Introduction – What’s In A Name

Sitting at my desk thinking about how to relay a message that I delivered to a congregation in print format. It’s something rather strange and weird. I can speak the whole sermon and deliver it in a way that engages the audience. Now, how do you take something that is built in real time and put it in evergreen format on a page.

Reality is this, a writer can paint many beautiful pictures in words and move the reader to whatever landscape that is needed to convey the point. That’s the very point, a writer can do that. Who am I to consider myself a writer? How will I take my gift in the speech arena and convert it over to text?

Before getting lost into much philosophy, let’s start with a bit of background. Many people have requested a transcript of my sermons to be available online. Do I think many will look up a sermon after they heard it and read it? No idea. Furthermore, I do believe that the “call” to do anything often times come in the most unexpected ways and places. Such as people often asking for the sermons to be made available online.

A summary of chats I had in the past couple weeks would go something like this. Person A wants to read my sermon notes online and I have nothing to offer them. Person B wants to hear a copy of my sermon online and I definitely have no idea how to deliver that (yet). Person C wants to ask me questions about the post service chat and I have no means of conducting that online… yet.

note: since the original writing of this post to it’s final edit for publication, I have been asked more and more the same set of questions. I’ve already started posting my sermon concepts online on this site. And, someone asked me when my first book as well as video series will get produced. I’ve yet to figure all of this out.

Many people call themselves any number of titles. I don’t use the pastor title, yet many feel it suits me. I rather avoid titles in general. I’m just a member of the human race. The one title I can’t avoid is my name. Everyone has a name. That is the single most shared characteristic of being a human citizen.

You have a name.

While most cultures will vary in practice how they come about that name and they vary by conventions about how to do names, if you’re going to be an active member of that society in which you’re born, you’re given a name. That’s just how it works on this rock called earth.

So, people asking for my thoughts in written format is weird to me, as I don’t ascribe the fancy title of writer to myself. But, that doesn’t meant I can’t do it. It’s just that I don’t call myself a writer.

The title or name you ascribe to will have a lot to do with the roles you play. For the purposes of this site, let’s stick with the naming titles of parent vs child. That very juxtaposition of title speaks volumes to what the picture your mind paints. One has authority built right into the title. The other has automatic images of curiosity and mischief built into itself. This begs the question, what titles are you clinging on to?

In some corners of the world, the word boss means a lot. You have the power to affect the course of life for whoever works for you. You can greatly shape the quality of life for these who depend on you for their daily bread. Same goes for parents. They’re essentially the boss of the home. Their child(ren) depend on them for their quality of life, experiences, and nourishment. The impact of the parents on the children has legacy and spiritual implications that will impact not just the child but generations to come afterward. Let’s not forget that the child will eventually become a grown adult and will then also have an impact on the quality of life of their aging parents.

Some names, some titles, paint pictures we rather forget. Some of the most iconic examples wold be dictators that left a dark mark on the pages of history. Such names aren’t used much anymore because people do not want to be associated with the legacy such a name carries. In the end, you don’t want your name to create a barrier for you… yet, your given name is your given name. The others you ascribe to is up to you ultimately.