Terry Pruitt's Blog

I am ready for my Corrie to come home. Come home Cor-O-badoro.

jmarkbertrand.com - the Internet site of J. Mark Bertrand : "If you want to learn more about the ESV Journaling Bible and you don't want to wait for my re-cap, head over to Gareth Russell's blog and check out his excellent, well-illustrated review. (Thanks, Gary, for pointing it out in the comments on the last post.) Also, check out the mention of Gareth's post on Moleskinerie, the all-things-Moleskine blog. " Check out this nifty blog.

TheIrvins: Home from the Hospital : "Home from the Hospital" Rebecca Writes mentioned that Tim Irving needs prayer. You might venture over to Tim's blog and read his story and say a prayer for him.

del.icio.us/pruittcommunications : "del.icio.us / pruittcommunications / I have been using del.icio.us for a couple of months now. It is a way of making a set of bookmarks public. So here is my del.icio.us page.

To fight insomnia I played around with WikiMapia. I added a couple of my childhood places to the list of places, and a couple of churches I attended. It is fun way to share your knowledge. Tags: wiki

I thought this article by Doc Searls was excellent. Markets without Marketing | Linux Journal : "As I prepare for that, I thought I'd share some of the curriculum I've come up with. I'm looking for constructive feedback, suggestions and Stories From the Real World that might be useful to the tutorial. Here we go... I. The Matrix is a metaphor for marketing II. As Markets become truly free, we don't have much, if any, need for marketing. III. Advertising is going to die. PR is already dead. IV. The operative word is Relate. V. There's no substitute for a good product. Or the only people who can improve it. VI. Work the Because Effect. You'll make more money that way.

I met with the Gadfly's Muse and the Jollyblogger for breakfast on Thursday. We talked about church planting in the Ann Arundel County area. Bits of wisdom I gleaned from the breakfast time talk. The essential element for a pastor is a love for the people. Preaching is important, but people will endure imperfect preaching if they discern a heart of love. The essential element for a church planter is vision to see something come to fruition. Formal qualifications are less important than actually doing the ministry. Doing the work of the ministry is analogous to scientist forming a hypothesis and then testing it, then adjusting the hypothesis, and continuing the cycle. A scientist starts with an initial hypothesis and it is not so important that he have the exact right hypothesis, just that he has a starting point and make adjustments afterwards. As long as he has a process by which he continually adjusts his knowledge, he is on the path toward truth. It is not so important...

What is the difference between evangelism and missions? Often when we speak of missions, we mean reaching across cultural barriers to speak the good news of God's forgiveness. Some people would define missions in terms of mercy ministry, but I would have to quibble with this definition. My own definition for missions is evangelism that takes the message of the grace of God to every nation tribe and tongue. Every tribe and tongue means those both near and far. Missions means taking seriously the cultural dynamics of the hearers of the message of God's grace. It means respecting the hearers of the message and taking their needs seriously. For most people, evangelism is an unobtainable duty, something that they just don't know how to do. To explain the good news of God's grace in a winsome way is just not within their natural skill set. This is why the work of evangelism must be done in community. So evangelism must take place in a multi-layered fashion. The ...

My wife and I went to Bethel College in McKenzie, TN. This is the Cumberland Presbyterian denominational college. We met many good friends there. Cindy Maddux is one of our friends from college days. She is our guest blogger today. She responded to the poll and sent me some of her comments which I am including here. By the way, if you have not taken my poll on church planting, please do so. It is the post prior to this one. Thoughts of church planter Cindy Maddux who is a part of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church As to voting whether SUNDAY worship is essential to a church plant then I will say no. WORHSIP is essential but with today's society it's more like Saturday night or Friday night and then if you have those that are tradition bound you could say AND a Sunday service. The needs of the initial group drive when and where you meet. I am in a church plant now. It's been two years and we are just now getting to where we need to be for spiritual growth in numbers. Ultim...

Some of you may have been a part of a church plant. Some of you might be qualified because you have actually been a part of a church at some point in your life. I would like to hear what you think. Please take my poll. Free Web poll for your Web site - freepolls.com Technoratic Tags: poll , church planting , Christianity , ministry , new , church .

I have been thinking about leadership and how we in the church choose leaders. I have seen a couple of models demonstrated and in reality, I think a combination of the two models is best. The two models are seminary trained leadership and raising up leadership from within. Seminary training with no practical experince opens someone to a lot of risk. What if you go through seven years (or more) of education to find out that you really are not cut out for it? Then there are those who are gifted but have not taken set aside the time to study. They need to pursue study. Hands on training combined with seminary is prefered. Something on my heart lately is that a congregation needs to be trained how to raise up leadership. Here is what I would think is 10 ideas that I think might be helpful: 1. Identify who future leaders are and encourage them 2. Validate young leaders by listening to them 3. Take young leaders seriously 4. Give appropriate responsibility 5. Allow young leaders...

Are You a Yankee or a Rebel? - alphaDictionary * Free English Online Dictionary I heard this story on NPR. You might want to check out this test. The author does not recognize a seperate dialect for the Ozarks. I guess he has just never heard of roastin' ears. To get a short Ozark dictionary click here.

Wired has a story, err, sort of a story on Disc Golf. I always call it Frisbee Golf, but we don't want any trade mark infringements. So I have played in TX, MD, VA, DE, and NM. My next state to play in is WV. Or maybe PA this summer with my nephews. It is a good game to get out and get some fresh air. Wired News: Disc Golf: It's Not Actually Golf : "So I guess that's why I recently decided to try the sport of hippies, the hippie of sports, disc golf. Because it's not actually golf. I would not have expected disc golf to be a geekish sort of activity -- it involves fresh air and sunshine, it was never featured on Star Trek -- but a surprising number of my geek friends have discs. Not as in 'I have a promotional A&W Frisbee in my closet' but actual, official, PDGA-approved disc golf golfing discs."

Your Scholastic Strength Is Deep Thinking You aren't afraid to delve head first into a difficult subject, with mastery as your goal. You are talented at adapting, motivating others, managing resources, and analyzing risk. You should major in: Philosophy Music Theology Art History Foreign language What Should You Major In?

I walked the B&A Trail today with my wife and my two youngest daughters. I had a good time. We stopped at Adams Rib in Severna Park for lunch. I had the beef brisket sandwich. Everyone one else at our table had hamburgers. On the trail we saw butterflies, squirrels, horses, dogs, rabbits, a groundhog, a cardinal, three turtles, two red-winged black birds, a goat, a Vietnamese miniature pig, and bumble bees. The B&A Trail has a lot of bamboo on it. I think it makes a good barrier plant for people who do not want to be bothered by folks on the trail. It seems the number tandem bicycles is growing. We saw at least four, and one was a recumbent tandem. So it took 36,150 steps to get from the start point at the parking area for the trail to the front door of my house. This earned me the last 750 some points to earn my gold medal on the President's Challenge. I have been working on this since August 10, 2004. I knew I was close to the end this week. I saw...

I listened to A Briefer History of Time by Steven Hawking during my morning exercise time. This audio book was very accessible though it dealt with some very technical issues in physics. There is two phases of understanding something. The first phase is where the student or researcher does the analysis which compiles, assembles, organizes, and arranges details of information. You need to be an information pack rat and ultimately needs someone who can store and arrange all the data when you are in the first phase. The second phase is when you simplify the whole matter for the common person. This is when you make it understandable and accessible. The Briefer History of Time is a work which is the fruit of this second phase. The book is about science, but many fundamental questions of science are ultimately philosophical and religious issues. Dealing with the beginning and end of the cosmos is at the same time an issue for prophets and physicists. The nature of the univers...

I live in Maryland but I was born and raised in Missouri. I have lived longer outside Missouri than I did in the state at this point in my life. Many people are travelers and strangers in life. When Jacob, or should I say Israel, returned to the land of Canaan in chapter 21-35 of Genesis, a concluding remark of the passage is “These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan Aram.” (Genesis 35:27 NIV) Paddan Aram was northwestern Mesopotamia. The land of Canaan was not where the twelve sons were born. They were outsiders to the land they were coming. They would be outsiders in the same way their father had been an outsider where they were born. Places of origin are a construct of the mind and culture. We sense and feel that we are native to a place because of how it affects our speech, our sense of seasons of the year, and sense of belonging. Of course it is not limited to these, things but these are few of the things that make one feel he or she belongs somewhere....

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?