Timothy's Thoughts

H ere’s a shocker. When Steve Laube posted the list of Christian Book Award winners on Tuesday, I saw the names of nine authors only two of which were women. And one of those women was the last of three names that co-authored a children’s book, the other two were men. That works out to be 22% for the women and 78% for the men. The thing that makes this a shocker is that to hear a lot of people tell it, Christianity is dominated by women. Some people seem to think that it’s the women who go to church. It’s the women who work in Sunday school and youth ministry. It’s the women who sing in the choir. Why without the women, the churches would fall apart, or so I’ve heard. (Perhaps they would.) Then look at all the Christian writers conferences. There’s no question that those are dominated by women. Women easily outnumber the men there by a margin of ten to one. I really don’t believe Christianity is as dominated by women as some people think. That certainly isn’t the case at our churc...

S ometimes we see discussions about things that some churches call sin and others do not. It often centers around how much involvement a church allows people involved in that sin to have. Often we see churches trying to be more accepting of people, no matter what sin they might be involved in. I was thinking about one of these discussions. In this case one well known preacher was criticizing another well known preacher for not speaking out against one sin that it has become taboo of late to speak against. I think you know which one it is. In fact, the pastor had no problem with two men of that persuasion to serve in the church, except one of them was still married to his wife. Rather than try to sort through that mess, I’ll leave it at that. I’ll just say, the pastor mentioned above has said that people of a particular persuasion have stated going to his church because other churches are not accepting of their lifestyle. As I thought about it, I began to think, you know, I have no ...

“ D on’t judge,” the world says, but the fact is, we don’t always have that luxury. At church, we do background checks on our leaders. Why? Because we’re trying to protect the children from wolves in sheep’s clothing. That requires judgment on our part. Parents judge their kid’s friends. People who are dating, are judging the other person to see if they are the kind of person they think they can spend a lifetime with. Let’s admit it, judging is a part of life. But here’s the real question: What should be our basis for judging? And don’t say “the Bible.” Of course it should be the Bible, but what should be our basis for disqualifying someone? When dealing with the issue of marriage, we usually pull out 2 Corinthians 6:14 . A believer shouldn’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers. But that applies to more things than marriage. It applies to churches. A church has no business having unbelievers within her membership. It applies to business. Don’t go into a partnership with an unbeliever...

I love the way God works. At our church, I work with the Awana boys in the 3rd through 6th grade. This year, we’ve been down in attendance because we quit running the van. We decided to try focusing on those who wanted to come rather than including those who just wanted to ride the van to get away from home. We’ve had nights this year when we’ve had more male leaders than we’ve had male clubbers. I’ll admit, I’ve been down about the turnout. Well, last week was our spring revival services. Each year, on Wednesday, we combine Awana with the revival. This time, we did handbook time as usual and then took the kids down to sit in the auditorium. Dr. Philip Attebery, dean of the BMA Theological Seminary brought the message. As I listened to the message, I was thrilled. It was the kind of sermon I like to hear. It headed off into some somewhat deep concepts and he got into the means of some of the Greek words. He talked about how the individual is not the most important thing in a church....

I write note and leave them on my desk. Usually, I remember what they are, but some have no meaning at all. On one sticky note, I wrote two seven digit numbers. I don’t know what they mean. I must have known at one time. On another, I wrote “Theme of Ruth.” Not sure why, but I did. On another, I’ve listed seven names. Again, I’m not sure why. The bigger question is why haven’t I gotten rid of them. Notes are like messages from someone in our past. They knew something and wanted to communicate it to us. Sometimes they are successful. Sometimes they are not.

I ’m kind of in the don’t care stage of my writing endeavors. I’m ignoring many of the writing blogs that I once read. I’ve been staying out of many of the conversations that I might have one provided input to. I haven’t had a lot of time to write recently, but I feel the bug biting. But while other people are worried about how they’re going to get their book published and how to format a query letter, I’ve found that I am able to pay attention to more interesting things. I suppose we all imagine what it would be like to sell millions of books and have to money to go with it. But there’s a point at which you realize that a small amount of money is all you’re going to get, no matter how much effort you put into it. It’s like golf. A few people make millions. Some people make a living. Most people just enjoy the game. I’m to the point that I just want to enjoy the game of writing. The Lord has blessed me with enough income from other sources that I don’t need to make anything from writ...

A re endings important? That’s what one author asked this week. Why must we be so concerned about not revealing the ending when the journey is what is important? Good question, but here’s my thought on the subject: Endings aren’t just important, they’re everything. That’s not to say we have to be particularly concerned about revealing the ending, but that’s not because endings don’t matter. Rather, people are looking for an ending they like and want to read a book that takes them on the journey to get there. Consider, The Lord of the Rings . Didn’t you know that the ring would be destroyed at the end? Of course you did. You knew that from the beginning. That was the whole reason for the journey. Or how about Cinderella ? That story has been told hundreds of different ways. We all know she gets the prince in the end, but we read it anyway. So how can it be that endings are everything when we know how stories are going to turn out before we read them? If we see a story as a journey, ...