Global Evangelist. Pastor. Entrepreneur. Mentor.

10 Tips to Shorter Sermons | TROY PAGE

6.  Practice Your Sermon - Take time to preach your sermon out loud.  Not only will you be able to time it, but you will also uncover parts that are confusing, too long, or just boring.

7.  Plan with a Team – Share your thoughts and outline with others.  This will help you discover things that don’t make sense, lack impact/interest, or are irrelevant to your main thought.

8.  Don’t Get Emotionally Attached – Sometimes we fall in love with an idea or illustration and have a hard time cutting it.  Be willing to slice and dice in order to keep your audience engaged.

9.  Control Your Creativity – Don’t waste time with illustrations, props, videos and other creative elements that distract the audience rather than enhance your message.  If using them, make sure they are memorable and drive the main point, not a sub point of a sub point.

10. Critique Your Message – Take time between services to evaluate your message with a team and then watch it on Monday.  Regular critique will help you pick up on things that add length to your sermons.

via troypage.com

Nothing Changes Until Something Changes | Refine Us

Here is what we learned: an argument will never change someone’s heart. An argument might change how your wife acts or how your husband behaves for a day or two, but arguing will never turn a person’s heart closer to another. When an expectation is shared during an argument, its too late to do any good.

Can we share a secret with you that we have learned the hard way? This will apply to your friendships, to your work relationships, to your relationship with your kids, in your marriage…

Unspoken expectations will always grow into unmet expectations.

If you are unhappy in your marriage right now. If you wonder how you and your spouse could have drifted so far apart; if you are constantly frustrated that your needs, your desires, your expectations aren’t being met…have you communicated them outside the context of an argument?

via www.refineus.org

I don’t want my life to be explainable without the... | Time For New Hope

I don’t want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit. I want people to look at my life and know that I couldn’t be doing this by my own power. I want to live in such a way that I am desperate for Him to come through. That if He doesn’t come through, I am screwed,

Francis Chan

via timefornewhope.tumblr.com

I don’t want my life to be explainable without the... | Time For New Hope

I don’t want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit. I want people to look at my life and know that I couldn’t be doing this by my own power. I want to live in such a way that I am desperate for Him to come through. That if He doesn’t come through, I am screwed,

via timefornewhope.tumblr.com

18 things you should never say to a woman | Life and Theology

Things you should never say to a woman:

• Have you thought about having kids?
• When are you going to start your family?
• By the time we were your age, we had __ kids already!
• You know it only gets harder to have kids the older you get, right?
• What’s wrong with you, that you guys haven’t had kids yet?
• You’ll never know what real parenting is until you have more than one.
• Are you just not ready for another child?
• Are you just being selfish? Why don’t you want children?
• You guys would make great parents.
• It’s about time you guys had a baby. The clock’s ticking!

To people specifically dealing with infertility, never say:

• I know exactly what you’re going through…
• We had 3 miscarriages before we had…
• You can always adopt.
• At least you have one child already.
• Did you know that there are doctors out there that can fix you?
• When are you going to try to have another kid?
• Having one miscarriage doesn’t mean you’re done. Just keep trying!
• Well, at least you’ve got each other.

Have you ever been asked hurtful questions about your children/pregnancy?

via www.benreed.net

Edited by Andy Gehron (DefendingTheLord.com)