Tag: teaching

Amazon Tip

I have hundreds of books and almost all of them are about the same thing: Jesus. When I’m preparing for a sermon, I love to dig through the books for thoughts, illustrations, etc… As you know, many books have a Topic Index, Scripture Index, Concordance, or some sort of notes that you can flip through if you’re looking for something specific. Most books don’t though, and that’s where Amazon.com can help.

Imagine you’re looking for a book that covers the topic of ANXIETY. You look at your shelf and you see a copy of Brennan Manning’s “RUTHLESS TRUST“. The “Contents” page doesn’t have any titles that are obvious enough, and there isn’t an index of topics in the back, so here’s what you can do.

Go to Amazon.com and search for the book.

Once you have found the book and have opened the page, look at see if it has the “LOOK INSIDE” feature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If it does, you can either click on the picture of the book, or hover over it and you’ll see a search bar. Type in your keyword.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All you have to do is click on those blue links and Amazon will take you right to the page where you can find it. You can do this even with books you don’t own, because Amazon will let you read a good amount of the book right there using the SEARCH feature.

I hope this helps!

blink blinkity blink

Hi, my name is Ryan, and I love me some Rob Bell.

Just this week I had someone say to me, “Well, I know you’re a fan of Rob Bell, so… I wasn’t sure where you stood on the issue.” What??

I can’t imagine how much it must suck to have so many people misunderstand you on a daily basis. I’ve heard people say the most ridiculous things about what Rob believes — stuff that he has repeatedly clarified over and over and over again (virgin birth, heaven and hell, are they prescription or just for looks, etc…). But anywho…

Rob was our guest speaker last night in my high school ministry. We watched his recent Nooma film “She“, and then had a pretty sweet open forum discussion. We had the students break off into groups a few times to discuss a question we gave them, then come back and share their answers with the group. Our students are really sharp! They had some great insights.

After the video last night we had a little contest with our students. We had all of them write down how many times they thought Rob Bell blinked during the film. We can only see Rob for about half the time, so… how many times do you think he blinked while on camera?

508 times.

I wonder if he knows that he’s got that going on.

I watched myself teach one time on video with the audio muted. I was saying all sorts of things with my hands, eyes, and posture that I’m not sure I intended.

What do you do? Do you have any quirks that people have called you on? Do you love Rob Bell too? haha!

This post is dedicated to all of my English/Writing teachers and professors who told me that I needed to stay on topic. I’ll always remember your… oh look a butterfly!!!

rob bell