Billy Graham, Woody Allen, and talking to the unsaved

At the church I go to I’m teaching a class on church history every Wednesday night (as mentioned previously). Last night I was covering church history from 1900 to about the mid 1980’s. You can check out the notes form all of my classes here. But the highlight of last night was a two part clip of Billy Graham having an interview with Woody Allen (below).

Go ahead and give this clip a view when you are able. After that I HIGHLY suggest you look below to see my comments on the clip.

Okay, that was awesome, right? The answer is, of course, “yes Kirk you are right.”

What I really like about this clip is that it is a great example about how to talk to the unsaved. A little background, the year is 1969 and Woody Allen is very popular as playwright. But he also, I think, exemplifies 1960s culture; cynical, distrusting of authority, and out to have a good time. We also see his skill as an interviewer. Notice how his looks are very unassuming and he is disarmingly self-depreciating. But he also smart often trying to catch Billy off-guard as with the questions about premarital sex and God’s existence. Billy, however, is never caught off-guard.

These clips show why Graham was the great evangelist that he was. Never is he insulting to Allen and he’s always got a joke when appropriate. He doesn’t dodge any of Allen’s questions but answers all of them candidly and with Biblical truth. I think, and I’m obviously biased, that Graham wins that day. He looks cool, collected, and always ready with God’s truth.

I told my wife, “if every conversation I had with non-believers went like this it would be awesome.” I think we can learn a lot from Graham. He comes into the interview ready to give his point of view but never looking for a fight. He engages Allen in conversation and never preaches at him. At the end Graham even sets up another meeting with Allen (though I don’t have any evidence Allen went a Graham revival).

When talking to the unbeliever I think we can learn a lot from Graham. We should always be ready to make conversation instead of having an argument. We should always say what is true about God but let the other guy have his say. Finally, in never hurts to crack a joke!

Wanna know more about history? Have question about my notes? Wanna leave note confessing your undying love for me? Leave a comment.

Should Cultural Expectations Shape Christian Views of Masculinity?

Debatable: Should Cultural Expectations Shape Christian Views of Masculinity? – The Gospel Coalition Blog:

'via Blog this'

Right, so I'll be the first to admit that "blog posts" (note the quotations) with nothing but a link are, generally, über lame. But this one is a good topic and very close to the stuff I like to talk about. So read up.

Kirk

Man Up Monday: Making a Budget Part 2

Making a Budget: Part 2

Last time I showed you some of the basic principles of making a budget. Be sure to check that one out! This week I’m going to show you how I did that awesome stuff.

Making the overall budget

Like I said last week the best bet for making a budget is Excel but Open Office will do in a pinch.

Here is what my budget looked like last time.



Here’s how I did it,

1. Start the top cell with the amount of money you make in a month. Guess if you don’t know exactly. But in

the future you should begin keeping track of EXACTLY how much you make in a month

2. Start by labeling your cells. You’ll see that I’ve labeled mine by what I spend the money on. Try to put your non-fluctuating bills (rent, phone, mortgage, etc.) towards the top. The reason being that you can adjust your flexible ones (food, fun money, miscellaneous) later.

3. In the next row down put your first expense.

4. Leave a space between each entry. I’ll explain why in a minute.

5. Try to figure out how much you want to spend on various items like food and clothes. Enter your ideal number.

6. Highlight your cells. Right click and select “format.” Go to accounting. Choose the money display that works best for you. I choose American dollars with two decimal places.

7. Here’s why we left the space and where it gets a bit tricky. In the A3 cell type “=a1-a2” then hit enter. It’ll subtract it for you! Now do the same with every blank cell substituting the “a1” and “a2” with the two cells above the blank cell. (Note: Excel has a great function where you can drag and continue a formula. Unfortunately I haven’t found a good way to do this with a budget but if there’s a way I’m all ears!!!)

There you go! Did you come up with a negative number at the end? Either you did your math wrong or you got trim some fat!

I find that food is one of the worst places to trim from. A man’s gotta eat, right? Got the fancy cable? Go to basic! Eating out 5 times a month? Cut it to one! Do whatever you got to do to get the number on the plus side of zero.

Creating itemized tabs

1. At the bottom of your page you should see a group of tab named “sheet 1, sheet 2, etc.”


2. Right-click on any one of them and click “rename”. Type in the word “food.”

3. Click on the tab

4. Label the first 4 horizontal rows “Date, Item, Spent, Saved, Total” in that order  

5. In the first cell under “remaining” write the amount you want to spend per month on food.

6. In the next row under “remaining” type this formula “=E2+D3-C3” hit “enter.” You should see the number above duplicate itself.

7. Grab the little black box with cell highlighted and drag it down REALLY far.  

8. Now try typing a number into the “spent” or “saved” cell in the second row. See what happened? Then number was subtracted or added? Now in the future when you make a purchase just type the date, item, and how much you spent and it will automatically be subtracted from your monthly total. When you’re new month starts just type an amount into “saved” and that amount will be added!

9. Duplicate this process with as many tabs as you want!

General advice

• That’s a pretty basic budget. Tweak it how you want to figure what works best for you. Here is some more closing advice. 
• Remember the power of saving! You know Christmas is coming so why not save $20 per month for Christmas. That way when it rolls around you already have $220 (11x20 for all you smarty pants!) in the bank. 
• Christmas is just one example. Make sure you are saved up for all kinds of yearly expenses like registering your car or getting your taxes prepared. 
• Try to have money put away for a rainy day. Most financial advisors will recommend that you always have 3 month of income saved in the bank for unforeseen circumstances. Good advice in my estimation. 
• If you think you can handle it take out a credit card that provides rewards. Chase is the one I use. BE CAREFUL!!! With a credit card it is very easy to spend more than you have. Stick to the budget and pay your balance in full at the end of every month. If you can do it you’ll get money back for money you spent any ways and your credit score will soar! 
• Speaking of credit score, make sure you pay everything on time. When I was fresh out of college I got a HUGE bump in credit score just by paying my student loans on time. 

Hope that was helpful.

I am by no mean a master money saver . . . but I am pretty good. Dave Ramsey even asked for my number once so I could give him advice. Okay, maybe that didn’t happen. 

Now that your saving so much would it hurt to show me a little love? Money love. Leave me some comments please!

Musings on History

One blog a month? That seems about right. Man this blogging thing tough! Maybe I just don’t have the moxie to get it done? Doesn’t matter, I’m not going to let that stop me.

Most of my current busyness comes from the fact that I’m teaching a class on Church History. I am historian by trade. But I still have to come up with this curriculum for a church history course. I’m learning so much. I’m sure the amount I’m learning is only a fraction of what I actually impart upon my students. History, as I’m finding out, has a lot to teach us about being men and being Christian. Below is a short list of things I’ve learned.

1.      History is littered with strong Christian men.

There was Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield, and Martin Luther just to name just a few. What these men have in common was that they were lions for the faith. All of these men, in one fashion or another, experienced various hardships. They remained undeterred. The persevered and stood up for what was right. These are men we should seek to emulate because of the ferocity in which they fought for the name of Jesus.

2.      No matter how great they were our heroes are fallen.

Even though I know about their flaws (for example Luther with his anti-Semitism and Whitfield with his promotion of slavery) it makes me sad to see these great men marred by regrettable decisions and viewpoints. But the point is that we shouldn’t be worshiping them anyways. Every human who has ever lived, with one exception, has had a tragic flaw. The fallen-ness of these great men should make us realize the greatness of Jesus.

3.      Doctrine isn’t born; it’s forged in the crucible of debate.

I’ve learned lots of new things about doctrine and the struggles for that doctrine’s place by studying history. By studying the early church I’ve discovered why what we think about Christ’s mind is important. Many of the doctrines we take for granted about Christianity were fought over for centuries. Then those battles began anew in the Reformation.

4.      There are some great sources out there waiting to be read.

Don’t believe me? Check out Jonathan Edwards’ classic Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God!

History is great! Fact.

What did you think? Leave me a comment.