Teaching Off Notes

Something interesting about teaching off notes is that it is said to be far more effective than using PowerPoint. It promotes active listening, boosts engagement, and builds rapport -- and increases retention about 15%. The same could be said of sermons, which are generally preached off notes. When you see a preacher preaching off notes, he or she is using a method that works. In the academic context, 15% is very significant. It means that, instead of students obtaining 60% in an exam, they could obtain nearly 70% -- simply through the method of teaching. OBSERVATION: Here's an example paper on the subject: Information Retention.

Hard Landing

My father was, at one time in his life, an aircraft repairman (he was also a renowned conjurer, and later a minister and renowned missionary). He and a colleague were tasked with repairing an aircraft, and they completed the work at the end of the day. Everyone else had gone home, so they decided to take the aircraft for a joy-ride. But between their takeoff and landing, a mist crept over the airfield, and obscured their sight of the ground. They had a hard landing, and damaged the aircraft. Then they spent all night repairing the damage. OBSERVATION: Just as responsible employees would do.

Suicide and Widowhood

I recently looked up the relationship between widowhood and suicide. There have been a few cases of passive suicide during my ministry, and I have wondered sometimes whether there were active ones. There is certainly a correlation between widowhood and suicide. One of the most striking statistics: the suicide rate among men, between ages 20 and 35, increases seventeen times on the loss of a spouse. OBSERVATION: AI tells me that, due to forensic investigation, suicide will be separated from a natural death on the death of a spouse. However, it tells me at the same time that less than 10% of deaths worldwide are investigated forensically.

Lecture ‘Yourself’

I received some very useful advice -- perhaps critical advice -- from a US music professor when I started lecturing in seminary last year. I forget her exact words, but she said something like this: You are, above all, lecturing yourself to the students. It seems hard to put into words, but you need to expose yourself, and you need to let the lecture flow through you, the medium. If you focus too hard on the lecture itself, as an ideal, you can't keep the pace. OBSERVATION: So last night, I prepared the medium -- me -- for writing a lecture this morning. This morning, I took 90 minutes to write a 90-minute draft -- 5,000 words of text, plus extras. Of course that's just a draft, and I'll need to return to it. 

Birthday Reminders

I usually remind people that my birthday is coming up -- telling them that I want this or that extravagant gift this year -- say, a microcar. This year I forgot to remind people. It is instructive what reminders can do. When I remind people of my birthday, I receive 100+ birthday wishes. When I don't remind them, I receive 60+ birthday wishes. OBSERVATION: So it is in the Church, too. People need timely reminders.

Early Mission Photo

This is an early photo of my sister and me in the Central Pacific, with our guardian Temeeti. I would put this photo around 1965 -- early in our missionary experience -- as we both look very young, and are both still wearing Western clothes. That soon changed. OBSERVATION: Temeeti is presumably plucking a chicken.

Pigeons in Church

I shall tell the story of a minister who had the problem of pigeons in his Church. Apparently they entered the Church through the belfry. They were a "right nuisance", disrupting services of worship, and leaving feathers and droppings all over the Church. There was a flood of suggestions as to what might be done -- and yet no solution. The day came when the minister had had enough. He entered the Church with an air rifle and shot them all. Then he quietly discarded their remains. Everyone was amazed. Where did the pigeons go?

The Beginning of the End?

A heatwave is about to hit the USA. But did anyone look at the long-term forecast for Europe? There is another, dangerous heatwave on the way -- if climate models are correct (see the image). "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water ..." OBSERVATION: Son M said, Fake news! It is not fake news. It is, some say, the beginning of the end.

‘We Both Take Drugs’

A young man came to see me in my vestry. He said that he took drugs -- and he looked the part. "Is it a good thing or a bad thing?" he asked. "It isn't a good thing," I said. He leaned onto my desk: "Reverend, do you take drugs? Mind-altering drugs?" "I suppose I do," I said, "It's a maintenance dose. I take it on prescription." "So, what's the difference?" he asked. "We both take drugs." OBSERVATION: What really distinguished me from the counselee, though, was that my drugs were safely prescribed by a doctor. His were not. His drugs were off the street.

Book of Testimony

Our city Church was so full of testimonies that we decided to capture these in a small book -- a Book of Testimony. What eventually happened to that, I do not recall. It was not completed, and I think is all still in the hands of the editor. OBSERVATION: The image shows the first of three pages of what was wife E's testimony. There were some powerful testimonies among ordinary people. It would have been a very special book.

Hard Deaths

Ministers are often called upon when a person is dying. I was just watching a video of a hospice nurse, speaking of "hard deaths". People say that death is beautiful, she said, but that is not always true. In my own experience, there may be a hard death because a person is suffering to death, or there may be a hard death because a person is terrified of dying. It is not always as one would expect, either. The reprobate may die in peace, while the saint may die in a complete panic. I am trying to think, but ... maybe a third, maybe half of deaths are "hard deaths".

Making a Decision

Back in 2021, I received an Offer of Publication, from a major publisher. That was my 380-page book Everything, Briefly. What should I do? I examined the offer. I checked out the publishers thoroughly. Then I decided to go to one of my favourite benches in Cape Town (the one in this photo) and pray and not to leave the bench until I had made a decision. I decided to accept the offer. You may click on the photo to enlarge.

Learning About Fund-Raising

When I first entered ministry, I knew very little about fund-raising -- and I mean that in the broadest sense -- keeping a Church afloat. Nobody taught us that in seminary! Yet in general, ministers become first class fund-raisers -- and they may underestimate the vast experience they have gained. I myself, as time went on, understood more and more about funding a Church. At one of my lowest moments, back in 1994, the Church treasurer told me that the Church was insolvent. I went to an older minister for help and advice. Ultimately it is a raft of strategies that makes a Church work, not a single one. That same Church where the treasurer announced insolvency ultimately saw its highest income in generations. OBSERVATION: One also learns a lot about how one should view the finances of a Church. I have often said, it is not the same as a business. The photo shows a busy clothes sale.

Seven Lectures

I have forty-two lectures -- maybe more -- this coming semester. I decided to prepare seven lectures yesterday (outlined in the image) -- which is to say, revise them. Each of them was about 5,000 words. Alas, I failed in my quest. By 11:00 pm I had done five lectures. OBSERVATION: This morning I reached seven lectures. My students complained about lecture seven. They said it was too hard. So I rearranged it -- not to make it simpler, but to make the presentation simpler.

Life Not Uninteresting

Oy vey. Life has not been uninteresting. This is me in the High Court this week. I am advised: “Your story is not completely safe to publish.” So, yes, the pressure was intense. I needed to work through the night to rise to it – but it paid off. OBSERVATION: How do you like my colour co-ordination with the court? Impeccable, don’t you think?