In the final weeks of our spiritual formation class we had a chance to sit down with Paul Escamilla. Paul is an elder here in the North Texas Conference. A few weeks before our meeting we read his book longing for enough in a culture of more. At first I struggled to read the book; I think it caught me off guard.

Most of my class material tends to be somewhat heavy readings. Paul’s book is, at least in terms of format and difficulty. Most chapters are between 1-3 pages. When I first began the book I quickly found myself on chapter 12 without realizing where I had been. I started over. It was quite ironic to read a book about having enough, but not recognizing enough (what was said) was enough (all that needed to be said). I’m sure that was a part of the design. Anyways, you might enjoy it. I love what he had to say in chapter 13 about Purpose. Nope, I’m not going to tell you; unless you ask, of course.

Stay blessed…john

Writing is a weird thing for me. I do not particularly look forward to writing something. However, when I begin—really after I’ve already worked through some of it—I actually enjoy it. Unfortunately, you won’t find any profound pieces of literature here, at least not from me. At the same time, however, I’m not completely useless.

There are three writing practices I have learned that greatly influence what and how I write. Interestingly enough each comes from a different level of schooling. And away we go…

Boring
Can you remember the flashcards? What about the anticipation waiting for recess? That’s where my first lesson originates—second grade. Mrs. Anderson was pretty cool; she was my second grade teacher. She even had her picture in the newspaper when she had a baby. Why do I remember that? Sure it was a big picture, but maybe I’ll have to admit there may have been a second grade teacher crush. I hadn’t given that any thought until I wrote this and remembered how excited I was to see her picture. Moving on.

We were in writing groups at the back of the class with Mrs. Anderson. Our assignment was to write 10 sentences about (?). My paper was the last to get graded, but it was the (nameless) guy’s work before me that taught the lesson. His ten sentences all started with the word “I.” Mrs. Anderson wrote in big red letters across his big lined brown paper: BORING!

So, lesson number one: use different words. I get pretty concerned about that now, and always have. I check how many times I use a word in a paragraph and try to keep from repeating it throughout a paper. It does help. Probably the most common example I find in my writing is starting sentences with “The.” So, I always have to go back (proofread people!) and make necessary adjustments. It is important to use different words to keep your writing from being BORING!, especially when you have something worth writing about. This leads to my second lesson.

Tell ‘em
This isn’t anything novel. I’ve heard it plenty of times in classes, on TV and read it in books. In High School, however, this was the first time I heard it. From all places this lesson came from ROTC. Yes, I would wear my uniform weekly. For a while I was ready and looking forward to joining the Marines. In the end I didn’t like the idea of someone yelling at me. So, I got married (dudum, crash).

I have no real contextual memory of this lesson other than it came from Colonel Elder. He was explaining the best way to write a paper. His instructions were: Tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em. Tell ‘em. Then tell ‘em what you told ‘em.

Yep, don’t forget to have a good introduction to setup your body and complete it all with a great conclusion. Thanks Colonel; I’m still trying.

KISS
The final lesson that haunts and inspires me is from my days at STC (back then called STCC). Mr. Edwin DeCock taught English rhetoric at the downtown McAllen campus. There were a couple of longer papers due for the class, but the bulk of our work came as weekly essays. He would give an argument or question about some political or social concern. Our task was to formulate a response in 100 words or less. That may sound easy, but it was a challenge. You couldn’t write a rinky-dink answer. It had to be thought out, it had to make sense and completely cover the question. So, I had to learn to choose the exact words I wanted.

I had no idea how easy it could be to fluff a writing assignment—and how easy it is to recognize such fluff. The most common word I recognized overused was “that.” For example: I am reading a blog post that John wrote. It c/should be: I am reading a blog post John wrote, and loving and appreciating every bit of it (emphasis added…and made up).

Finding those words can help slim your word count if that is something you’re concerned with. More than that it really helps you focus on what you really want to say. In my reading I’m convinced half of the writing population 1) doesn’t know that rule 2) doesn’t care about it or 3) doesn’t agree with it. Either way, the world still spins.

I have learned another important lesson here at Perkins, but I’ll share it with you once I have more time to practice and make sure I can do a great job with it. So, all you blogging, letter writing, sermon preparing, Bible study forming writers please let me know what you think.

Stay blessed…john

Every church I have served has had old resources. By old resources I’m referring to study and reference material and other things like that, not Mr and Mrs…..(you know you were thinking it). Some of these items aren’t used anymore for a reason. Still my question when I come across this stuff is, “What do I do with this, now?” So, since it’s most likely your church has these materials (trust me, you just haven't looked everywhere), here are a few things to do with your old material:

• Keep material together. When you find something (whether you know what to do with it or not), assuming you came across it, keep it in a place where it can be easily accessed. This may be somewhat difficult in some facilities, but it can be done. This is helpful for a few of the other following points.

• Let’s face it, some of the material isn't as great as someone thought it was—even when it was bought. Couple that with a few decades worth of dust and new buzzwords and your church has got another mound of wasting paper. Sometimes it’s just time to part ways. Take some of your old material to a recycling center. I don’t think that’s sacrilegious, but that’s between you and your God.

• Some of the old material is just as useful today as it was initially. Give it a whirl again. Just because it’s there doesn’t mean everyone in church has already had an opportunity to make use of it. Even if they did, how many of them do you want to bet remember everything about it?

• This goes with the previous point; in older material illustrations and/or figures might be out of date. Find a way to update material for reuse. One could also tweak the information to fit new teaching models that members are familiar with. This might take some work, but is less expensive than purchasing new programs and the bulk of material is already prepared.

• Give it away. If you’re still arguing with me about the second point, then don’t throw it away, give it away (don’t put it in the church garage sale because you’ll be disappointed in its stock). Let other churches know what resources you have. You might make someone’s day; or they might throw it away for you! The Kerrville District use to have a listing of material churches made available for sharing. Start a list or contribute to one. Remember, if you offer it to someone, you need to know what you have and where it is (see point one).

Conversely, your church might be short of good material. In that case don’t be shy to ask a larger church to lend some of theirs. We’re connectional, aren’t we? I’ll be doing this soon here for Oak Haven. Trust me, it doesn’t’ hurt your pride; it strengthens your church.

Stay blessed...john