Tell Good Stories with Warren Cole Smith-CMAW107

What You'll Hear:

• He wanted to be a writer but didn't have mentors in that area, he got a degree in Journalism from the Univ of GA and then a Masters
• Became a Christian during a revival service at age 14 at their mega church in Roswell, GA
• First job was mowing lawn
• Go teach for a couple years, it's formative, you learn to speak
• He wrote and edited for a magazine then started his own business and sold it and started writing books
• He became an executive at World Magazine and the Colson Center, and now leads Ministry Watch
• Entrepreneurs are heroes in our culture today
• Whether it's born or learned, with entrepreneurship and leadership you can get better at it, and we're called to get better
• Break 1 - 16;25
• Ministry Watch Empowers Donors to Christian Ministries, speak for victims, and do investigative journalism
• They have databases including financial data on ministries going back 5 years, including ratings
• The world has become very cynical and skeptical about Christian ministries
• The bad guys damage their victims and the church as a whole
• The secular media's goal is purely to tear down.  We are interested in theological error as much as financial or sexual error
• Watchdogs are needed in particular for the growth of megachurches that are not part of a denomination and therefore not accountable
• Break 2 - 27:40
• Stories are powerful because that's how God made us, we're wired to respond to stories
• Stories have a way of making the abstract concrete
• The TV Show Will and Grace is an example of a story having a huge impact on cultural opinion
• A Worldview is a way of viewing the world.  Postmodernism (See book by Stanley Genz) is incredulity toward the metanarrative, an example of Postmodern storytelling is the show Seinfeld.  
• Christian stories are about God not about us
• One method the media uses is appropriation of language, they'll use the same set of facts but define them in different ways
• Get news from a variety of sources and be sure to include sources with a Christian worldview
• Limit your intake of news because it's become a distraction
• Read old news better known as History
• Have some fasts from your smart phone
• Become a creator, it makes you much alert to how the media operates
• Go make something, go do something, there's never been a better time
• Go to www.MinistryWatch.com or Facebook.com/WarrenColeSmith or Twitter.com/WarrenColeSmith or articles on World Magazine