Me personally, I like curling up with the newspaper or a book, or my laptop.

…And many pastors are doofusses. Don’t retract that! I’ll admit I was one when I worked in a church.

You’ll note I also embedded some code from the brainrules.net site, hoping people will GO over there. They have some good stuff. Wish I had the time and money to make mine so fine.

To reiterate–I am in agreement with the thesis. We need to take this research seriously and apply it if we really want to communicate effectively. And I do try to apply this in my own context (good for you that you do, too). I was simply trying to point out some irony here…you mentioned:
“Brain Rule #4: We don’t pay attention to boring things,”…hence my reference of that particular word (”boring”). I didn’t mean it as a personal slight, nor was I signaling the death of all text as we have known it. I was connecting to your comment on that same section, “Text is a great way of conveying a lot of information very efficiently, but it can fatigue the brain if overdone.” I just thought the post (and the Brain Rules book of 250 pages of text) is a wee bit overdone in telling us that text can be overdone.

As far as preachers are concerned, I should not have called them doofuses (though that profession is not exempt from them), and should have stuck with your wording that many are simply “resistant” and “insecure,” though I won’t shout it in all caps. I guess we could compare anecdotal evidence on the number of ministers we each personally know to determine what qualifies as “many,” but my own experience hasn’t led me to that view. I’m sorry yours has.

Again, I agree with you on this and I am an interested audience member. And you wrote a fine summary. I was just trying to make an ironic observation, not launch an attack. Peace.

This blog, however, is mostly a text based format. And my article is a summary of a book’s research, as well as, some thoughts on APPLYING them in the church –for those who care to read it.

Regarding “Doofus ministers” … it seems like I hit a sore spot with you. However, rather than shoot the messenger, consider applying the message where it matters most to YOU. I have. Starting in 1996 I completely redirected my ministry towards the production of interactive multimedia software for children and youth.(www.sundaysoftware.com)

But let’s be clear: you imply that text is DEAD (or “boring” as you wrote), and that’s SIMPLY NOT what the research says. Text can be informative, very interesting and quite memorable. Consider the Bible or your favorite novel. Indeed, the Brain Rules book itself has over 250 pages of text.

Rather, the research indicates that text has its limitations –in certain situations and with certain audiences, just as any other media does.

Text is still a great way of presenting a lot of information in a very efficient way to an interested audience. And that’s all this book review is trying to be.

Truth is, many preachers feel INSECURE about their preaching, which is probably why they are resistant to criticism and advice. (And isn’t that always the truth about our insecurities!)

One way churches could deal with this in a less threatening direct way is to ‘require’ and budget for their preacher to attend at least one preaching seminar a year. Put it right in their job description. Afterall, preaching IS an essential job skill and of critical importance to the church. Why not provide for continuing training?

Anyway, thanks for boiling down the rules; I will use this extensively in teacher training!