Timothy's Thoughts

W hat does it take to build a platform online? I look at blogs and I ask myself why one blog is successful and another isn't. I particular, I look at the blogs run by literary agents and I compare them to those run by authors. As a general rule, literary agents have blogs that have several times the followers that successful authors have. How do we explain this? There is a theory that as long as you write great posts, your blog will succeed. I won’t say that literary agents aren’t capable of writing great post, but if we are looking for someone who can write “great” posts, doesn’t is stand to reason that the typical bestselling writer should be able to write better posts than the typical literary agent ? But the numbers don’t add up that way. The reason this happens is fairly simple. Literary agents are doing what is essentially selling bottled water in the desert . If you’re out in the desert with a bunch of people, the guy selling bottle water is a popular guy. What literary...

D o you ever go the extra mile? Do you ever expect other people to go the extra mile? Do you know what it means? The saying originates from something Jesus said. “And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him two.” (Matthew 5:41) In Jesus’ day, Roman law permitted a Roman soldier to compel anyone to carry his pack for him, but only a mile. Jesus was saying that instead of just doing what we are required by law to do, we should go beyond that. In other words, don’t do the bare minimum. One of the interesting things in looking at this passage is that Jesus isn’t talking about the stuff we want to do. These are things that we don’t want to do. Someone takes us to court. We don’t want to pay the judgment, but if we have been found in the wrong then we should pay more than what the court rules. We don’t want to carry a soldier’s heavy pack, but rather than doing so grudgingly, we should carry it farther that he can force us to. Going the extra mile is sacrificial in nature. Imag...

H ow we handle comments on our blogs and websites greatly influences the experience people have when they visit. Yesterday, Rachelle Gardner posted about her Comment Policy . Mine, as you may have noticed when you commented, are somewhat more relaxed than hers. To summarize mine: 1. Be Nice (Okay, that pretty much says it all, but I’ll ad the second for clarity.) 2. Don’t say anything inappropriate or mean spirited to my guests. But this post isn’t about the rules of commenting on my blog. What I want to discuss is my philosophy on blog comments . The topic of blog comments has been going around lately and I’ve noticed that several people disagree with me. I thought it would be good to put my thoughts out there. Maybe I’ll persuade a few people to my point of view. Or maybe someone will show be the error of my ways and I change my mind, but this is my philosophy thus far. Comment on Your Own Posts If you blog, you know that the only sure way you have of knowing if people are actuall...

W e’ve looked at the first four questions from Andy Stanley’s pod cast . Today, we look his last question. In lecturing, people remember a small percentage of what we say. In writing fiction, we don’t really think about the need for people to remember. Just the fact that we are communicating through a story will improve retention significantly. We are most interested in people remembering our theme and the action they need to take. If they don’t remember those, our time is wasted. But if people remember our story, they will probably remember these as well. So, do we need to ask: What can I do to help them remember? Andy Stanley talks about sending trinkets home with the congregation, so that they will remember. Of course, you can also use object lessons. One time, we had a Sunday school lesson on the furniture in the tabernacle. I set up the classroom with the candles to represent he candlestick and the show bread and burned incense. I took our small group of adults in there, with noth...

T he topic of inspiration is the next question from Andy Stanley’s pod cast . Why do they need to do it? Years ago, people didn’t realize the danger of smoking. Smoking didn’t lose its popularity until people were able to explain that it is bad for people’s health and the health of the people around them. Today, people are being told to stop smoking with the added incentive that they may receive money from their employer. They have a reason to do it. If we expect people to take action based on our novels, we must address the question of why they need to take action. As with showing what they need to do, we do this through the example of our characters or it will come across as preachy. We do so by either revealing the danger that our characters are in if the action isn’t taken, by showing the good that will come if people take action or both. In Uncle Tom’s Cabin , the call to action was an end to slavery and inhuman treatment. The reason that unfolds in the book is that while some of ...

A fter several months of putting up with a website template that I wasn't particularly pleased with, but was "good enough," I updated my website . The content's all the same as before, but I got rid of the design that I had hoped would look like a piece of paper with a burned edge--like what we used to do when we were children--and I updated it to something that I think looks better. The CSS is a little more simple than before, giving us less opportunity for it to break. I’ve got the print capability working. So, if you happen to be on my website and find an article you want to print, all you have to do is hit the print button on the browser and you should get a nice black on white page without the graphics. Well, without the graphics other than the images on the right-hand side of the page. Anyway, if you’re bored, go check it out. Like I said, the content hasn’t changed, so you won’t find much there that you couldn’t have found before.

B y now, you may have noticed that I have been using Sunday as a day to post my answers to the 20 questions for leaders that Michael Smith of ClearView Baptist Church in Franklin, Tennessee asked Mike Hyatt . This week’s question is As an organization gets larger there can be a tendency for the “institution” to dampen the “inspiration.” How do you keep this from happening? When we consider what the “institution” is, what we find is that it is a structure that defines exactly how things ought to be done. There is a place for the institution. Some rules are important, especially for a large organization. A committee of three, for example, may not need a chairman to accomplish its task, but if there is a committee of fifty, you had better have a chairman and a secretary, just to keep things running smoothly. But there is no reason that has to dampen inspiration. Inspiration comes from responsibility. If I a person sees a problem and feels personally responsible for solving that problem,...