Preaching with stories

I’m really excited for 2010’s preaching schedule! We spent the most part of October/November thinking through how we would approach this year in student ministry. (In case you didn’t know, I preach almost every week.) This year we really wanted to focus on teaching our students how to tell their stories by giving them insight into biblical characters. It goes like this…

Instead of us preaching by book, chapter, verse, or even topic, we’re taking a different approach. We’re focusing on PEOPLE in the Bible. We’re specifically looking at how their testimony would look if we were to ask them today. What would Adam’s testimony be? Eve? Noah?

For example, tomorrow I’m preaching on Eve. Typically we only associate her with the fall and how that basically screwed everything up. BUT, if she were to tell it, I don’t think that would be the defining part of her testimony. I think, like many of us, it would be something in the past. A point in time where we sinned and realized we are apart from God. Granted, Eve’s was the first, but I don’t think that changes anything. Eve lived for a really long time. I’m sure she experienced God in other ways.

So, as you sit and plan out your messages, I encourage you to look at the individual you’re preaching on. Ask yourself what their story is and how they would tell it. I promise it’ll open up your eyes to new biblical truths about God!

Not to leave you hanging… I think Eve’s testimony went like this:

“I thought I was making a good choice, but I really wasn’t. Man, I really wish I knew then what I know now. I wish I could have remained innocent and been totally satisfied with God. Even though I reached up and grabbed that apple, looking back now, that wasn’t the turning point in my life. Sure, I walked with God, and I would give anything to have that back. However, in the process of making a stupid decision I saw a different side of God. I no longer took him for granted. Even though our actions set into effect a chain reaction of the need for restoration, God never left me. Sure my actions changed our relationship, but He proved faithful and never left my side. I remember the first murder. At that moment, I understood how God’s heart must have felt when we stepped away from Him. My heart hurt so bad for Abel. I asked myself why Cain felt he needed to kill his brother. Such horrible things happened and knowing it was all my fault (I did bring sin into the world) was more than I could bare. Yet, God was still with me. He was still faithful. He even let me know that though I messed things up, He would restore the world through my womb. I’m not for sure exactly what that meant, but I do know the serpent who lied to me with be destroyed. I know now, I don’t need to know everything. That’s the beauty of God. He’s waiting for us to trust him and let him lead. His love never fails. “

Apple Streaming Video?

My brother-in-law just sent me this link. Would you buy/watch Apple streaming video?

Update: Apple Remote Review

As promised, here is my review of Apple’s remote. I used it two weeks ago during a service. Since our internal wireless network was down, I had to use our tech iMac to create a computer-to-computer wireless network. Once that was created, I was able to connect my iPhone to Keynote and run the presentation.

The interface was really nice. I was easily able to go forward (with a swipe) or backward without looking at my screen. The remote also disabled the screen lock. In general, the experience was great. I did have my computer-to-computer network go down during one of our services. For that service, our tech person had to take over my sermon from the screen. For our second hour, everything worked great. You may want to note that I didn’t use the “note” feature of Keynote. I didn’t want to look at the remote and take away from eye contact with students. Here are a several pictures of the different controls and options.

Quick Product Review: Things

 

A screenshot from my "Things"

I’ve been using the beta version of “Things” for sometime. If you have a Mac, it’s a great/simple program. Things allows you to focus on what you need to focus on without any extra hassle. If provides you an “inbox” to insert ideas that come off the top of your head, a “today” feature that shows you what you need to get done today, and a section called “next.” You can schedule tasks, assign them to teammates, and tag items for easy recall. It has a system wide search feature, projects, and areas of responsibility. It even lists an area where you can put ideas/task for a future “someday” project. If you have $49.95, it’s well worth it! Things also gave everyone who beta tested a coupon that I can share with people. It’s valid until January 15th and gives you 20% off. When you purchase Things, enter the following coupon: THINGSPRESALE20

Did I mention that it syncs with a “Things” iPhone/iPod Touch program?!?! 

Apple’s Keynote Remote

I’m excited to try out Apple’s Keynote Remote tomorrow morning during our student worship services. Since starting our second hour, I’ve been looking for a way to relieve the pro presenter person so they can attend a small group. Hopefully this is the ticket! I’ll type up a review tomorrow for anyone interested. The trick will be if I can run my sermon from my iPhone without looking at it….

Today is the day…MacWorld Expo

I love Macs!  I switched in 2004 and haven’t looked back. I typically look forward to the beginning of every year for the typical “New Year’s” stuff, but more importantly for MacWorld. It’s the time of year when Apple starts to announce new products. It’s exciting. That excitement has passed a bit because Apple announced that Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, wasn’t going to present the keynote today. A lot of people thought he was sick and Jobs announced yesterday that he wasn’t dying. All this to say, I’ll be joining thousands of other people today reading the live transcripts of the show beginning at 12:00 pm. My bet is for new mac mini’s, internally updated iMacs, and maybe some cloud computing stuff.  Part of me hopes they at least mention the new version of the iPhone to be released this summer at Apple’s WWDC. Whatever the case, here is the latest rumor round up. 

You can come out of the coma now if I bored you to death with my geek talk.