Category: Christian Living

Book Reviews

Book Review: “Branding Faith” by Phil Cooke

Chris

I just reviewed a great book that I recently finished reading, and I’ve posted it at the Christian Book Lounge. Here’s a quick peek at it:

I eagerly picked up Phil Cooke’s book, “Branding Faith: Why some churches and nonprofits impact culture and others don’t“. For many years I’ve been a proponent of the power of a brand. I worked for a national financial company for a number of years, and during that time the entire workforce went through “brand training.” I also worked in a screen printing and embroidery shop for a number of years, where I saw the impact of a visual identity. I had many expectations for this book, but they didn’t prepare me for the intensity and scale of Cooke’s message.

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Christian Living, Ministry

RE: Spiritual Gifts (2)

Chris

We’ve started a discussion about how our we get confused when it comes to our spiritual gifts. The people around us often identify the skills we’ve acquired in life, whether for work or personal use, to be our spiritual gifts.

We mentioned that one reason this happens is because those evaluating or examining us, trying to figure out our gifts, often do so by first comparing our abilities to their own and those around us. If we stand out in an area, we must be gifted there. There is another filter that those close to us make use of, and that’s my topic for this post.

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Christian Living, Ministry

RE: Spiritual Gifts

Chris

Do you remember the excitement of the discover of what you were meant to do? In ministry we call it the divine call. All of us, though, through our talents, passions and other factors, are designed by God to fulfill a particular purpose. Most of us won’t get the opportunity to fulfill that purpose as our livelihood, but we can all come to the place where we get to aplly our gifts towards a holy passion in our hearts.

Over the past six weeks I’ve found myself on a journey of rediscovery. While I tend to read an awful lot and have a tendency toward learning that way, I’ve been exposed to some video teachings that have caused me to pause and reflect, leaving the books I’ve been reading lying around the house, unopened for days at a time.

One of the topics I’ve been chewing on is one that I had wanted to write about in the past. I had several thoughts going through my mind then and couldn’t really figure out how to go about it. Now I think I’m ready to tackle it. That topic is Spiritual Gifts.

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Bible, Christian Living

Blessed are the Pacesetters (3)

Chris

So what are my thoughts about being a pacesetter? If you haven’t read the previous posts on this topic, please go back and do so, as I can’t spend a lot of time on rehashing those ideas here. [ Post #1 | Post #2 ]

Come back with me to the analogy of driving on the freeway, and we’ll work a few of those ideas out.

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Bible, Christian Living

Blessed are the Pacesetters (2)

Chris

You might be wondering why I haven’t expounded on the Pacesetters yet. The truth is, I want to make sure that I word everything just right.

While clearing up my thoughts for the next post, I received my monthly email from the Catalyst team. (I sign up for a vast array of e-mail newsletters since I can’t exactly sit and browse for hours with dial-up. Also, I get to keep the headlines and links for future reference.)

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Christian Living

Bristol Palin: Confused and Confusederer

Chris

That’s where I’m at after reading CNN’s article on Bristol Palin, teen daughter of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, who gave “her first interview since giving birth.” Chances are that the media and the professional bloggers will be all over this soon, if not already. But I just have to get it out there since most of my local readers won’t see it on CNN.

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