We all have beliefs, particularly about sin. But what happens when our beliefs about sin become beliefs about people, or worse–about friends? How do we share Truth without looking like cold, uncaring people? Dan Cathy recently befriended a strong gay advocate in Shane Windmeyer, who wrote about his experience with Mr. Cathy. Did Mr. Cathy do the right thing? Consider the following… Continue Reading →
Author Archives: darrenschalk
Preaching, Teaching, and Speaking from the iPad Tablet
I’ve been preaching, teaching, and presenting from my iPad 2 tablet for well over a year now. Here’s a few tips I’ve learned while using the iPad tablet for public speaking, preaching, and teaching: Continue Reading →
Avoiding the Black Hole of “Christian” Self-Promotion
I recently signed a book deal with a major Christian publisher and since then I’ve been trying to figure out how to balance self-promotion with God promotion. And I’ve come to a conclusion: they can’t be balanced. The scales must always tip in favor of God promotion. Continue Reading →
How To Be A Woman
A female friend of mine couldn’t read my last blog (How To Be A Man) because she informed me that she did not want to be a man. So, I told her I would write something about how to be a woman. Below you will learn everything I know about what it means to be a real woman: Continue Reading →
How To Be A Man
For lunch yesterday I ate bear and deer meat (i.e., venison). I felt manly and gruff, so I posted this on Twitter:
Bear and venison for lunch. Back to my MI roots. #likeacaveman
I spent all my formative years in Michigan, where nearly everyone’s a hunter at some point in life. Dad was an avid outdoorsman. He taught me everything imaginable about hunting, camping, fishing, and anything else manly. Every November we’d get together with my cousins and uncles during Thanksgiving break to express our manliness. Beards would be grown. Bullets would be hand loaded. Scopes would be sighted in. Tree stands would be carried into the woods. And showers and indoor plumbing would be shunned for at least a week. It felt good to be a man. Continue Reading →
John, Bill, & The Umbrella Cleaning Pickle: Effective (and ineffective) Evangelism in Today’s Culture
We all have beliefs, particularly about sin. But what happens when our beliefs about sin become beliefs about people, or worse–about friends? How do we share Truth without looking like cold, uncaring people?
Let’s be hypothetical here, shall we? Let’s say I believe that cleaning an umbrella is wrong. (What, don’t you ever clean your umbrella? No? YOU SICK, SICK PEOPLE!) Anyone who cleans their umbrella is, in fact, “sinning”. So say someone, we’ll call him John, jumps into “sin” and begins cleaning his umbrella every day, even when it’s not dirty. Continue Reading →
What DOES Your Church Have To Offer?
What does your church have to offer? That’s the question I hear asked often when people begin looking for a church. Our consumer driven mindset has trickled into our choice of churches. So, we pick the one with the best “stuff.” This has led churches to competition—he who has the most toys wins. I’m fine with churches having stuff. I like stuff. Stuff is good. Stuff is awesome. I love the playgrounds, the laser lights, and the broadway-like productions some churches offer. There is certainly nothing innately wrong with such things. Cool stuff is, well… cool. But I recently read a story that reminded me of a few things: Continue Reading →
A “Little” Perspective Changes Everything
Alli, his six-year-old-daughter, looked up at him with her big brown eyes and asked, “Daddy, is it fun being a grown-up?”
That was a difficult question for him to answer. He’d had a tough week. A tough month, in fact. The stresses of the world and of “adult life” had been weighing on him and his wife. In fact, his wife had recently made the statement, “Adult life annoys me.” Continue Reading →
5 reasons to write stuff with 5 reasons
As I look through my blog and other blogs, for some reason, the whole list thing seems to be pretty popular. “5 ways to throw your back out in 15 seconds or less,” “19 reasons I don’t care who you vote for,” “8 ways to feed a fish,” “88 reasons Jesus will return in ‘88” (wait, that’s an old one…but it sold a lot of copies, I’m told. But I really wouldn’t know. I was like 10 then). And as I read these titles, even I’m inclined to click on them. Here are 5 reasons I think this is a good idea, labeled with words I just totally made up. Continue Reading →
How to Make Your Idea a Reality
How do we get a concept to become a creation? How do you make your idea a reality? It’s really quite simple. Let me explain.
I’ve been blessed to have people around me who make me look way better than I truly am. I recently hired an Assistant Editor. She is helping me keep up with the little things that so often fall through the cracks. But having such a help has simply highlighted all the things I am absolutely horrible at. Today she listened to the (undisclosed number) of messages that had backed up on my voicemail. I cannot tell you how long it had been since I listened to them, but even the IRS would have complained about the wait time on a return call.
My team and I edit and/or create 11 different age-levels of curriculum every quarter. It’s a job I could NEVER do alone. Yet, many of the names of those who help never make it into the curriculum, so us editors receive a lot more credit than we are due. I am thankful to those who make me look so good with a quality end product.
I’m writing about this because I was reminded of how good a team I am surrounded with when I sent a concept to our graphics department this week.
What you are about to see and read is 100% true. Continue Reading →