I started writing books as an engineer. Those books had a very limited circulation and are not available to the general public. I found technical writing a great way to organize my thoughts. Later I discerned that writing great proposals, like writing good fiction, needs to lay out enough facts that readers can easily verify and then build a set of stairs from those facts that readers will willingly climb, neglecting when they have passed over a step made from the author’s imagination. In a proposal, a good author will show readers how the contractor has performed similar work to great success allowing the reader to stand on the top step where the contractor claims an ability to perform the proposed work better and less expensively than another contractor. In fiction, the author must keep readers thinking that a given technology or relationship could really exist, when it in fact exists only in the author’s imagination.
- Does Interim Ministry Help? July 30, 2012For years I trusted that Intentional Interim Ministry assisted congregations in finding their next pastor. I now regret having propagated that rumor. Rumor? Yes, rumor. An Alban Institute article confirmed the lack of substantiation of that popular assertion. If anything, requiring that congregations conduct a mission study between installed pastors robs them of the best method for …
- Ashes to Ashley: A Novel January 27, 2012
Overview On sale now at Books2Read One parishioner burns for their interim pastor. Another wants him burnt like their last pastor. As ashes from a church fire settle, the narrator believes he need only minister with this congregation while they grieve losing their former pastor in an “accidental” fire. Fearing rumors of arson will keep him in this …