Make Your List & Check It Twice!
This coming June will mark our 34th anniversary of being in children's ministry. That's a long time isn't it! Along the way, I have accumulated a lot of ministry props and pieces of equipment. I'm sure that you can image what it would be like to purchase a few items at this convention and a few more at the next conference and then even more at the next meeting. Thirty-four years of buying has created quite an inventory of ministry tools. I have a specially made cabinet filled with object lessons with surprise endings (gospel magic), trunks filled with puppets, file cabinets lined with boxes...
Words With Friends Anyone?
They say that confession is good for the soul. And so, here's my confession. (I feel like I am at an AA meeting.) I am Billy Burns and I am helplessly addicted to word games on my iPad and iPhone. I absolutely love playing games like Words With Friends, Hanging With Friends, Scramble With Friends, etc. By far, my favorite game is Words With Friends. I have 12 games going right now and I am winning in 9 of the games.Why is this Scrabble-like game my favorite? Because I've learned the strategy of the game. It's not just placing letters on the screen to form a word. It's not about playing a...
Be Bold? Who Me? YEP!!!
For my daily devotions this year, I've chosen to just read through the New Testament. I'm doing this for several reasons. First, it's not an overwhelming amount of reading each day. Like you, my life is full and extra time just isn't in my schedule. Secondly, I am using a program (Laridian PocketBible) on my iPad that allows me to have a screen showing three panels. I have it set up so that the Scripture is in the full left panel and then the two right panels (one on top of the other) are two commentaries. Thus, I'm not spending too much time each day because my reading is usually just one...
Dead Form? Here’s the Cure!
Last week, I shared some thoughts from John Wesley's Advice to a People Called Methodist. As we begin this new year, I want to share another quote from Wesley taken from his message The More Excellent Way. Consider his observation concerning the gifts and workings of the Holy Spirit:It does not appear that these extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were common in the church for more than two or three centuries. We seldom hear of them after that fatal period when the Emperor Constantine called himself a Christian, and from a vain imagination of promoting the Christian cause thereby heaped...
Advice from John Wesley
While I was still in Bible College, my homiletics teacher, Rev. Jesse K. Moon, taught us that some sermons are timely (meant to be preached for a defined, specific time) and others are timeless (preachable at any time). A few weeks ago, I downloaded to my iPad a book written back in 1746 containing what I consider to be a combo message (both timely and timeless). John Wesley's Advice to a People Called Methodist was written to the fledgling group of congregations forming to become the Methodist denomination. And yet, some 260+ years later, this message and admonition needs to be preached...
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