This Fall, Oakdale Wesleyan Church plans to grow through church-wide (all ages and stages) spiritual formation together using SoulShift. While I really like the material, I want to make sure we properly adapt SoulShift for our community and context, as we want to grow into the best body of Christ we can as Oakdale Wesleyan Church, instead of trying to become a “College Wesleyan Church Mini-me.” I may blog time to time on my adaptations. My first thought is to try and align the seven shifts with our church’s core values. Continue reading Adapting SoulShift
All posts by Paul Tillman
A Baby in My Tummy
Anyone else out there have daughters? My daughter, Sophia, is a month away from being 3-years-old. Here was our conversation yesterday, and I should let you know we have three pregnant ladies in our church right now.
Sophia: I have a baby in my tummy.
Dad: You don’t have a baby in your tummy.
Sophia: Yes I do have a baby in my tummy.
Dad [thinking fast]: Only mommies can have babies in their tummies. When you get bigger, and marry a daddy, then you can have a baby in your tummy.
Sophia: Okay.
Dad: [Whew] Continue reading A Baby in My Tummy
Story Telling
I found two things floating around the internet that to my mind had convergence. The first is Dr. Lenny Luchetti’s recent book Preaching Essentials: A Practical Guide
Among many other things, I learned two key preaching tips from Lenny: 1) a sermon should have a single, one-sentence, focus statement, and 2) preachers should use narrative preaching (story-telling), and not simply rely on linear/parallel structure preaching, as story-telling engages the imagination and memory.
I will not cover all 22 of Pixar’s rules, but a few stuck out to me. Continue reading Story Telling
SoulShift: Ignorance to Wisdom
I awoke this morning to the sound of “Boing! Boing! Boing!” as a stuffed Tigger bounced his way from my feet up to my face. My daughter’s experiences, from flying on an airplane to visit relatives, the books we read together, and the television we watch, influence her play, and I suppose also her behavior. The more exposure she has to life, the more creative she becomes. Continue reading SoulShift: Ignorance to Wisdom
Summarizing The Wesleyan Membership Commentments
While updating my membership class material, I found it useful to summarize each of the covenant membership commitments. I am posting my work here hoping that other Wesleyans (laity, pastors, historians, and scholars) as well as just other Christians might give me some feedback. I hope my summaries maintain the “historic, ethical, and practical standards of The Wesleyan Church,”1 even if I have lost some of the specifics. Continue reading Summarizing The Wesleyan Membership Commentments
From a Mirror Darkly to Face to Face
A mentor pastor once gave me the valuable lesson of assigning me to listen to recordings of my own sermons. I did not want to do it. I found that I did not like the sound of my own voice on a recording, but despite the pain of listening to myself I learned a lot about delivery. I learned my voice sounds better when I properly breathe and project. I learned that in order to sound as dramatic as my thoughts, I really need to increase my vocal inflections; while I may feel like an exaggerating bad actor, the congregations perceives me as simply passionate. Continue reading From a Mirror Darkly to Face to Face
Ross Douthat’s Slippery Slope
I felt one proposition of Ross Douthat’s Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics
At the last Wesleyan General Conference (GenCon12), the North Michigan District offered a memorial (#79) to amend The Discipline, putting in a stronger statement against abortion and to actively work to protect the life of unborn children. This memorial did not come to the General Conference recommended for passage. I was not a delegate to GenCon12, but followed the proceedings as closely as I could. I admit, reading memorial #79 made me wearily remember the 1980s, when this debate seemed more fierce. Continue reading Ross Douthat’s Slippery Slope
Life Perspective from Rob Bell
On January 20, 2013 I will be installed as the lead pastor of Oakdale Wesleyan Church, and as the date approaches many thoughts have crossed my mind. Although we, the involved parties, just picked the first available Sunday in January, that date happened to fall on Inauguration Day for President Barack Obama’s second term, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day weekend. I do not place myself on the level of the first African-American president of the U.S. nor the leader of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, but I am honored to share, and find significance in sharing, their day. Continue reading Life Perspective from Rob Bell
Call to Worship: Trust
This story comes from Tim Hansel (1987). Holy Sweat. Word Books Publisher, pp. 46-47.
One day, while my son Zac and I were out in the country, climbing around in some cliffs, I heard a voice from above me yell, “Hey Dad! Catch me!” I turned around to see Zac joyfully jumping off a rock straight at me. He had jumped and them yelled “Hey Dad!” I became an instant circus act, catching him. We both fell to the ground. For a moment after I caught him I could hardly talk. Continue reading Call to Worship: Trust
Vomit, the New Christmas Miracle
Our family decided to take an evening drive on Christmas Eve in order to look at houses displayed in holiday lights. We dressed our daughter in her footed snowman pajamas, hat, and coat, while we threw on hooded sweatshirts, and into the car we went, until . . . Continue reading Vomit, the New Christmas Miracle