Breathing New Life into Faith

“I see more passion for trees in the Sierra Club than I do for Jesus in the church.”—Richard Dahlstrom

Breathing New Life into Faith

Author: Richard Dahlstrom

Paperback: 272 pages

Publisher: Harvest House Publishers (July 1, 2008)

ISBN-10: 0736922148

ISBN-13: 978-0736922142

About the book

Your physical body needs oxygen in order to survive. Inhale, exhale ... one leads naturally to the other. Inhale too long and you feel as if your lungs will burst. Exhale too long and you get light-headed.

The same rhythm is essential in the life of faith. You inhale life-giving strength from God through things like prayer, study, solitude, and silence. You exhale generosity, hospitality, and service to the poor. If you try to do one without the other, you wont' last very long.

This fresh perspective on the classic disciplines of the faith will empower you to process the oxygen of the Spirit. Discover how you can develop a balanced spirituality that reflects the life of Jesus and keeps your faith growing stronger.

About Richard

Richard Dahlstrom is Senior Pastor of Bethany Community Church in Seattle, WA, in the heart of the city, among university students, young professionals, families, the homeless, and the elderly. He is also a popular teacher in North America and Europe for the Capernwray Missionary Fellowship of Torchbearers. He holds a M.Div. from Talbot Theological Seminary.

For more information

Check out Richard's blog.

Watch a video about the book.

Follow Richard on Twitter @raincitypastor.

October FREE Workshop: Dialogue: Everybody's Talking About It

When: October 12, 2009, 6:30p.m.–8:00 p.m.

Where: Stone Chapel, 280 East Woodmen Road, Colorado Springs, CO 80919

Workshop Description: In fiction, dialogue allows your readers to eavesdrop on your characters. When you're eavesdropping on someone, you never know what you're going to hear. In the same way, your readers never know what your characters are going to say. If your dialogue bores your readers, you'll lose them-every time. In dialogue, every word must count. Count for what? What is your dialogue accomplishing? In her workshop Dialogue: Everybody's Talking About It, author and editor Beth K. Vogt:

• reveals five things dialogue can accomplish
• shares two surefire ways to use your dialogue to your advantage
• lists the 10 ways to make sure your dialogue is "done right," so that it passes an editor's standards
• provides interactive time for you to create dialogue using writing prompts.

Speaker: Beth is a national speaker and author of Baby Changes Everything: Embracing and Preparing for Motherhood after 35. She is the editor of Connections, the MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) International leadership magazine. She contributes regularly to MomSense magazine and to the Hearts at Home blog. Beth is also the national Parenting Toddlers to Teens Examiner for Examiner.com, the fastest-growing local content network in the U.S. Her stories are included in Chicken Soup for the Soul: A Tribute to Moms and The Mommy Diaries. Beth has been published in Discipleship Journal, Virtue, ParentGuide, ParentLife, and The Christian Communicator.

Find out more about Beth:

Beth’s website

Mommy Come Lately blog

The Writing Road blog

7 Secrets Every Christian Writer Needs to Know

The following outline is taken from Lorraine Pintus' Powerpoint.

1. What it means that you are “called” to write.

· Faithful servant multiplies the gift and is praised. (Matthew 25:21)

· Worthless servant buries the gift and is rebuked. (Matthew 25:30)

· The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:24

2. That obedience is more important than a publishing contract

3. The power of the written/spoken word

· My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the SPIRIT’S POWER, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on GOD’s POWER. 1 Corinthians 2:4

4. The value of your writing toolbox. Your toolbox is:

· T: Technique

· O: Others

· O: Observe Trends

· L: Library

· S: Solitude

5. The importance of wrestling

· “The author who benefits us most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance.”—Oswald Chambers

6. The priority of the Three W’s: Worship, Wait, Write

7. The need to maintain a growth mindset

· Mindset: A collection of individual thoughts that, over a period of time, influences how we perceive life.

· Fixed mindset: Human qualities/abilities are determined early on; they are fixed, established traits

· Growth mindset: Human qualities are something we cultivate. Central attitude is LEARN, LEARN, LEARN!

· “Our mindset is not a personality quirk; it creates the mental world in which we live. It shapes our goals and attitudes and predicts whether or not we will fulfill our potential.”–Carol Dweck, PhD, The New Psychology of Success

· Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your power of your out-stretched arm. Surely nothing is too difficult for you. Jeremiah 32:17

Recommended Books on Writing for Beginning Writers

A Complete Guide to Writing for Publication by Susan Titus Osborn

AP Stylebook (for editing newspaper and magazine articles)

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

Creating Fiction by Julie Checkoway

Eats Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss

Fiction Writing Demystified by Thomas B. Sawyer

Getting into Character by Brandilyn Collins

On Writing Well by William Zinsser

Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell

Scene and Structure by Jack Bickham

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne & Dave King

Stein on Writing by Sol Stein

Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight Swain

Telling Lies for Fun and Profit by Lawrence Block

The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes (and how to avoid them) by Jack Bickham

The Artists Way by Julie Cameron

The Chicago Manual of Style (for editing books)

The Christian Writer's Market Guide by Sally E. Stuart

The Elements of Style 4th Edition by William Strunk and E.B. White

The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing by Evan Marshall

Writer Tells All by Robert Masello

Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass

You Can Market Your Book by Carmen Leal