Preaching and Coldstone

Monday's seminars was about how churches need to get back into the habit of sowing the
Gospel seeds, nurturing them, and then reaping them. I'm still pondering this topic and
how that applies to our Petersburg environment. The biggest mistake would be to try to
apply the suggested methods and even the suggested principles without making necessary
alternation to bring relevancy to the local context.

Two-thirds of yesterday's seminars was on preaching -- both the ideologies, the
philosophies, and some practical aspects. The presenter, Dr. David Thomas of Walla
Walla, affirmed that preaching should be the most important task of a pastor. And he
gave a number of good reasons why this is so.

In the practical portion, he provided an outline of what ought to be included in the
sermon preparation and delivery process. I found it comforting to see that many of the
things that I've picked up and do already are things that he recommends, perhaps in
slightly different ways. There were also a number of new ideas that I think would be
beneficial.

Following the day's meetings and dinner, a number of us drove out to Coldstone. Yeah,
it's a little ironic that my very first time to Coldstone is in Anchorage, AK during a
sub-zero night! I had a nice, dark-chocolate ice cream with white chocolate chips.

I still have not had a good night's sleep. The pillow is too big, or maybe it's too
soft, or is the room too hot, or maybe not warm enough... Maybe I might finally get a
decent night's sleep tonight.

There really isn't much to write about today's closing session in the morning. Overall I
enjoyed the time spent this week in Anchorage, getting together with other pastors in
Alaska, discovering that many of us share similar issues and struggles in leading
churches in this state.

When I looked up synonyms for the word evangelism, there weren't any good ones, but
plenty of ones with just horrible connotations. And evangelism itself doesn't hold very
good connotations today.

So what would be a better replacement? Is there another word that is better, or perhaps
a phrase? What about the phrase, "Proactive sharing of the Gospel," as a possible
replacement?

Now what kind of sermon can I work up using Coldstone ice cream...?