T.S. Eliot’s amazing and confounding poem, The Hollow Men, contains the following words: Between the conception And the creation Between the emotion And the response Falls the Shadow Heather Van Aelst says this in her analysis of the The Hollow Men: “This… Read More »The Shadow Falls
Andy Stanley and his co-author, Lane Jones, attempt to lay out the best practices of preaching in Communicating for a Change. I can imagine this book being somewhat controversial since the topic of preaching almost always is. Everyone has “the… Read More »AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: Communicating for a Change by Andy Stanley
“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” -John 4:18 Seth Godin has this to say in his excellent… Read More »Fear vs. Love [from the archive]
The problems addressed by J.D. Greear’s book, Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart are very real ones. Many people who identify as Christian do so only because they “prayed a prayer once,” but their life shows no evidence of conversion. … Read More »AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart by J.D. Greear
This is my 100th post on nickduffel.com! What does that mean, you ask? Well, first watch this video: This humorous video got me thinking, what would I tell my younger self who is just heading into ministry, and starting a… Read More »10 things I would tell my younger self [100th post]
Mark Batterson begins Wild Goose Chase by explaining that the Celtic Christians would refer to the Holy Spirit as An Geadh-Glas, “the Wild Goose.” But this isn’t really a book about what the Holy Spirit is like. If you’re looking… Read More »BOOK REVIEW: Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson
Ron Carpenter’s The Necessity of an Enemy comes at you fast and furious. The chapters are really short. As in, two-to-three-pages short. The concepts are simply stated; like short jabs to the brain. The stories are real, raw and told… Read More »BOOK REVIEW: The Necessity of an Enemy by Ron Carpenter
At some point you have to engage the problem. Roll up your sleeves and get to work. It’s valuable to circle around the issue; taking a few laps to see the problem from all the necessary angles. And then this… Read More »Leaving the fringe
It’s been a while since I’ve read a book with this much raw emotion. In Seeing Through the Fog, Ed Dobson shares candidly about his diagnoses with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease), and his life afterward. … Read More »AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: Seeing Through The Fog by Ed Dobson
Have you ever read the excellent short story, Leiningen Verses the Ants? I remember when I first read it, I was a fifth grader and it blew my mind. Leiningen (no first name is given) is a wealthy plantation owner… Read More »Leiningen and the ants on leadership