Donald Miller's Blog, page 147

Sunday Morning Music, Justin Townes Earle, Butterfly Boucher

This Sunday please enjoy country traditionalist Justin Townes Earle followed by Nashville recording artist Butterfly Boucher. Townes was born in Nashville and is the son of the remarkable Steve Earle (fitting that last week we featured the son of Bob Dylan) and was named after Steve Earle's hero Townes Van Zandt. Townes played with the Distributors and the Swindlers before playing guitar and keyboards for his fathers band, the Dukes but was fired for his appetite for drugs. Now clean and...

Asking People to Leave Church

A couple times at Imago Dei, here in Portland, Rick McKinley, the lead pastor, has actually asked people to leave. I remember a specific time he just stood up and asked how many people had been coming to church for a year or more but hadn't done anything to plug in. He then invited them to plug in, (which at Imago often means to serve) and then told them if they didn't want to, to please find somewhere else to go to church. It sounds rude, and Rick wasn't making anybody feel guilty, it's...

The Mentoring Project is Having a Garage Sale in Your Garage!

Well, at least we hope to.

We are having a big fundraiser this summer involving garage sales. And we are looking for Garage Sale Hosts , which is where you come in.

All you need to do is host a garage sale and donate all or part of the proceeds to The Mentoring Project. In exchange for this, we will change a kids whole freaking life forever.

So in exchange for you selling this leg lamp over here on the left we recruit dudes like this on the right to throw kids in the air until they explode with h...

Is Mother Nature a Crutch?

Program Note: Live anywhere near Whittier, CA? I'll be speaking there tonight and I'd love to see you in person. This will be the beginning of the second leg of my Million Miles Tour. I'll be speaking for about an hour, then doing a question and answer. I did this in sixty-five cities during the fall and had a great time. I'm really looking forward to being back on the road. Learn more about the Whittier date here, or whether or not I'm coming to your town here.

Today's Blog:

I had some...

Can I Tell You a Story?

Lets say you were married and had two kids, and lets say you had me over for dinner, a young writer whose books you enjoy. And lets say after dinner you put the kids down, and I end up reading them a story. You go back into the kitchen and start doing the dishes, and I sit there by your kids and tell them a really dark, creepy, perhaps inappropriate story. Lets say I tell them a story that no kid should really hear.

Of course, I'd never do that. I'm no creep. I only say that because the truth ...

How I Learned to Like Exercise, and Like Some Other Things Too

The first time I joined a gym the trainer worked me out until I nearly died. She'd put me on a machine, have me lift the weights in sets of ten, decreasing the weights each time, and doing as many sets as it would take until I literally couldn't lift an empty bar. She wanted me to know what a workout felt like, and wanted to make sure the initial work out was as hard as it could be, so I'd have something to compare my subsequent workouts too. I think she hated men. The result was that I...

The "What If" Challenge

So a few weeks ago, I wrote a post about the most powerful question you can ask: What if? The response was overwhelming. Comments flooded in that were both heartbreaking and inspirational. I'm guessing the post got a lot of people dreaming about the possibilities in life.

So here's a challenge. What if we followed through on some of our what if questions?

In short, the blog post said storytellers, when they're writing their stories, often ask the question what if to keep the story going. What i...

How I Prepare a Speech, or How to Guide Somebody Toward an Epiphany

I'm not the greatest speaker in the world. In my line of work, that is inspirational speaking (speaking associated with faith but different than preaching) there are a lot of speakers better than myself. I count Rob Bell as one of these, and Francis Chan has always amazed me. My pastor, Rick McKinley is one of the best speakers I know. And in my travels to different churches, I've met dozens of speakers you have yet to hear about who astound me. 

But I speak. And when I prepare a talk, I've...

Sunday Morning Music, Jakob Dylan

I've a plan in the works to have a singer/songwriter share songs on the blog on Saturdays. Until I have something original, though, I'll just be sharing good music for your Saturday Morning. I'm hoping this, a cup of coffee and the Sunday Times will be a nice addition to your morning. Today I'm featuring Jakob Dylan, son of Bob Dylan and former frontman for The Wallflowers. His new record Women and Country could easily pass for a new and improved Bob Dylan. It's influenced heavily by T-Bone B...

Fashion Consultants Needed

So we had a little t-shirt design contest over at The Mentoring Project, and we are down to a handful of finalists. We thought we'd open it up to you, our faithful supporters, to ask what t-shirt you like best. Unfortunately, there are several great ones here, but we have to choose one. After you vote, you'll get to see if you were in the majority. Thanks for your help!

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