Terry Pruitt's Blog

How should a pastor select topics on which to preach? This probably does not concern the normal person in the pew. There will be those who want their pet issue(s) preached about. Those who want each sermon to move them emotional. Then of course there those who want each sermon to be practical. As Christians, it should be our desire that sermons are relevant, reaching the heart and applicable. However, those are more aspects of a sermon, rather than the topic itself. In more liturgical circles, often the topics of preaching are selected by a church calendar called a lectionary. I have attended a church where the pastor used the lectionary in his preaching. The good thing about the lectionary was that it took the work out of selecting a passage so the pastor could just focus on developing the topic. Another strength of the lectionary is that it gives both an Old Testament and a New Testament passage from which to work. The lectionary coordinates the sermons with holidays on ...

I noticed on a co-worker's desk some quotes she had written out by hand about the movie The Da Vinci Code. One was from Tom Hanks who said, "We always knew there would be a segment of society that would not want this movie to be shown. But the story we tell is loaded with all sorts of hooey and fun kind of scavenger-hunt-type nonsense.” I thought about linking to some of the sources showing this quote but if you search for it, it is all over the Internet. I think use of the word 'hooey' was very calculating on Tom Hanks' part. He knows he has that nice guy image, but 'dog-gone-it' he has got to show the world that he has got, well, gumption and backbone. He will use the word 'hooey' with vigor and conviction. So my co-worker and I got into this discussion about how she had read The Da Vinci Code. She made a comment that I have not heard anyone else make, perhaps others have and I just have not been listening. She and he husband are now devo...

If you are like me, you like Wheel of Fortune . The game is simple but engaging. Also Pat Sajak and Vanna White have style. I'm thinking that the ultimate Wheel of Fortune game would have Pat Sajak , Vanna White and Charlie O'Donnell , the announcer, as the three contestants. Pat, Vanna and Charlie have tremendous experince with the game so, would be interesting to see how these pros of the game would fair as contestants. Of course they would need to have the lively Merv Griffin as the host. I'm not sure how could or should do Vanna's job. I was just wondering what other bloggers think about this idea. More important, Pat and Vanna, what do you think?

My 16 year old daughter clued me in to this one. What amazed me is what started the trend. Follow the link to find out. And if It's a Boy, Will It Be Lleh? - New York Times : "In 1999, there were only eight newborn American girls named Nevaeh. Last year, it was the 70th-most-popular name for baby girls, ahead of Sara, Vanessa and Amanda. The spectacular rise of Nevaeh (commonly pronounced nah-VAY-uh) has little precedent, name experts say. They watched it break into the top 1,000 of girls' names in 2001 at No. 266, the third-highest debut ever. Four years later it cracked the top 100 with 4,457 newborn Nevaehs, having made the fastest climb among all names in more than a century, the entire period for which the Social Security Administration has such records. Nevaeh is not in the Bible or any religious text. It is not from a foreign language. It is not the name of a celebrity, real or fictional. Nevaeh is Heaven spelled backward."

Crunchy Time - Christianity Today Magazine : "Dallas Morning News (and former National Review) journalist Rod Dreher has written a book with one of the longest titles in years: Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, gun-loving organic gardeners, evangelical free-range farmers, hip homeschooling mamas, right-wing nature lovers, and their diverse tribe of countercultural conservatives plan to save America (or at least the Republican Party) (Crown Forum, 2006). Stan Guthrie, senior associate editor, interviewed Dreher about the religious nature of this new conservative movement. What are crunchy conservatives?" Click on the link to find the answer.