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Soon I’ll have been preaching five decades. Some good, some bad. Some confusing, and some clarifying. I’m still working to improve by reading a book or two about preaching each year.

People have surprised me in what they’ve said about my preaching.

One man said to His pastor, “You preached an excellent sermon but it was not original.”

There are many websites from which sermon and Bible Study material can be cut and pasted. But that pastor knew his sermon was a product of prayer, personal study and sermon development. The pastor felt that his integrity and work ethic had been attacked.

(Think about it: anyone with a cell phone can be researching where a speaker gets their material.)

The gentleman went so far as to tell the pastor, “I have a book at home, containing every word you said.” The next day, the jokester brought his pastor a dictionary.

That was better than the day a man expressed appreciation for my message then pointed to his pastor who stood beside me and said, “I can’t understand anything he says.”

Some may ask about the books on preaching that I’ve most benefited from - two immediately come to mind.

​Preaching with Freshness by Francis Mawhinney​

​Preaching and Teaching with Imagination by Warren Wiersbe.​

More than one pastor has told me that my book Masterful Preaching, Restoring the Place of Good News Preaching resulted in a positive change in their approach to preaching.

If you use a link to purchase an item, the ministry receives a small fee from Amazon.

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I’ve a few things to consider:

1. This week’s Kindle Countdown e-Book is Masterful Preaching - Restoring the Place of Good News Preaching. It is discounted from $6.99 to $1.99.
2. Pastor Appreciation month ends in a few days, and we have gift ideas galore. Regardless of how you do it, honor your pastor(s) in some way. If you wish to give a gift we've got you covered, and at a discount, plus free shipping. Pastor, it may be time to give yourself some proven where-the-rubber-meets-the-road tools to develop yourself, develop people, and grow the body of Christ. Since this is the final email of Pastor Appreciation Month, I’m making all four discounts available. The books will not arrive before the end of October, but you can present your pastor with a nice card letting him know his gift will arrive shortly.
3. Update on current projects.
4. ​Sign up for a weekly Free, Cheap, and New to You Newsletter.

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Kindle Reader/app Countdown Discount - Masterful Preaching - Restoring the Place of Good News Preaching is discounted to $1.99. It is usually $6.99.

Why buy a book about preaching to sinners?

1. How many times have you preached to the lost in the past three months?
2. On how many occasions was someone who was lost in the audience?
3. Is preaching to sinners your default setting or is your weekly preparation aimed at exhorting, instructing, or encouraging the saints?

While leading a non-growing church, oh we grew but only because a few people transferred membership - but is that growth? NO! It may cause some proud souls to swell with pride, but that is not kingdom growth. During those several years, my answers to the three questions would have been.

1. Over three months, I’d preached to the lost twice, three times at the most.
2. Over those three months, in our small group of forty, there would have been at least twenty people who were lost. Over half of the Sundays a lost soul was in the house.
3. Yes, I was good at preaching to the saints. It was what I prepared to do. I fed the ninety and nine, with no consideration of the one who was not in the fold.

It tears at me to wonder how many people may have heard their only sermon on one of those Sundays, and I did a wonderful job encouraging the saints.

And all the while, we were going nowhere fast. Then the approach taken by men who were growing churches came clearly to my mind. They preached to the lost every Sunday. If they preached anything else God has sternly directed them in that direction.

The greatest church growth opportunity you are missing is not preaching to the lost and going about it in the right way. Masterful Preaching will take you on a journey toward change.

A man who invested much into my life recently said, “Preaching to the lost is a lost art.” Here you learn of my journey to learn how to preach good news rather than condemnation.

For decades now.my adage has been, Sunday is for Sinners.” It has worked. A pastor in Oklahoma heard me teach this concept fifteen years ago. He recently said, “That session and your book, Masterful Preaching changed my preaching approach and resulted in us reaching the lost.” Amazon Ranking 5 stars

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Easy and Beneficial Pastor Appreciation Gift - Seven Ministerial Development books at a 25% discount. For your discount use the code - Develop 25. Each book comes from lessons learned while experiencing pain or realizing there had to be a better way to serve.

The bundle includes my new Pastoring a Narcissist, Masterful Preaching - Restoring Good News Preaching, Revival in a Plain Brown Wrapper, Healthy Church - Start Here, The Science of Shepherding - Pastoral Ministry for the 21st Century,Honey from a Strange Hive (funeral sermons) and The Details Matter. One church organization requires The Details Matter be read prior to ordination.

FREE SHIPPING to USA, CA, UK, AU, NZ. If interested, links to the individual books are at the end of the email. Again, the discount code to use at checkout for the bundle: - Develop 25.

Get it here: The Ministry Development Bundle​

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Pre-release Discount - Elder, Tell Me Your Stories Christmas Gift Alert

Elder, Tell Me Your Stories is available for fifteen days (October 27 - November 11) at a 15% pre-release discount. Only available at CarltonCoon.com.

This hard bound legacy book will be your gift to the generations coming after. The book has 350 questions for you to answer. These questions will bring to memory stories you have not told and nothing except such questions will ever bring them to your mind. Questions like:

1. As a child what was your favorite toy? Your grandkids and great-grands are not likely to know what a top or slinky is.
2. Who baptized you, when, what were the conditions?
3. During your life of serving Jesus, what have been the hardest experiences?
4. Where were you on 9/11? What was your response?

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Elder, Tell Me Your Stories asks questions about:

1. Family
2. Childhood
3. School Days
4. Teens
5. Church-Life
6. Marriage
7. And more . . .

Where else will you be reminded to tell the story of seeing or experiencing a miracle. Without your story the next generation may not know about the pastor who most blessed your life, or where you were baptized on a cold January night.

Your story, and the story of your parents or grandparents must be told. Those stories are a major part of what those of the Sage age have to offer the arriving generations.

From the funny to the tragic these questions cover it all. This book is 8.5 by 11 and a bit heavy. This is one book where shipping will not be free. To receive Elder, Tell me Your Stories before Christmas your order must be placed no later than December 1.

Twenty percent of the profit from Elder, Tell Me Your Stories goes to UPCI Sages 55+, the non-profit ministry by those 55 and up that Norma and I have been asked to launch.

Free, Cheap or New to You

Follow link here to be notified of upcoming deals! Join the Free, Cheap and "New to You" newsletter of Christian EBooks

​Subscribe to get a monthly list informing you about a wide range of eBooks by an array of authors. Some are included because they serve as resources for study.

Updates on Current Projects

The past months have been extremely busy with UPCI Sages 55+, a bit of pastoral ministry, and a full ministry travel schedule. Yet some progress has been made on several projects.

Pastoring a Manipulator - is second in the Pastoring in the Dark Triad series. The research and rough draft is complete. Six or more rewrites are to be done. The first book in the series Pastoring a Narcissist has been available for two months. If you have read Pastoring a Narcissist please take a few minutes to review it on Amazon or Goodreads.

​Christians Doing New Things is a book I’m really excited about. The book is a study of the interaction between Christ and Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. Mary was willing to break outside the expected norms. Christians Doing New Things is based on a series of Sunday Morning Adult Bible Classes. It is relevant for reading and has a wealth of teachable material. There will be a Leader’s Guide to Christians Doing New Things, a devotional companion titled New Things Daily, and it will be available in large print and audio.

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The Ministry Development Bundle is only available at CarltonCoon.com​

Links to individual titles:

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Pastoring a Narcissist - Kindle​ Print from Amazon​

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Masterful Preaching - Restoring Good News Preaching - Kindle ​Print from Amazon​

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Revival in a Plain Brown Wrapper - Kindle​ Print from Amazon​

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Healthy Church - Start Here - Kindle​ Print from Amazon​

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The Science of Shepherding - Pastoral Ministry for the 21st Century Kindle ​Print from Amazon​

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The Details Matter - Kindle​ Print from CLC​

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