Between Monday and Sunday

Ministers can find additional help in preparing their 2007 federal income tax returns from GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. The annual Ministers Tax Guide for 2007 Returns details recent changes to tax laws and their effect on ministers. Includes link to the guidestone site to download guide. The tax guide can be obtained in an electronic, PDF format from the GuideStone Web site. Printed copies or a CD version can also be obtained as well.

I was alerted to this by the LifeChurch.tv : swerve blog and plan to use the information as part of my sermon at Gladeville Baptist Church this week (Jesus on Judgement: The Foundation of Seeing Clearly, Matthew 7:1-12). Forbes Magazine has unveiled the American city that has fallen the farthest from grace in each of the seven deadly sins (lust, gluttony, avarice, sloth, wrath, envy and pride). Read America's Most Sinful Cities

In Wayne McDill's book, 12 Essential Skills for Great Preaching , he says that sermon development takes on four forms, each with its particular contribution to the support of sermon ideas. These include Explanation, Illustration, Argumentation, and Application. McDill argues that when the sermon material is out of balance, what you say does not have the clarity and impact you hope for. I've posted two articles which are excerpts from his book. The first shows what happens when each of the elements is too dominant or too weak. In the follow up article, McDill uses a chart to explain how to balance them. Read about Four Critical Elements of Preaching in LifeWay's Proclaim Online and find a link to the follow up article.

I featured Mike Zigarelli's new small group study this morning in my e-newsletter. Aaron Linne, our digital media dude, just sent me the code for the preview video. Take a look and let me know what you think... You may learn more about the new study, Influencing Like Jesus: 15 Biblical Principles of Persuasion , here...

Our LifeWay network was out for a couple hours this morning. It was interesting to see the dazed and confused expressions on all our faces as we tried to figure out what to do when we had no access to internet, e-mail, calendar, network drives, and network printers. After a few minutes we began migrating to the halls to engage in one-on-one conversations. Maybe we should have some regularly scheduled planned network outages.

Last night afforded little sleep for most people in the Southeast United States. We were up late into the night watching storm cell after storm cell move through our area and barely miss us. It was quite disturbing for our 7-year-old girl, who joined us in our bed after midnight. My concern this morning is for those it did not miss. Can I encourage you to pray for those who were caught in the path of these devastating and lethal storms. Be sure to read about the devastation at Union University. Read the Baptist Press Release with details...