I've been talking a lot on this blog about the importance of telling your story. But what if your story is painful, and you really don't want to go into all that? In 2006, my book How Big Is Your Umbrella was published. In that book, I talk about the things that we yell at God when life stinks, and what God whispers back. And I explore my Continue Reading
The Importance of Telling Your Story
I believe that everyone has a unique story from God to share. We are all experts on what God has done for us--we may not be Old Testament scholars, or Greek scholars, or End Times scholars, but we have our Ph.D. on what God has done in our own lives. And if we can't map that out, it's time to take a hiatus, in this last bit of summer that Continue Reading
Handling Scripture in a Talk
Recently I spoke at a retreat where other groups were meeting simultaneously. After I had finished one event, a new group came in to use the same room. I was still taking down my book table, and so I heard the first fifteen minutes of that talk. It was really more like a seminary lecture, going deep into theology about a particular point. I Continue Reading
A Speaker’s Responsibility to the Organizers
When you first start to speak, of course you're nervous. It's only natural. The hard thing to deal with as a speaker, though, is that quite often, the event organizer is more nervous than you are. Think about it from his or her point of view: all of their volunteer efforts and hours over the past few months have been dedicated to this event. They Continue Reading