Category Archives: Resources

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Top Posts For November 2012

2012 has one month left in it. My prayer is that I make the most of it, as well as you.

We’ve had a busy year. We moved halfway across the country and started a new ministry. I’ve developed and launched a new website, devoted to helping dads become the best dads that they can be. In the midst of all this, I’ve tried to step up my own dad abilities, as well as be a better husband. Oh, and we’re expecting our sixth child, a son right around the turn of the year. Like I said, it has been a busy year for us.

November Word Picture from Wordle.net

In spite of all the busyness, we’ve made sure to take the time to stay close as a family. We just started our season full of Christmas traditions, with our first family Advent night of the year. I’ve evaluated my reading and writing for the past few months, and determined that this has been my most productive year in those areas. With the launch of DeliberateDads, I know that trend will continue.

November brought several birthdays, along with the holidays. So there was plenty to write about. In case you missed them, here are my top seven posts for the month of November:

  1. Our Tradition: Christmas Eve Candle Light Service
  2. The Difference Between Purpose, Vision, and Mission
  3. Why You Need To Develop A Philosophy Of Ministry
  4. My Current Philosophy Of Ministry
  5. The Maniac And The Messiah
  6. The Principle Of The Path by Andy Stanley – Extended Review Part 5
  7. Video Review: Book Book Cases for iPhone 4 and iPad 2

My Foundations of Youth Ministry series dealing with purpose, mission and vision continues to make the list. Three of the top seven posts are from this series. That continually reinforces just how important it is to develop these for any ministry or organization.

With a couple of reviews, one book review and the other a product review, this list contains a lot of material that has been on my blog for a while. It also points me in the direction for developing my plans for the coming year, as I see what more and more people are reading.

My favorite post written in November was one I wrote about fearless living, inspired by a Father/Son Retreat I went to with one of my boys.

Have a great month of December, and a Merry Christmas!

If you are a blogger, leave a comment with your top post for the month. If you don’t blog, leave a comment with a favorite post or blog that you read this month.

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New Dad Resource: Deliberate Dads! And A Give-Away!

I am excited to finally announce a new project I’ve been working on! This new resource is a ministry opportunity that I hope and pray will be an excellent tool for dads.

Announcing… DeliberateDads.com!

I want to share with you a little bit of my vision, and the history of how it came about. I also want to give one luck person a DeliberateDads shirt. More on that in a minute.

DeliberateDads Banner

Some History

This has been a long and arduous road.

It all started a few months ago.

Last summer, while at camp, I witnessed a man bringing his son to check him in. The entire time he was there with his son, more than an hour, I saw him speak to his son only one time. The rest of the time, his phone was stuck to his ear and he was chatting amicably with someone else the entire time, completely ignoring his son. His only words to his son were when his son failed to pass his swim test. The dad’s response was “You’d better pass it tomorrow.” The phone went back to his ear, and he left.

That really bothered me. His son was in my cabin, and it was obvious he was starved for attention; we had a few rough issues with him during the week because of that. But once we got past that, he had a great week!

But the image of that dad completely ignoring his son was etched permanently into my mind. I just didn’t know how I could help him.

Just a few weeks later, I saw a blog post by John Saddington about the niche he saw for good dad blogs.

That post stuck in my mind and wouldn’t leave. All kinds of ideas started popping into my head, unsolicited. After a couple of weeks, I decided to check into some details.