I worshiped this morning and I did it through a video.
I have a great father here on earth…and man I love you Daddy, but our Father in heaven is calling out for a reminder that together is the way he desires to move, work, and play!
with several other pastors…but I ate with him, heh….
So who is Fred Craddock?
Well, I believe that he is one of the premier narrative preachers in the world. When I was in Seminary I found out that the seminary kept all of the sermons that have ever been preached (that they recorded) on tape! So, then I went to one of my heroes who I consider to be on the same list mentioned above (for traditional preaching, of course)
Dr. Kalas (who was one of my professors and mentors @ Asbury Seminary)
and I asked Kalas who were the premier narrative preachers still alive today..and he mentioned two others, Craddock and
Haddon Robinson (but this is not about either one of those…yet, heh)
So, anyway I went to the tape archive section and copied everyone from both of them…and I only had maybe 20, heh…. but I listened to them all and even though my favorite sermon of the bunch was Haddon….I loved the amazing gift of the good news given through the person of Fred!
So what was his wisdom? Well, when searching his name I found someone in Georgia that gave an amazing summary of the same stuff that I am sure Dr. Craddock gave to him with another group somewhere else…so here are his main points..but to love Craddock is to love his stories more than just his points…so here are the pints and all the good quotes will follow, heh….
Craddock offered 13 statements about preaching. Here they are:
1. Respect and come to love the hours of study in the preparation of a sermon. The discipline of study brings freedom.
2. Pay close attention to words; study them, respect them, love them.
3. Have a clear grasp of anthropology. In other words, understand deeply your view of humankind. How you view people informs your sermon.
4. Create high expectations.
5. If possible–find a governing image or metaphor.
6. Build anticipation in all your ministry.
7. Be able to state the sermon in one sentence.
8. Facilitate conversation between the congregation and Scripture.
9. Be flexible with the many layers of Scripture. There is usually more than one way to understand and present a text.
10. Populate sermons with people–people with names.
11. Create materials to make your sermon more real.
12. Develop and maintain balance in your life.
13. Live with a understanding distance of God. Talking with God that authorizes talking about God.
So that is a great list to take to heart…..but if you just heard that you would have fallen asleep, here is the stuff you would have loved!!!:
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A question he always asks:
What do I think I am doing when I am preaching?
Preaching should be a habit/discipline BUT MUST contain reflection
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He talked about Chaim Perelman a man who is an author of rerhetoric not preaching). And Craddock said this”
“Good communication, is making the absent present”. If listeners can see something, then it is persuasive. He gives and example of a Chinese emperor standing in the entrance of the palace. He watches some men taking an ox to its death for sacrifice. The emperor said, “Stop turn it loose and go get a sheep!” So the men asked the emperor, “Emperor, do you prefer sheep over oxen for sacrifices?” And the emperor replied, “No, it is just that I can see the ox”.
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We must help people see it!!!
This thought is exactly what the Bible does. For instance when Abraham is on the Mt. who is on the Mt.? Abraham, Isaac, and YOU!!!
Same thing is for: Garden of Gethsemane, at the cross you hear him say, “take my mother home”, wilderness, transfiguration, etc…. YOU were allowed to be them, hear them, see them!
Do we as preachers allow the people to see and hear the event/Bible? If we do and can then it will be persuasive. And the persuasion will cause action.
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Something important to Craddock when he thinks about preaching is that the sermon 1. must get the scripture straight. (knowledge), 2. AND it must be powerful, (then he gaver a en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Lear”>King Lear quote, “My heart is in the coffin with Cesar, and I must pause until it returns me”) there is power in those words…he could have said, “I just miss him, give me a few minutes”, but instead Shakespear uses power, and those words force pause, awe, and beauty!
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The other example is:
Robert Goulet – If Ever I Would Leave You Lyrics
From the show “Camelot” (1960)
(Alan Jay Lerner / Frederick Loewe)
If ever I would leave you
It wouldn’t be in summer.
Seeing you in summer I never would go.
Your hair streaked with sun-light,
Your lips red as flame,
Your face witha lustre
that puts gold to shame!
But if I’d ever leave you,
It couldn’t be in autumn.
How I’d leave in autumn I never will know.
I’ve seen how you sparkle
When fall nips the air.
I know you in autumn
And I must be there.
And could I leave you
running merrily through the snow?
Or on a wintry evening
when you catch the fire’s glow?
If ever I would leave you,
How could it be in spring-time?
Knowing how in spring I’m bewitched by you so?
Oh, no! not in spring-time!
Summer, winter or fall!
No, never could I leave you at all!
Why not let Robert Goulet get on stage and just say, “I won’t leave you.”? (It is not knowledge, but power that makes it, IT!) (my quote is in parenthesis)
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Now I will take a pause here and say thank you to J.D. Walt. I have for quite sometime read many of his poems that he blogs all the time…and while I loved them…I never knew why and I just did not ever really “get it”……until now….so Thank you J.D….and keep them coming… I just wish I was good with words…and I really do not think that I am….but I do like photos, heh…OK back to the Craddock blog post…..
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Ok There will be more to come..but I am just too tired to keep going…yall take care and God bless yall! Next Craddock post will include a lot of one sentence wisdom!
Yall have a great night!
Hey everyone: 
Here are a few of my pictures from yesterday. I ate with a professor of mine that was interested in Th3 Waters and it was a wonderful discussion, and just like every time I talk to a scholar, I am encouraged even more by what we are being and doing @ Th3 Waters. It just in my soul feels right and it seems like everyone else feels the same…I am just a little worried that it will not grow in the time that the conference thinks it should grow…but we will see what God desires for ti to be in the future! so, anyway the I met up with Christ and his mom. Chris is a good friend of ours and his mom is very sweet too! so here they are….
Did I mention that Chris has a turtle? Actually he has two of them and they are awesome! I loved trying to take a picture of one! I am still trying to learn my camera, but every now and then a decent shot comes out…so here is one just to give you an idea. I bet these turtles are almost as big as a silver dollar! They just rock!
And here is a photo of me and the two newest members of The Kingdom down in front! Steven and Deborah were baptized yesterday in a Methodist church that actually has a dunking pond (well, immersion baptistery for those that want a less hick term, heh) Gary the Sr. Pastor of Florence (my co-worker) is on the far right and the kids’ grandfather is beside me who did the actual immersion. It was a great time for everyone that showed up and those kids are so cute!
Well that is it for now…… I went on Monday to hear Fred Craddock talk to the KY Annual Conference pastors! It was wonderful, and I plan on putting up all the key notes (and a few stories of course) from the day lecture. He is such a wonderful man, and even though I rarely do traditional preaching that he teaches…it is still refreshing for me to be around such a man of wisdom and passion (not to say Gary is not any of those either, heh heh) Yall have a wonderful week, and KUTPs!!! Tiffany went in on Monday for a stool sample to check and see if her loose stool could be caused by a raging case of bacteria infection in her intestines. She now has antibiotics, but the test results have not come back…she feels a little better, but still has the problem!!! We timed her…and it only takes 1 hour and 7 mins for the food to go through her…amazing if you ask me! Anyway thanks for the prayers and please keep them up! Thanks and God bless yall! 
October 15, 2006
There was a little boy in my office after church. It is not unusual for me to work in my office on Sundays after church, because I spend so much more time out side of my office and in Starbucks developing non-manipulative relationships, that any time I am in my office I try to make use of it as much as possible. So, I was in my office just like I normally am, and sure enough this boy comes in because he knows my office has lots of toys to play around with and he knows I love to let them play with them…even if I have to work…so he decided to play with the magnet darts and I encouraged him as he threw them each time…and the id was not too bad at all…probably could have beat me if he wanted to…and he told me that he was not really aiming…he was just throwing it…. So as he threw I worked…and he kept talking himself up and how good of a dart thrower he was…and of course I was helping him out with his dart throwing self esteem…and then he got real quiet. I noticed that he was placing one dart in the bull’s eye center and then the rest around the center dart. He kept one dart and threw it at the board and excitedly told me, “Hey wook! I got it in the Bullth’s eye!”…. his mom walked in and I asked him, “did you really throw that dart and it hit the bull’s eye?” And guess what his answer was…. Yep! My response, “are you sure?” “yep”, wow…what do you think mom do you think that he threw that dart and got the bull’s eye?” mom’s reaction, a smile. The boy left happy as all get out…living a lie.
When is the last time you lived a lie? Are you living a lie right now? I have good news… you don’t have to! Lies can be reversed and destroyed!! It might be painful killing that lie…but I promise you it is worth it!
Here are a few pics from tonight. I went to go visit my friend Nate and his family! I did a little HT calibration for his mother-in-law, and got to see little Thomas! Man was he a cute guy! They were tons of fun and it was a great visit.
And of course I just had to get a pic in of Halo sleeping on my belly at night…and now with my Macro function he sure is cute! I added two more to my Flickr page just fyi (you can check it out on the Flickr link over there on the right of my blog —->). Yall have a great night and a great week! I will be spending the entire day with Fred Craddock tomorrow…so please know I will be very happy…for those of you who don’t know him…he is one of the premiere narrative preachers in the world…and he is teaching a class for a few CEUs @ the KY conference center tomorrow! VERY cool and I am sure there will be a big crowd…I will be traveling with Tiffany’s Sr. Pastor so please pray for him,heh heh…. KUTPs!! Oh and Tiffany is still sick, and we hope to get her into the Dr. tomorrow…hoping there are some cancels…if not then it is Urgent Care Center for her! Thanks for your payers…we will see if we can kick this loose stool and fever symptoms out of her so she can be her usual fun and happy self! Love yall!
Man I wish the HD – DVD war would end this fast, heh…. well, after playing around all day today I think that I will be using Flickr instead of Piccsa web albums…. I got a lot of cool things I can do with Flickr that are just not possible at all with piccsa web albums…so I will be transfering over any photos from Piccsa web albums over to Flickr soon…but for now go enjoy my new Flickr badge over there on the right side of my blog —>
(that thing is cool, it even updates the latest photos I put on…so if you see different photos in there then you know I updated my Flickr!)
Anyway…here is the link to my Flickr photos (leave comments if you would like)
D.G.’s Flickr photos
I have killed my Piccsa links…FYI….yall have a blessed day tomorrow! KUTPs!!!!
I ran into a friend of mine yesterday (Steve Carr)and he told me that it looked like I was freaking out with the blog updates….and then I realized that for the RSS Feeders out there every time I post a new post OR make a change and correct the posts!!!….. that it shows up on the RSS feed… So, When I was going through my entire blog and putting labels on all the posts about Jay or good stories, etc… it was showing up on your RSS feeds! I am so sorry…..and I am sure that it was weird to have around 130 post updates of the past few days showing up on the feeds…So now you know what I was doing and I apologize for the weird things I do…Have a blessed day!
I use Piccsa for all my photo stuff on my computer (because it is free and the most amazing photo orginizing softwere for PC computers) and I am trying out someting new piccsa is doing, called “Piccsa Web Albums.” It is basically Piccsa’s way of trying to be Flickr…but not as cool as flicker (in my mind) but anyway…. it is very easy to upload your Piccsa photos to this album and I am trying it out…I did notice that it has a limit in size…unless I want to spend money to increase the size, heh…and that is something I will not be doing…so for now I will try it out and keep creating albums…and if it does not work then I will just transfer over to Flickr all the time (and besides Flickr…just looks much cooler).
Here is MY Piccsa Web Albums for now.
Oh and you will always be able to check out my albums on the links over there —->
in my link section. Thanks!
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Oh and my mother wanted to see the new shoes I just bought so here they are….(yes yes, I know they are dorkish looking…but I must tell yal the truth…I have tried Dr. Martins, Birkenstock, and every other kind of shoe out there…and none of them hold up to my torture each day…most shoes only last me (maybe) a year…and the last Birkenstock shoes I bought had a hole in them right through the shoe (it was going t be $100 to just get them fixed)…I walked into a puddle of water and my sock got soaking wet…so here is my next attempt at a shoe that will last and feel comfortable. (and that I can wear everyday…and even in a dress up way(maybe still wondering about this one)…so I sure hope that these will last.)
so here is the ugly but durable, and comfortable Dansko Pro shoes:
(I actually have two of them though and the other one is for my left foot, heh)
oh and did I mention this is the shoes that tons of chefs, doctors, nurses, etc… wear? so if it is good for people that are on their feet all day long…let see if they will be good enough for me…)
And also I must be honest I feel like I am wear high heels in these shoes compared to my Birks. heh heh.
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Yall have a great weekend! Take care and please KUTPs for Tiffany she is still not feeling good this morning….and might not be able to be @ church tomorrow…we will see though).
Here is the best part, Macro Mode….man I love using the Macro function….I can’t wait to play around with this one!
Here is Steve enjoying a empty cup of double espresso with whip…Sean what is the name of this one again?
Here is our normal regulars tot he Friday OG…had a few missing tonight…including Tiffany who was sick @ the house…pray for her!
And who could ever forget John the Choi….it is amazing how when I get something new tech wise…John takes it and plays with it…ha ha ha… and I love him for it! Yall have a great night! and KUTPs especially for Tiffany she is very tired, ca’t sleep, running to the bathroom every few seconds and Imodium (sp?) AD is not helping…and she has been this way for a week…an the next available Dr. time is Nov. 6th!!!! Yeah three weeks away! That is crazy insane…anyway she was doing good enough today to order pizza, but felt bad to her stomach afterwards…oh well we both think she will be fine…just needs to get lots of rest! Thank yall and take care!
Now that is amazing!
