, prayer, and planning for Milestone Church.

This week I’m going to do several “mini-blogs” about the conference and about my experience in processing the information. My friend David Calavan has also decided to come, so as we discuss and work through some of the material I’ll let those of you who are curious in on those discussions.

I think it’s going to be a good week.

Tags: Rob Bell, Mars Hill Church

Sadly, there’s no denying it: I’m getting older. Yes, I realize I’m only 27 and that, statistically speaking, I still have a lot of years ahead of me. But I’m constantly reminded that my time on this earth is gradually coming to a close: a student from the first youth group I pastored graduates from college, the Cosby Show is on Nick-At-Nite, and none of the teenagers at my church know who Zach Morris is.

But I’ve made a deal with myself and with my wife: I don’t want to ever stop learning and trying new things. I don’t want to be the old man who peaked at 25 or talks about the “glory days” of college and high school until he takes his last gasping breath of air. So in the past several years I’ve taught myself graphic design, web design, and Flash. I’ve learned (but certainly not mastered) Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. I’ve become a bit of an Apple Mac guru who can fix almost any software issue and many hardware issues. I’ve also continued to be a student of Scripture and I’ve increased my understanding of post-modern philosophy and ancient church practices. I’ve taken up video editing to a degree I never thought possible only 5 years ago, using Final Cut Studio and Adobe’s AfterEffects.

Believe me when I say I still have a long way to go in mastering these things; but I’m broadening my horizons and the joy has certainly been in the journey. I’m always open to trying new things.

About a year and a half ago, my wife and I purchased the video game Rock Band for the Xbox 360. It turned out to be a really fun party game and we enjoyed hours of playing it with friends in Chicago. And in the midst of all the fun, I noticed that I picked up the drums considerably faster than most people and really enjoyed the new challenge of hand-eye-foot-coordination.

So about 8 months ago, shortly after moving to Springfield, I bought an inexpensive electronic drum kit. Purists will say I should have purchased an acoustic set, but given that we lived in an apartment at the time it really wasn’t an option.

I admit I haven’t had as much time to play and practice as I’d have liked, but I’ve gotten considerably better in the time we’ve had it. In fact, I’d say playing the drums at the end of a stressful day has been a great way to blow off some steam and have fun while doing it.

Last week I had the opportunity to play with my dad and my brother at a Christian youth conference in Georgia called Wow Weekend. It was my first real time to play with a band and I think I did pretty well (though I’m certainly not 1/4 as good a drummer as Philip Ellis). It certainly didn’t hurt that we were playing on a $200,000 sound system; I could literally feel the bass drum in my bones when I played it (which of course made me want to play it as often as possible).

It was more fun than I’ve had in a while, and it was great seeing my family and my good friend Sharon.

I’ll keep practicing on my own and enjoy any chance to play that I get. I don’t have any real aspirations, but maybe someday I’ll play in a little garage band that also has no real aspirations. It really doesn’t matter: the joy is in the journey and the journey is full of joy.

You can check out more photos from the conference at my online photo gallery.

Tags: drums

This will probably be of absolutely zero value to most of you, but I’m trying to allow myself to occasionally just blog about things that I find interesting or amusing.

There is a website called Wordle.net that allows you to generate “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in your text and you can tweak the clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes.

Typically this may be referred to as a “toy” (in fact, that’s the exact terminology the fine folks at Wordle.net use to describe their site), but I feel like it could have some positive applications for writing sermons and essays.

For instance, if you were to drop your sermon text into Wordle and not see the word “Jesus” show up prominently, you might rethink your approach to that day’s topic.

Furthermore, if you were to drop in the text from a paper you were writing on country music and the phrase “Satan Is Your Father” were to come up as prominently featured, then you’d know you were on the right track to an accurate country music essay.

The above word cloud was generated from an essay on my website about the atonement called Christus Victor. Check Wordle.net out for yourself; it’s a fun but useful tool.

Tags: wordle