Author: Administrador

From ZZ Top to “Duck Dynasty,” beards are taking over, and that is putting a nick in profits for razor blade manufacturers. Procter & Gamble says razor blade sales experienced a slight decline in late 2013, even as sales elsewhere in the world increased, according to a Jan. 15, 2014, UPI story. According to the … Continue reading “And Finally…On Shaving”

The groundhog saw his shadow, and now we all suffer from six more weeks of winter. It’s a shame the critter didn’t live in my town—it was so overcast that day there were no shadows to be seen. What about you? Are you casting a shadow—a shadow of influence that touches those around you? As … Continue reading “Where’s Your Shadow?”

In his book Privilege the Text, Abraham Kuruvilla cites the practice of ancient synagogues in teaching through Scripture passages in a continuing fashion (lectio continua), “each subsequent reading taking up from where the previous reading had left off. This was the oldest approach to readings of the canonical text, and it was the standard practice … Continue reading “Why Preach Through Books”

The Washington Post‘s Style Invitational asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are some of the winners: Bozone (n.) The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of … Continue reading “New Word Invitational”

Some things just go together, such as love and marriage…and bacon. At least that seems to be the case for two couples who decided to wed at last weekend’s Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival at the Iowa state fairgrounds. According to a Feb. 2, 2014, AP story, one couple thought the bacon festival was “the perfect … Continue reading “And Finally: Love, Marriage, Bacon”

Just eighty-eight keys. The same seven octaves and some change. For the past several centuries, pianos largely have been made with this standard number of keys, yet somehow, every time I turn on the radio, I am drawn in by new melodies and creative lyrics that make me listen as if I’ve never heard the notes … Continue reading “The Message Remains the Same, but the Methods Must Change”

Michael Halleen wrote, “Winston Churchill failed sixth grade, but he was no failure as leader of his nation. Thomas Edison failed all his classes in school and was sent home to work on his widowed mother’s farm, but he was no failure as an inventor and creator of progress. David Livingstone fled from the pulpit … Continue reading “Failure Isn’t Failure…Depending on What You and God Do Next”

In his book The Shape of Preaching: Theory and Practice in Sermon Design (Baker), Dennis Cahill discusses various approaches to sermon design, including narrative preaching, a term he uses “to refer to a sermon whose design evidences the characteristics of story and is an exposition of a text with the attributes of story. A narrative sermon is … Continue reading “Preaching Story as Story”

CareerBuilder.com recently took a look at employees who call in sick with bogus excuses. Thirty-two percent of workers said they called in sick when they felt well at least once during the last year, down from 43 percent in the 2005 survey… The most popular motivator for missing work: good, old-fashioned R&R. Almost half of workers … Continue reading “Calling in Sick”

If the weather doesn’t cooperate, just make your own snow day. That was apparently the strategy for two Trenton, Ohio, teenage girls, who managed to access the school district’s website and posted a phony announcement that schools would be closed for the day because of snow. There was no actual snow in the forecast, according … Continue reading “And Finally: Create Your Own Snow Day”