I love these words from Frederick Buechner on preaching & writing. On preaching: X + Y = Z. IF YOU know the value of one of the letters, you know something. If you know the value of two, you can probably figure out the whole thing. If you don’t know the value of any, you don’t know much. Preachers tend to forget this. “Accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior and be saved from your sins,” or something like that, has meaning and power and relevance only if the congregation has some notion of what, humanly speaking, sin […]

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About a year ago I stumbled upon Frederick Beuchner’s writing. I read his Telling the Truth: the Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, & Fairy Tale and was floored by it. He is, I believe, one of the most talented writers I have ever read. He can surprise with words and get past your natural defenses to not hear or see the familiar in a remarkable way. If you’ve never read him, I wanted to introduce you to him in hopes that you’ll be as blessed by his writing as I have. I have not agreed with all that I’ve read, but […]

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Sippanont Samchai via Compfight It took me four hours to work up the courage, and another 30 minutes to find my phone. My mind these days, I swear. My fingers are sweating, but I manage to punch in the number. I swallow a lump and, after a deep breath, work up the courage to hit the last digit. The number four completes the first leg of my impossible journey, and it’s out of my control now. My breath leaves me. One ring. I bite my bottom lip. Two rings. I start to feel my pulse in my throat. Three rings. […]

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Aside from my normal, pastoral non-fiction that I’m always reading, I love (and I mean love) to read fiction. It is such a good escape for me that genuinely enriches my soul. So I thought I’d mention some books you might want to check out (and also ask you for some recommendations). Home, by Marylinne Robinson I read this book a while back, but oh, I just can’t not talk about it. It is written so beautifully, with characters so haunting that there’s really nothing I can say to measure up to how much I loved it. To be clear, […]

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A little background before I tell you a funny story: Several months before I released Every Bush Is Burning, my writer-friend Courtney Gibson asked me, “Are you afraid to release something so dear to you, knowing that it will be out there for all the world to critique and criticize?” I shrugged and said, “Nah, not really.” And honestly, I didn’t think much of it at that time. Then a few months passed. Release day got closer. And one day it hit me out of nowhere: I wasn’t just afraid. Part of me was terrified. I suddenly wanted to crawl […]

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I met Jeff Goins last September at the STORY Conference in Chicago. I had been following his blog for a while and as we talked, I found liked him more and more. Being two young guys in ministry who also love to write–we had a lot to chat about. Thus a cyber-friendship became a real-life friendship, and as they say, the rest is history. I’ve continued to appreciate and learn a ton from him since. Jeff just released his first print book this week, titled: Wrecked: When A Broken World Slams Into Your Comfortable Life. The cover has the image […]

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Man. It’s been a really crazy, fun week for Every Bush Is Burning. Last Wednesday I started a promotion where the Kindle version would be free for 5 days, to hopefully spread the word and gain some exposure. I was hoping it would reach a couple thousand new readers total, but when I checked the stats mid-day on Wednesday, it was already well over 5,000. My mouth hit my desk. Over the next few days, it climbed up into the #3 and #2 spots in the Free Kindle Store (of over a million free books). That gave it a ton […]

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If you haven’t checked out my book yet, now is the perfect time. Why? Because you can get it for FREE on Kindle for the next 5 days (July 25 – July 29). (Don’t have a Kindle? No problem! You can read a Kindle book from almost anywhere…details here.) Also, if you’ve read the book and know someone who might enjoy it, please pass the link along to them. It doesn’t get cheaper than free after all.

Thinking about this stunning passage from Annie Dillard’s Holy The Firm today. “I salt my breakfast eggs. All day long I feel created. I can see the blown dust on the skin of the back of my hand, the tiny trapezoids of chipped clay, moistened and breathed alive. There are some created sheep in the pasture below me, sheep set down here precisely, just touching their blue shadows hoof to hoof on the grass. Created gulls pock the air, rip great curved seams in the settled air: I greet my created meal, amazed.”

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway to celebrate Every Bush Is Burning. Honestly, all of you are winners. All you do is win. You already know this. The actual winners of the contest that Rafflecopter chose at random, however, are the following: Kindle Touch: Seth Caddell (who by the way, earned it with the way he crushed the points system) $15 Starbucks Card: Rob Sorbo Print Copy of the Book: Magen Kaye Paxton, Brittany Alexander, & Ken Hagerman Congrats to the winners, and be sure to check your email. Thanks again to all of you wonderful people who entered. […]

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