January 2016 – Page 3 – 300 words a day

An invitation to help.

Last Saturday I talked to a group of men. Most of them are my age or older. Here’s how I started my talk: This year, I’m experimenting with being intentional about helping young leaders succeed. I know a bunch of people who are in their first or second year out of college. Some of them […]

by Jon Swanson

Creating noise.

(First published May 30, 2013) I keep saying to people around church, “we are creating our own noise.” I realized that I need to take some time to explain what I mean. Imagine conversing with a friend in a quiet coffee shop. You’ve not seen each other for a long time. You’ve been looking forward […]

by Jon Swanson

3 words: invite

Invite. It’s the second of my three words this year. (The first is Kingdom). For several years, I’ve talked about the difference between inviting and announcing. In church settings, as in other group settings, there are announcements. We tell people about events that are coming. And then we get frustrated when they don’t come. I […]

by Jon Swanson

Falter, not fail

I was trying to answer the Lent question. My friend said, “Describe the feeling that people are experiencing that observing Lent could help with.” I wrote, “You feel frustrated with faltering again on goals and resolutions.” And I laughed. The truth is that many of us describe our failures. We started the year with a […]

by Jon Swanson

Selling “Lent”

I published “Lent for non-Lent people” two years ago. It’s a collection of short reflections to be read, one per day, during the seven weeks before Easter, starting on “Ash Wednesday” (February 10). I asked a friend to help me sell the book this year. She said, “Can you describe the feeling that people are […]