Sweet Spots
Ideas and messages from Len Sweet.
Here, you can comment on any post to participate in the discussion.
Uh Uhmm Public Speaking!
Want to Improve Your Public Speaking Skills? There’s an App For That
Summary: “Users record themselves, and using artificial intelligence, the app rates them on how clearly they speak, whether they vary their voice intonation, and whether they use filler words such as “like” and “um.” Users can continue to practice until they get better results.”
Read more at: https://goo.gl/kgHiFe
Digitally mined from: http://www.nbcnews.com
HH read more…
Stuck in the Storm
Stuck in the Storm Lectionary 13 August 2017 10th Sunday After Pentecost Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28 Psalm 105:1-6, 16-22, 45b Romans 10:5-15 Matthew 14:22-33 Text to Life Beware of anyone who tells you that everything, or anything, is divided into three points. That said, there are three kinds of people in…
The Raising of Paul
The Raising of Paul (and the Raising of the Church) Story Lectionary 13 August 2017 Jacob’s Hip is Injured Wrestling with God (Genesis 32:22-32) Psalm 80: The Son of Man is Coming Psalm 95: Praise and Warning Psalm 146: The Mission of the Messiah Daniel’s Vision of the Sovereignty of…
Don’t Forget Jesus! Preaching Tip for 13 August 2017
When you’re preparing your sermon, it doesn’t matter how good your metaphors are if you aren’t tuned into the Holy Spirit’s power. When preparing, don’t forget deep prayer, and to allow the Holy Spirit to direct your sermon. It’s the ultimate “app”!
Night’s Bright Darkness
Night’s Bright Darkness:
A Modern Conversion Story
by Sally Read
–Review by Teri Hyrkas
Sally Read, health professional, lauded poet and author of the spiritual memoir Night’s Bright Darkness: A Modern Conversion Story, (Ignatius Press, 2016) was raised in a home that was not simply areligious, it was vehemently anti-religious. Her father, whom she loved and admired, was a confirmed atheist and his daughter followed suit. Sally writes that, “It was dinned into me never to kneel before anyone or anything, ” and that “[Christians], in particular, were tambourine bashing intellectual weaklings.” When her father died after a three month illness at age fifty-six, Read experienced a time of debilitating grief. “When I sat in restaurants and bars I felt a cry deep in my belly that I thought would actually escape. I lost weight. My bleach-blonde hair fell out in handfuls.” read more…
Context is Everything
A new play “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” was scheduled to debut on Broadway in 1962. In its pre-Broadway tour, it was a disaster. Even though it had the best people behind it (e.g. Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics, George Abbott was the…
Pastor’s Prayer for 13 August 2017
Days pass and the years vanish and we walk sightless among miracles. Lord, fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing. Let there be moments when your Presence, like lightning, illumines the darkness in which we walk. Help us to see, wherever we gaze, that the bush burns, unconsumed. And we, clay touched by God, will reach out for holiness and exclaim in wonder, ‘How filled with awe is this place and we did not know it.’ Amen.
–prayer from the Jewish Sabbath Prayer Book (Sightless Among Miracles)
Summer Music Festivals III
Just an hour and 10 minutes west of Tanglewood is a music festival of an entirely different artistic vision. Both festivals include incredible musicians, but the Bard Music Festival in Annandale-on-Hudson’s programming focus features just one composer each summer. The creative team develops two weeks of events that tell the story of one composer’s life: their creative milieu, collaborators and influences, along with the literature, visual art, theatre, philosophy, and politics of the time in which the music was written. The Bard Music Festival was founded in 1990 to promote this new way of understanding and presenting the history of music to a contemporary audience. The 2017 festival is focusing on the composer Chopin. In sixteen programs, the artistic director and staff lead the audience on a journey through an amazing array of programs recreating and dialoguing about culture in 1800s Europe. The concerts include music of Polish composer such as Mendelssohn, Moscheles, Szymanowski, Liszt, and dozens of others from all over the world. This week’s playlist cannot come close to reflecting the breadth and creativity of the festival. However, I hope you enjoy this short list of selections, including some wonderful, less well-known works. read more…
Unreasonable Mercy
Unreasonable Mercy Story Lectionary 6 August 2017 The Lord’s Blessings for the Faithful (Deuteronomy 28) The Healing of Naaman the Syrian by Elisha Due to the Witness of a Young Jewish Girl (2 Kings 5) Psalm 41: God the Healer All People Will Be Drawn to the Jews (Zechariah 8:20-23)…