Joseph F. Radosevich

I heard in a recent interview on the Decoder with Nilay Patel podcast about students letting AI write all their code in a computer class. If a computer can write all your code, then you won't be needed.  I look at my to-do list on occasion to see if AI could replace the things that I'm doing. If an AI chatbot could do the work that I am doing as a pastor, then I should stop doing those things and figure out what and how to pastor in a way that computers cannot replace. Computers cannot  Look people in the eyes. Know the stories of the people that you preach to. Customize the sermon to the people in your congregation and their temptations and worries. Have a special handshake with kids in the church. Pray alone or with the deacons. Put a hand on someone's shoulder and pray for their specific need. Be transformed by the Bible passage that you will preach. Preach with the Holy Spirit's power. Follow-up the sermon with a handshake and personal greeting. Sit on the porch an...

This floored me when I read it yesterday and had to write it in my quote journal. Four Locations in a Pastor's Life: You live in a dramatically fallen world. The big battle is fought in your heart. You will run somewhere for refuge. Where you are heading, trouble will be no more. Dangerous Calling Paul David Tripp

I thought I had outgrown my largest kettlebells a couple of months ago. I made plans to buy a larger one. It's kind of a good problem to have, but it is an expensive problem. I delayed buying one and discovered that I don't have to have a bigger one just yet. I was using Pat Flynn's strength-focused training plan in his book Strong On! I got stronger so that my largest kettlebells weren't challenging enough. When I decided to delay buying a bigger kettlebell (at my wife's urging), I tried another plan from his book focused on building muscle. Otherwise, I would have skipped that plan. Because the rep ranges are different, I couldn't use my largest bells and had to go down a couple of levels. Now, I'm getting a ton out of my medium-sized bells.  The training plans in the book are called Strength, Muscle, Conditioning/Fat Loss, and Mobility. There are workouts each week from each category, but the emphasis changes. You use the lowest reps and heaviest weight ...

At my conference last month, Dr. Hershael York warned against using bad Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic word studies in sermons. His lesser point was to preach simple sermons that highlight the bible and not the preacher. He encouraged us to trust the Bible and not our cleverness. I've been thinking about that advice and what that means. It means telling the structure of the sermon during the sermon. This is probably my biggest piece of advice for all preachers. Your sermon will improve if you make your outline obvious. I never resent a preacher making point or outline too obvious. I do get bored or confused when I have no idea what the point is or where we are in the sermon. This applies to teachers as well. Make your outline obvious so that people can hang your explanations, illustrations, and applications on the structure of the lesson.