Wednesday, July 9, 2008

To sermon or not to sermon?

Ok...I know that's a bad and horrible title. But I'm kinda struggling here for this Sunday's sermon. Out of the 3 readings for this Sunday (LCMS lectionary readings) I am really pulled towards Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 (I hate that they cut out 10-17, it's so important!). It's rather unusual because I typically prefer the Old Testament readings. My predicament is this: I preached on Matthew 13:1-23 already...at a Women's Retreat in April to 50 women at RSLC. So...would it be ok if I pull out that sermon again? Now, if I'm going to use that sermon, all I'm going to do is update and clarify. After all I will be speaking to a different audience, yet the core of the message will probably be the same. So, I'd revise some illustrations, expand more on the text and give different applications. Is this ethical? Or should I just go for it? What do you think?

Monday, July 7, 2008

More on Presentations

Thanks again to Ed Ross (I think...are you edr??) for another great video on presentations. The video plays on itself, in that they guy gives suggestions on how do do a presentation while the whole video sets itself up in the correct style.


PresenTired: "The Voicemail" from Scott Schwertly on Vimeo.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

I'm starting to like sports...what's happening

First allow me to state that I have always liked sports, just certain sports. I wasn't that guy who always had sportscenter on (I didn't even know what Sports Center was until a few years ago). Growing up I always liked tennis. It was my favorite sport...sure I played baseball (probably 2nd favorite sport) and soccer (close tie to baseball). But I did not like any other sports; football--not for me; basketball--please no, don't even let me touch the ball. I've always favored reading, video games, riding my bike (not into cycling though), and hanging out outside.
But recently I've been starting to watch sports. I've usually tried to catch tennis in the summer when it's on but other than that nothing. Now if I'm not watching Headline News, CNN, or SciFi channel I have ESPN on. It's great. I think I'm going to blame it all on my good friend Tony, who taught me to love hockey. You see, Tony introduced me not just to hockey but the Red Wings! He had NHL's Center Ice our fourth year at the sem, so each time the Wings were playing I'd go to his place to watch the game. We'd have some Blue Moon and talk about hockey strategy. Before that I'd never really watch any sports stuff besides tennis (Speaking of which go watch it NOW! Wimbledon is on! Great upsets but my guess it'll end with the typical Federer and Nadal champ match).
Now I like to watch baseball (only if Boston or the Cubs are playing), football (I guess I have to become a Bronocs fan...sigh), tennis (my staple, when I can watch it), and hockey (so exciting, the Red Wings won Lord Stanley's Cup by the way!). But I must admit that Sports Center is great...it allows you to catch up on all the sports and all the highlights so if you can't catch the game you know what went on. And Sports Center is on all the time. So I'm starting to like this new sports me, it's fun. But it did give my wife a shock, "You don't watch sports!" was her response.

So what other great sports are out there that I should look into?