Brian McBride's Blog, page 2

10 things your pastor wishes you knew

First, let me just say that I love the Church. Like, ALL CAPS love. My heart is for the Church. I’m passionate about the Church. I believe in the Church. But as a third-generation pastor’s kid, there’s a discrepancy that I’ve noticed in the way many (not all!) churches treat their pastors. My great-grandparents were Assemblies of God pastors for 60+ years. My grandparents have been Assemblies of God pastors for 40+ years. And my parents have been Assemblies of God pastors for 20+ years. I’ve...

judgment is good

I debated off and on about whether or not I was going to share on this topic. When it comes to judgment, most people automatically jump to the conclusion that it’s bad, evil, wrong, unmerciful, etc…

But I can’t escape the pressing reality – especially as I study Scripture – that judgment is, in fact, the exact opposite. Judgment is good. Necessary. Righteous.

Now, most people probably want to point me to Matthew 7:1 that says, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.” But most people neg...

marketing: my process, part 3

Okay, I realize this post a little late. Haha. I’ve been working hard on Draft 3 of Every Bright and Broken Thing. Anyway, here’s the third and final part in the My Process series!

So now you have a 100% complete book with a beautiful cover and a professional-looking interior. You’ve decided which distributer you’re going to use to self-publish this book. You’re ready to go.

But you suddenly realize that no one is going to buy your book if they don’t know about your book. The only problem is...

indie publishing: my process, part two

If you haven’t read part one, read it here!

Okay, so you have a full-blown novel. You’ve got your Beta Reader feedback, you’ve finished approx. 1 million drafts of content edits and line edits. Maybe you even sent your manuscript off to a professional editor just to be safe. And now you’re confident that this story is what it was always meant to be. It’s mature, it’s got some meat and substance to it. It’s been refined time and again and you just know it’s ready to go into the hands of hundre...

novelling: my process, part one

Allow me to interrupt my normal discussions about life and faith with something a little less serious. 

no one said it would be easy

Looking at the culture of the Modern American Church today, I’m always amazed at how Seeker Sensitive it’s become. If you don’t know what “Seeker Sensitive” means, a loose definition would be “messages that don’t meddle with people, worship that doesn’t cost anything, prayer that only points inward and not outward, doctrines that make people feel comfortable in their sin, policies that don’t protect the integrity of the Word, and programs that are more about building numbers than growing disc...

to the exiles…

I love the Bible. I love how you can open it up to any passage and, if you study it deeply enough, you can find something new. It’s so exciting when you read a passage you’ve read a million times, but then it suddenly becomes fresh to you. It’s that feeling of uncovering one of those “hidden mysteries of God.” The other night right before bed, I had one of those quiet revelation moments. I turned off my TV show, put on some worship music (UPPERROOM livestreams on YouTube are always my go-to),...

myths you might believe about christianity

Brace yourselves. This topic has been on my mind and heart for awhile and I’ve noticed that misrepresentation of Evangelical Christianity in mainstream American circles today is a huge problem. By and large, Christians are treated like villains by the mainstream media, by progressives and left-wingers. Some of that misrepresentation is simply because leaders with Evangelical Christian circles have severely misbehaved. To put it lightly. Some of that, though, is the result of years of bias tha...

bye-bye, failure

Last Wednesday at my church’s midweek service, I got to lead the song “So Will I” by Hillsong UNITED for the first time. (Somehow I managed to do it without having the words right in front of me. If you’re familiar with this song, you know what an accomplishment that is. Haha!) Two of my favorite lines of the song are the ones that go “If You left the grave behind You, so will I” and “As You speak, a hundred billion failures disappear.” As I led that line out in worship, this single phrase re...

the heart behind the story

My YA Contemporary novel, Love and the Sea and Everything in Between, has been out for about two months now. The reviews and feedback are rolling in, which is simultaneously the most exciting thing and the most t e r r i f y i n g thing. Most of the reviews have been positive. The love and support I’ve received from readers – especially those in the Indie Author community – has blown me away and I have met so many new and amazing people.

Those who have been kind enough to leave reviews for my...