If you subscribe to my weekly newsletter, you’ll know that I started a new segment this year called My Favorite Things. Where I share links to some of my favorite stuff in the most random of categories. At this year-end time of reflection, I thought I’d put my top 5 in a blog post and use it as a way to encourage you to jump onto my mailing list for more weird and whacky and hopefully helpful resources for pastors and church leaders (and others who might want to follow along with what’s happening!)
FAVORITE MIND-BLOWING PODCAST INTERVIEW ABOUT PRAYER AND IDENTITY FROM A CIA DUDE
I heard one of the most insightful guys you’ve never heard of. This Podcast interview with Jamie Winship on the L3 Leadership Podcast with Doug Smith. Jamie talks about using prayer to solve crimes as a police officer which ultimately opened doors for him in the CIA to solve problems all over the world. It was the second half though, when he started talking about identity that totally blew my mind.
FAVORITE PLAYLIST FOR WRITING SERMONS
Sometimes (not always) I like to have some music playing while I’m in writing mode. I prefer music without lyrics, otherwise I become too distracted. Even intricate instrumentals, like in jazz, can become too interesting and disctracting for my brain. This playlist called LoFi Chill has the right easy flow with a little bit of a beat to keep me on the right wavelength. Check it out here.
FAVORITE TOOL TO USE FOR DISCIPLESHIP DECISIONS AND CONVERSATIONS
I was introduced to the Kairos Circle tool this past year and I’ve used it countless times in my own life and in discipleship conversations with others who are at a faith crossroads. The tool helps to discern the answer to two questions, “what is God saying to me?” and “what am I going to do about it?” I think our friends at KC Underground have the best written tool here. If you’re more the video explanation type, you can find a good one here.
FAVORITE CREEPY NOTE-TAKING TOOL
We’ve been testing out a new AI note taker in our office at Grace. It’s called Fathom. We use microsoft teams for our meetings so it gets invited to all my meetings, I accept it as a participant and it takes notes, transcribes, and does summary versions of the meeting notes including action items. It’s pretty crazy and pretty helpful, until it takes over the world and turns us all into slaves. Until then, it’s pretty helpfu. You can check it out here.
FAVORITE BREAKDOWN OF A CORMAC MCCARTHY PARAGRAPH FOR WRITERS AND COMMUNICATORS
Over on Aaron Gwynn’s X account, he wrote an interesting post on the anatomy of a paragraph. He picked one of his favorite passages from Cormac McCarthy’s classic All the Pretty Horses, and broke it down technically to observe what made it so good. You can find his X thread here.
