The Waitress is Watching
Written by Anne Jackson on July 14, 2008 – 1:11 pmThis is an excerpt from an article I wrote for the Catalyst monthly online magazine thingy…
Evidently, this little freestanding building was the place Nashville’s best comfort food called home. Tucked away in a residential area with limited and awkward parking, my husband Chris and I decided, after several recommendations from friends, to explore what this cozy little café had to offer. We moved to Nashville at the end of June, and finding delectable hole-in-the-wall restaurants is one of our favorite hobbies.
A waitress with frizzy blonde hair appeared. She seemed older than her fifty years, with deep wrinkles and a posture of a woman who has spent most of her life carrying food to hungry customers. Her southern accent was thick as she took our order. When she returned with our rolls and butter, she grinned as she asked us a question that caught us completely off guard.
[read the rest of the article here...i hope you enjoy it!]
Posted in Church, Writing | 6 Comments »
pick my next book to write
Written by Anne Jackson on April 9, 2008 – 7:36 ami had a great phone call with my agent yesterday and we are discussing what book comes after mad church disease.
obviously you guys are the smartest people i know, so go ahead.
what book needs to be written? what book is missing?
Posted in Mad Church Disease, Writing | 65 Comments »
Video Update for Mad Church Disease
Written by Anne Jackson on March 22, 2008 – 2:32 pmneeded a little break from writing and got to thinking about you guys…GOTTA LOVE THE YOUTUBE FREEZE FRAME…goo. They all looked like this. ::sigh::
by the way, if anyone has any secrets as far as making their internal mic on mac book pros work a little better, please share. i know i’m kind of quiet naturally, but i was talking pretty loudly here! my input settings are maxed out in system prefs and i put the volume at 150% in iMovie…you’ll still have to turn it up to hear me….so, help a sista out?
Posted in Mad Church Disease, Writing | 30 Comments »
a letter to my agent
Written by Anne Jackson on February 28, 2008 – 4:34 pmmy book deadline is february 28 march 14.
i sent this letter to my agent a few moments ago.
Oh, my dear Beth.
I’m sure you have a calendar for each of us. And on that calendar, with all of your experience, you probably have certain days circled in red. These days would represent days like today when I email you and say I am having looking-my-deadline-in-the-eye-induced-panic-attacks.
Breathe in, breathe out.
My brain has locked up. My fingers have locked up. And (breathe) I (breathe) have (breathe) two (breathe) weeks?
I don’t know what agents do on these days. But you do.
Please send xanax, stat.
Sincerely yours,
Anne-Going-To-Hide-Under-My-Bed-Jackson
your role in this, bloggyfriends? pray…hard…for me! being sick/asleep twenty-one hours a day lately isn’t really helping my schedule.
Posted in Anxiety/Depression, Mad Church Disease, Writing | 15 Comments »
info porn - don’t spread bad stats
Written by Anne Jackson on December 26, 2007 – 5:06 am
“christians like info porn”
one of my friends, who’s been working in research and statistics for the last decade or so, wrote that in an email to me.
what led us to that conversation were some statistics many of us have seen before. i know i have, and i was hoping to use them in my book. but having been recently influenced by my brilliant stats-minded friend, i knew i had to track down the source and make sure it was indeed scientific and unbiased before claiming it gospel truth.
the stats i was looking up:
1500 ministers leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, burnout, or contention
50% of pastors’ marriages will end in divorce
80% feel unqualified and discouraged
50% would leave ministry but fear they couldn’t make a living
70% constantly fight depression
40% have had an extramarital affair while in ministry
70% say their only time reading the Bible is when they prepare sermons
i looked around and was able to track most of them down to an informal survey focus on the family did. sounds legit, right?
not so.
the survey was conducted at seminars for pastors/marriages. something i’ve learned in the course of writing mad church disease is just because you have a group of people answer questions, well, that doesn’t make it real research.
unfortunately, these stats cannot be considered accurate for a couple of reasons:
-it’s not a representative sample. the group is pastors who went to a FOF event. totally idiosyncratic.
-the wording of the questions are biased. and grouped. you can’t ask if they feel something AND something.
it would be like getting a group of 20 and 30 year old pastors together and then saying a majority of pastors are young. that’s just not the way statistics are done.
97% of christians get 80% of their stats from unreliable sources, and 73% of them will pass it on as truth. and yes, that whole sentence was a bunch of bull. christians like info porn!
moral of the story? take a stand against info porn. don’t spread bad stats!
on another note, i do have some scientific research that was conducted legitimately. and because i want you to wait a year and buy the book, i won’t put it up just yet… :)
but please let me say…things are not as bad as they may seem.
Posted in Dangit, Hmmmm, Leadership, Mad Church Disease, WHAT?!, Writing | 26 Comments »
what causes burnout?
Written by Anne Jackson on December 18, 2007 – 5:07 pmwhat do you think are some things that cause burnout in ministry - or in general?
Posted in Mad Church Disease, Writing | 69 Comments »
exclusive preview of chapter 2 - mad church disease!
Written by Anne Jackson on December 13, 2007 – 4:54 amthank you all for sharing your thoughts on yesterday’s question! did you know that by responding, you all were helping me research some stuff for mad church disease? you were! so thank you again, so so much!
i’d like to take a moment to give you all an exclusive peek at chapter 2 as a token of my appreciation. enjoy! i’d love to get your thoughts…
yep. that’s it…sorry… i know. i suck. :)
Posted in Mad Church Disease, Writing | 31 Comments »
