Joe McKeever: Full-Bodied Preaching

re: "...I probably had thought of it as positive preaching, the way I omitted the dark side of the message for many years. I would bring a message on faith, for instance--the source of it, illustrations of it, examples of it, reasons for it, proofs of it, the blessings of it--but never once touch on the other side: what is its opposite, what lack of faith means, what failing to believe produces in people's lives, how it insults the Savior, and why some people never seem to have faith. /In a similar vein, I have figured out why most memoirs are so boring... there's no conflict... /A novelist reveals a technique she uses to put zest into her novels. Above her computer, she has fixed this message on an index card: "Things get worse.".../ Look at the conflict all through the narratives of Scripture.../The darkness has always been there; Scripture simply records it. /It's the preaching of some of us...that leaves it out, that deals with life as all lightness and fluff..."...