Intersected is mainly an aggregation service, a digital scrapbook of content I wanted to catalog. Frankly, though, I wasn’t using much of that content. Now I’m experimenting with Evernote as the way to remember all that “stuff” and I’m going to move my blogging to ChrisBlackstone.com. While posts there will likely be more sporadic they should also be “better”. If there’s anything particular you want to know about me or our vision to see Ann Arbor, MI transformed by the Gospel, please let me know and I’ll address it there. Thanks for your readership and God bless.

Chris

Virgin Atlantic plane livery time-lapse movie from johnson banks on Vimeo.

I’m not a good writer. I have a tendency to fashion very involved sentences which are much more easily spoken than read. I also too quickly fall in love with my words and consequently have a difficult time editing. It’s for that reason I’m having a friend edit my Re:Train thesis. This post from Kevin DeYoung provides some helpful hints on writing from a book that I should definitely get, Roy Peter Clark’s Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer. I’ve bolded items that are key for me to remember and offenses that I often commit.

• Avoid verb qualifiers like “sort of,” “seemed to,” and “must have” (21). It seems to me I tend to do this sometimes.
• Use adverbs to change the meaning of the verb, not to intensify it. “Killing me softly” is good because killing is not supposed to be soft. “Killing me fiercely” is redundant. Bad adverb (27).
• “When writers fall in love with their words, it is a good feeling that can lead to a bad effect.” Murder your darlings (50).
• Don’t explain complicated ideas with complicated sentences. The harder the concept, the shorter the sentences should be (60).
• Readers have a larger vocabulary than writers. Make obscure words clear by the context. But don’t be afraid to use new words (69).
• Don’t use familiar metaphors. Don’t say “white as snow” when you can say “white as the Queen of England” (81).
• Vary the lengths of your sentences (90). “Jesus wept” is powerful because it is short. But every sentence can’t be short. Then things get boring. Every sentence sounds the same. Nothing will stand out. There is no variation. Everyone will get bored. See what I mean?
• Vary the lengths of your paragraphs (93). Readers can survive a long paragraph, so long as there aren’t too many. Short paragraphs can pack a punch. But don’t overdo it.

  Even if you think it is dramatic.

  Very dramatic.

  And fills up

  lots

  of

  space.

  That’s not deep. It’s annoying.

• “If a writer wants the reader to think something the absolute truth, the writer should render it in the shortest sentence possible” (99).
• The more serious your subject, the more you can back off and play it straight. The more inconsequential the topic, the more the writer can show off (103).
• Avoid, at all costs, jargon and bureaucrat-speak, like in this real example from an elementary school mission statement:  “Our mission is to improve student achievement and thereby prepare students for continued learning in middle school and high school. This learning community will accomplish this mission by developing and implementing world class learning systems. Alignment will be monitored by continual application of quality principles and responsiveness to customer expectations” (109). Barf.
• Dialogue advances narrative; quotes delay it (128). Christian books have too many block quotes (including a couple of my sections in Why We’re Not Emergent). Most readers skip long block quotes. Good writers leave out the stuff readers skip.
• Repetition works, but only if you intend it (159). If you don’t mean to use repetition as a stylistic device, it just gets in the way. You end up repeating yourself over and over. That’s bad repetition, the kind that is unintentional but keeps filling up space. Like this paragraph.
• Limit self-criticism in early drafts. Turn it loose during revision (232). You will never be a good writer unless you are willing to notice your bad writing.

Massan for Leader Bike from Dan Arel on Vimeo.

From the Crossway blog and Joe Carter, who writes for First Things, among many other places.

Whether you are defending your faith, telling someone about God, or simply in a discussion—these simple tips can help you communicate effectively without high blood pressure or raising your voice:

1. Start with examples your audience will understand: Always start with an example or concept your audience knows, understands, or finds interesting, and connect it to your core message.
2. Speak your audience’s language: When you speak to an audience, to the extent possible, you must speak their language.
3. Use witness: Consider the use of witnesses essential to the construction of an effective message based on narrative and ethos. Wherever possible, elicit testimonies.
4. Know when to speak: There are a lot of important topics in the world, and it is not necessary that you have something to say about all of them—particularly if speaking on the topic would hurt your credibility or detract from your primary goal.
5. And know when to be silent: Silence is one of the most powerful forms of communication. It shows that you are in control and gives the person or people a moment to think for themselves and consider how they will respond to your message

Read full article from Relevant Magazine here. Adapted from How to Argue Like Jesus.

Informative post from Scott Thomas, Acts 29 Director. The Acts 29 assessment process is very thorough and this post is encouraging for me. I would rather not be admitted into Acts 29 and not plant a church than to be encouraged to plant when it may not be best suited for me.

In April, I posted the 10 Characteristics of a Church Planter – a compilation of the characteristics and micro-skills we look for in planters – informed by our own Acts 29 assessment, and the assessment work of Charles Ridley, Mark Dever, J. Allen Thompson and others. The full list of characteristics and their corresponding 60 micro-skills is available here.

Since then, I wanted to know just how important each characteristic and micro-skill was to our Acts 29 members who are doing assessments, and wanted to created a standard minimum score for the 10 Characteristics.

We polled our members, and from a little over 80 responses gathered some very helpful data I’d like to share with you.

General Scoring

With a possible 300 points available among 60 micro-skills, the minimum score required was 84%.

The Top Three Characteristics:

1. Spiritual Vitality (93% score minimum)
2. Strong Marriage & Family Life (88% score minimum)
3. Theological Clarity (87% score minimum)

An encouraging element of second and third places is that they display a balance amongst our church planters in both the mental and applied knowledge of their theological beliefs. We do not want to be among the pastors who sacrifice their families for ministry, and divorce head-knowledge of the gospel from our personal practice of it.

The Top Five Micro-Skills:

1. “He gives evidence of a personal relationship with Jesus and a transformed life.” (4.9/5) -Spiritual Vitality
2. “He has a deep commitment to Biblical authority.” (4.8/5) – Spiritual Vitality
3. “He confesses the life of an Elder above reproach.” (4.8/5) – Spiritual Vitality
4. “He models a lifestyle of following Jesus.” (4.8/5) – Disciple-Making Skills
5. “He professes a healthy sexual relationship and purity within marriage.” (4.7/5) – Strong Marriage & Family Life

Our next step is to apply all the scores we have and weight our assessments appropriately. We are thankful to all the Acts 29 members who participated in this survey, helping us sharpen our assessment even more.