The Week in Review (May 25, 2004) -- including a new venture

Another week has passed. The biggest thing this week was the shooting of a micro-course for Kingswood: "Women in Ministry Leadership." It features several key female voices in the Wesleyan Church with me as the tour guide. As I finished, I wondered if God might use it widely. It has great potential, I think. It should be publicly available in a few weeks.

My greatest contribution to this point I would have said was Wesley Seminary, but things just seem to get worse and worse. My friends tell me I need to just wash my hands and stop fretting over it. Maybe God will do a miracle.

My current writing project is Biblical Hebrew for the Novice. It's a 15-chapter tools approach to Hebrew with a Udemy course and YouTube videos to back it up. I'm desperate to finish it but also have a day job. Here's a video that gives a sample of the approach. 

Another new project is a Udemy course I'm calling, "How to Publish Christian Books." Here's the promo video. There are two parts to this venture. First, there is the course/series of videos telling how to do it, sharing the insights I've learned from all these years. I'll be sharing these on Patreon until the Udemy course is ready. They will be available under a new tier of subscribers there with one video coming out a week. Tomorrow's video will be on choosing a book size.

However, I'm also offering to publish your book for you. For $100 for each 100 pages, I will edit and make suggestions on content. Then I will make it available on Amazon, Kindle, Audible, and other e-book formats (as you wish, paperback and/or hardback). From then on, I only ask 10% of the net profit.

Since this is a side hustle, I can't take on a lot of book projects, but I can start if you are interested in the conversation.

Week in Review (May 18, 2012)

1. I was privileged to be invited to a think tank group called "UNMUTE" this week hosted by Wesley Seminary. I get the impression that some of my recent critiques of the academy have not been a delight to some (e.g., the Keith Drury posts, a LinkedIn post). So, I count it a privilege to be included.

The first day involved four speakers from Lausanne. Their job was to set out some of the key global issues of the day. The first was global migration. The second was creation care. The third related to the children and family of the world. The final was issues of justice and freedom. These were nice presentations by individuals coming from India, Manila, and other places. 

The second day we heard some futurism. A very well-informed IWU individual spoke on AI. This was the day after ChatGPT 4o dropped. Vernon Rainwater spoke on media and technology. I spoke on education.

Then the final day was design thinking -- what can be done to synthesize projects that bring all these things together.

2. There were a couple interesting results. I'm not particularly a fan of the design thinking process. Two years ago, when I taught an MBA class for Houghton on design thinking, I concluded that design thinking was a process invented so that uncreative, overly structured people could follow steps that would result in innovation. However, if you are already creative, I'm not sure it gets you as far as simply being yourself in collaboration with other creative people.

3. I've been working on a project called Biblical Hebrew for the Novice. It's not going as quickly as I'd hoped. I remain discouraged about my publishing venture in general. AI also keeps upping the ante. The videos on YouTube are getting better and better, and I'm falling further and further behind.

4. I did try a new YouTube strategy: longer videos. I'm currently giving snippets of the Biblical Theology I taught at IWU for the KERN program. I plan on dropping one on creation tomorrow. 

Week in Review (May 4, 2024)

Just a quick pulse through my week. In the last couple weeks, I've finished writing a biology course, a writing course focusing on persuasion, and a theology course. Now ramping up for courses in Wesleyan Church history, theology of holiness, and a microcourse on women in ministry leadership. A couple other really interesting markets in the works as well.  

Keith Drury's memorial was Monday. It's truly staggering the impact of this man. I feel most sad of course for Sharon, David, and John. It leaves a call for us to continue his legacy in mentoring young people, mentoring leaders, and being a faithful voice to the church.

My focus this week is Biblical Hebrew for the Novice. I'm taking my "Hebrew for Ministry" notes and converting them to a book, set of YouTube videos, and Udemy course. It's fifteen chapters, so probably will take a couple weeks. It's all in my head, but getting it on paper is always the effort. Keith used to enjoy it when I'd say the book was all in my head and that it just needed to get down on paper.

Have a great week!