Steve Bremner: Recent Episodes
Steve Bremner
The following post is an excerpt from the preface of my book Nine Lies People Believe About Speaking in Tongues and originally appeared in this format on Destiny Image Publishers’ blog. I originally first self-published the book on Amazon nearly 10 years ago, as that detail will be relevant as you read the following testimony. Also, the title is a admittedly a little clickbaity as our daughter’s birth itself was never in jeopardy, but the pressure to give in to having the C section at that moment, as you’ll see as you read and this title scored well on an SEO-score I use to craft my titles.
Enjoy!
Some authors affectionately refer to their books as their babies, which becomes especially relevant to me and my book. At the time of writing this, I have one daughter, an incredibly hilarious toddler named Jemina. We almost thought she was going to come into the world two days sooner than she actually did.
My wife and I are missionaries to Peru and were planning to deliver our daughter while on the mission field. We had gone to see our doctor for what we thought was going to be a routine checkup one Monday morning and to make sure a concern Lili had was nothing to be alarmed about. Our doctor was on vacation, as it was still over two weeks before the expected delivery date, so we ended up seeing another doctor. The doctor we spoke with encouraged us to begin the protocols they follow to prepare for a Cesarean section. This was not so good, as we were not prepared for anything other than a natural delivery, especially not financially. This particular doctor was not even willing to try a natural delivery but wanted to proceed with a C-section.
I pretended that I spoke very little Spanish (cuando en realidad hablo más que adecuada Español), and we called our friend and leader Anna Burgess to come to the hospital to translate for me. Really we just wanted someone else who had navigated the confusing world of Peruvian hospitals and births to help bring us some peace with her presence. I went to the closest ATM I could find and withdrew all the cash I had in any of our bank accounts in order to pay for the bill, believing by faith that Lili would deliver Jemina naturally and without having to have her stomach cut open.
By lunchtime, we were worn out and felt like we had just been through a few days of stress and uncertainty as opposed to merely a few hours. Lili was not dilated enough to give birth, and I thought this doctor really wanted to make his money off of us and perform a C-section. Amidst all of the confusion and the seeming pressure, the three of us took a moment to pray and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. We then collectively sensed that now was not the time, and Lili and I were not to bow to any pressure from a doctor we had only met that morning. Lili got herself dressed and we decided to take a taxi and head to another hospital for a second opinion, this time opting to go where Anna had delivered her youngest son just a few years prior.
First we needed to eat since Lili hadn’t eaten since early that morning, and if this second hospital decided Lili couldn’t have a natural delivery but was going to give birth that afternoon, then we knew she would have been out of energy if she had essentially fasted all day. As we sat down, Anna lent me her iPhone so I could check my e-mail and Facebook messages. That’s when I read a note from a friend.
In his message, which I’m paraphrasing here, he told us that in the last few weeks leading up to the delivery, Lili would feel contractions but she was not to worry. It would be best that we wait until heading to the hospital. Since we were first-time parents we might not know that Lili could have contractions for days before giving birth, and we may be tempted to go into the hospital early, at which point they follow their protocols and the chances of a C-section are increased. He told us he felt led to write that message and tell us that when Lili was ready to give birth, she would know it and not need a doctor to convince her.
I quickly wrote back indicating we received his message as confirmation from the Lord as we were just in that whirlwind situation and had almost caved in to the pressure the doctor was putting on us. Later when we were home and had Internet access again, I wrote this friend back and told him in more detail what had happened, and why his message was timely for us.
This was his response:
“I just wanted to let you know I completed reading your book Nine Lies People Believe About Speaking in Tongues and thoroughly enjoyed it. I am really encouraged to pray in the Spirit more … Interesting thing is the day I sent you that Facebook message, I had just spent some of my lunchtime in my car at the park praying in tongues, and when I was done the encouragement to wait about the delivery came to me at the end of it. I didn’t really even think it was a word from the Lord or anything but it was strong on my heart and felt like writing it. So I was deeply encouraged as well by it.”
This encouraged me—obviously. You see, this man had just finished reading an advanced preview copy of my book. This was the first of many testimonies I started hearing from people after having read it for themselves. This past year has been just a taste of the Lord’s impact of this book on the bride of Christ.
We wound up meeting the doctor who was to deliver Jemina into the world two days later on Wednesday night. We still had a C-section, in case you’re wondering, but this doctor was willing to go the natural route first. After two hours of labor and Lili not being able to take it anymore, we were comfortable going forward with the surgery. I mention this because having had two more days gave us enough time to launch a Go Fund Me campaign and ask the body of Christ for help in our situation, and we were blessed and humbled by the abundant financial help people offered.
Are doubts holding you back from experiencing the gift of speaking in tongues? Get the answers you need in Nine Lies People Believe About Speaking in Tongues
The post Miracle Birth: How Speaking in Tongues Changed Everything appeared first on Steve Bremner.
Imagine a house during a flood. The basement and lower levels are completely submerged, while the upper floors remain untouched. For many aspiring authors, the book market feels like that flooded basement. They’re overwhelmed by competition, struggling to make their voices heard above the noise. But what if this perception is entirely wrong?
A sales colleague recently shared a powerful insight:
When there’s flooding, only the basement or lower levels of the house get flooded. The top floors are safe.
This simple statement perfectly illustrates the reality of book marketing. Many authors are indeed drowning in the misconception of a supposedly “saturated” market. They believe their chances of success are slim due to the volume of other books on the market, leading to feelings of discouragement and inaction.
But this perception is largely a myth. It also supposes that publishing is a zero-sum game where customers and readers won’t read one book if they bought another one.
I self-published my first book nearly 12 years ago, and when I did, I was hearing other indie authors who’d been around a bit already that Amazon and the self-publishing market was saturated.
I still hear about “how hard it has gotten” to self-publish or sell books to this day, and there may be truth to it, no matter how short the timeframe is for those who whine about the “good old days when selling books was easier”. It didn’t take as many sales of a book ten years ago to rank number one in a broad category like it does now on Amazon, so there is truth in the idea that more is required of an author in 2024 than there was in 2024.
The book market isn’t flooded—it’s just poorly understood Many jump into self-publishing feet-first with unrealistic expectations. They lack the marketing skills to navigate a thriving industry. The “top floor” authors—those dry, safe, and successful—possess strategies that others miss.
I constantly encounter writers who have little desire, motivation, or confidence to learn even minimal effective marketing strategies to guarantee they won’t stay in the flooded basement where all the other lazy indie authors keep themselves who conclude after a short while that “the market is saturated” now compared to whenever they started their self-publishing journey. They believe their chances of success are getting slimmer, leading to feelings of discouragement and inaction.
But this perception is mostly a myth.
Cream rises to the topThe truth is, the book market isn’t flooded; it’s misunderstood. Just like a house during a flood, only the lower levels are submerged. The “top floors,” representing successful authors, remain dry and thriving.
Back in the early 2000s in my part of Ontario, there was a severe flooding from heavy rainfall in two different summers. On the second occasion, I remember hearing there was an investigation into fraudulent insurance claims by people trying to get reimbursed for their furniture and belongings they claimed were damaged in the flood when they lived on the 7th floor and above in high rises the flood would not have reached.
I remember the house I subletted a room in had the underground basement flood with at least a couple feet of water, and the owner came and we helped him throw away many of the storage items that were damaged.
Back to the topic at hand: why are some authors thriving while others are barely surviving? It boils down to strategy.
What the Top Authors DoThe authors in the “top floors” possess a deeper understanding of effective book marketing, and not to mention a WILLINGNESS to market and put themselves out there, but we’ll deal with that later. The “top floor” authors know how to:
- Target their ideal reader: They’re not trying to appeal to everyone; they focus on a specific niche and connect with those readers on a deeper level. If you know what the bullseye is on your dartboard, you can aim more effectively and hit your mark.
- Build a strong author platform: They’ve created a community around their work, engaging with readers on social media, via email lists and through other channels, and building strong fan engagement and loyalty.
- Master the art of book marketing: They understand how to leverage various tools like advertising, email marketing, and media relations to reach their perfect readers, and generating word of mouth leading up to a book’s launch, and not just waiting until they release the book to start marketing it.
- Understand the ongoing evolution of readers’ expectations: Not only of the book content but how the content is presented. How easy is it to buy? Does it have an eye-catching visual aesthetic? Is it clearly shown in the way it’s presented in searches?
Many “gurus” are teaching outdated or ineffective methods, making their money primarily from selling their writing courses and masterminds more so than they do from actual sales of their books. Their students end up drowning under the weight of impractical strategies. But a path to success does exist.
This isn’t about luck; it’s about strategy, and learning the strategies of those who are flourishing.
It’s about understanding the hidden structures of the market and mastering the skills necessary to navigate them.
The book market isn’t a saturated swamp; it’s a dynamic ecosystem. It’s a well-structured, multi-leveled structure. Will you stay trapped in the flooded basement, or will you chart a course to the top floors? The choice, and the journey, start with a clear strategy, a willingness to learn and a commitment to connecting genuinely with your readers.
Are you ready to climb to the top?
Break Free from Outdated Publishing Models, and Launch Your Book The RIGHT WAY
The post Is Amazon Really Saturated with Self-Published Books? appeared first on Steve Bremner.
Anybody who lives in a third world nation knows the struggle of having to lower your standards when it comes to eating at local restaurants, especially what would be the equivalent in North America of a mom-and-pop restaurant.
You know how in our culture, waiters are paid next to nothing and they live on tips, and as a result, the whole system has this built-in process that motivates them to do a good job serving you so they will receive a generous tip? Never mind you should already be tipping or not bother going to a restaurant.
Here in Peru where I reside, unless you you’re going to some high end touristy area of town, the waiters and waitresses don’t expect you tip.
It’s a lot different of an experience than when you’re in North America or maybe even Europe; if we feel that we’ve received lousy customer service, we just blast it on Facebook, tweet about it or leave a negative review on Yelp, whether we’re the ones in the wrong or not.
And it can result in a public relations disaster for the restaurant if it goes viral.
Nothing on the Menu AvailableYears ago I went to Tarma, which is about 5 hours away from Lima by bus into the mountains. My friends Martin and Denise had invited me to come do some preaching in their mission there for the weekend, and they drove me and an American intern back to Lima the following Monday.
We parked and went to a street in downtown Lima on a main block where there’s no shortage of restaurants, traffic and every other thing you expect to encounter in the center of a big metropolis. We picked a side street not far from where we had parked, sat down, and were immediately presented a menu when the waiter disappeared for a few moments to allow us time to make our selections.
I don’t remember what kind of restaurant this was or what they specialized in, but I recall we were all scanning the specials. Let’s just arbitrarily say there were ten items on this part of the menu and eventually each of us decided to order something from it.
When the waiter came back to take our orders, we proceeded to indicate what we wanted, and one by one he would tell us, “I’m sorry, but we’re out of that”, or “we don’t have that today”.
This happened with maybe six or seven of the items that we went through. All but one of us needed to take another moment to pick something else as nothing we had whet our appetites for was going to be available.
We waved him back over and told our waiter what we would have. We continued enjoying ourselves when a little while passed and the waiter came up to Denise and started to apologize to her, proceeding to tell her that what she had ordered also wasn’t available. He wanted to know if she would like to, yet again, order something else.
We had been there maybe half an hour or probably closer to 45 minutes by this point, now basically being told after all the time we had waited that some of our orders wouldn’t be ready.
The reason this particular experience sticks out in my mind is because I remember the waiter didn’t even seem embarrassed or concerned that we thought this was unacceptable, even laughable, that a restaurant would let its patrons sit for over half an hour by this point before telling them that what they were hoping for, waiting for and expecting… wasn’t available.
Being the good, patient Christians that we try to be, we indicated we would pay for our drinks and leave, and if my memory serves me, we went and got fast food or something instead since the hour was getting late and we had not planned on stopping at two places just to get one meal.
The details of this story stick out in my mind, not because this was the only time such an experience happened, far from it. Rather, because our waiter was particularly oblivious to how off putting this was for us and that as a result, we’d never come back to this restaurant again after an experience like that.
We were hungering for something specific and we stopped in this one particular restaurant out of probably 100 in that area of Lima, and they didn’t have what we came for.
We weren’t even being picky or anything, but we went through about six or seven items on the menu out of ten they were promoting and not be able to get ANY of them.
Makes me wonder how such a restaurant stays in business.
The Pizza Restaurant That Never Had any PizzaMy wife and I once discovered an Italian restaurant in a hole in the wall near the park I used to take our oldest daughter to every afternoon when she was still a toddler. They offered pizza, pasta and the Peruvian interpretation of tacos.
The food was very delicious, but also cheap. Then we started noticing something: we would sit there for a few minutes trying to keep our daughter from acting up, and then when we were finally ready to order, we’d give them our request from their menu and be told, “Oh, we don’t have that today”.
It took several visits before I ever got to try their so-called tacos, because on more than one occasion they told me they didn’t have any flour and couldn’t prepare the tortilla wraps they had made for this dish.
On another occasion, we had moved from our apartment into a new one several blocks away and hadn’t plugged our fridge in yet, so we decided on going to this restaurant to get some gourmet pizza only to find, you guessed it, they didn’t have any that day.
The very bright red sign above their entrance that said “pizza” apparently was just there for decoration, because rarely did they have the main dish they claimed to offer.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and if I’d experienced it once, I’ve experienced it dozens of other times.
Eventually we gave up on this particular restaurant because despite the close proximity to our house and their price, they rarely delivered on their “promise” of the particular food their bright sign advertises them as having.
It should be noted that restaurant went out of business months later, and in the years since we’ve seen several different burger-and-fries type of joints come and go in its place.
Do You Have What You Advertise?If you’re a believer in Christ, you are wall-to-wall Holy Ghost. If you’re a member of his Bride, the Bible says that you can and will do these works.
Which works?
The works Jesus did and even greater.
Mark 16 talks about how these signs shall accompany them that believe; they’ll lay hands on the sick, cast out demons, speak in new tongues, etc…
When people in your life, whether it be your neighbors, coworkers or any kind of acquaintance, need a healing in their body or a loved one they know needs prayer badly and they bring them to your doorstep, do you provide the goods? Or do you say, “Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t have any prophetic words to give you at the moment. Have a nice day!”
You cannot give what you don’t have.Jesus told his disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from on high, because you can’t give what you don’t have. Jesus said we would do greater works than Him, and that doesn’t come without the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which is a baptism in power.
Jesus knew the disciples weren’t going to be able to turn the world upside down without this power. They weren’t going to do it by being able to preach good sermons, tell good stories, and have three points in a poem.
It’s the same with us if we’re going to follow in the Messiah’s footsteps.
Just like these restaurants, we need to have what we advertise. Christians should be equipped to offer the “goods” of the Holy Spirit when others seek healing, deliverance, or a word from God. Just as the disciples received power in the Upper Room, we too, need to be “clothed with power from on high” to truly make a difference.
Just as Jesus instructed his disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from on high, we too need to step out and share the same message. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is essential for a life that transforms the world around us.
Are you seeking the power of the Holy Spirit in your life? Do you believe God wants to use you to heal, deliver, and bring revival? Check out this discussion I had with Larry Sparks years ago if you want to pursue a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit and step out in faith.
The post Do You Have What You Advertise? A Look at the Power of the Holy Spirit in Our Lives appeared first on Steve Bremner.
The pre-tribulation rapture theory hinges on Old Testament shadows, but what if the reality is far more powerful? God’s people won’t be whisked away before the tribulation. They’ll be the ones standing firm, a testament to faith amidst the flames.
When discussing the timing of the rapture, some futurists refer to the account of Elijah or Enoch for Old Testament parallels; types or evidence that God will rapture His Church before the great tribulation. These are allegedly types and shadows pointing to God loving these two so much He just snatched them up to heaven to be with Him.
Are There Any Old Testament Rapture Scriptures?Breezing through just a few instances of the Old Testament doesn’t prove anything regarding the timing of the rapture at all. Rather, these examples of Enoch and Elijah are more demonstrative than they are chronological indicators of anything–especially since the Lord didn’t take them up before any major calamity or judgment on the land after “rapturing” these men.
If looking for parallels in the Old Testament will “prove” symbolism or foreshadowing of the timing of the Rapture, then they appear to demonstrate that God will put his people through difficulty before they receive their crown.
I admit that types and symbols in the OT are not inerrant, but I do not feel that I am reading into the text at all when I make simple observations.
Noah’s ArkAn example of what I am talking about would be Noah and his family; God did not tell Noah to get into the ark 7 years before the flood was to come down, but Noah and his family were lifted up on the same waters that were poured out in the judgment of the earth and destroyed the wicked.
Noah was symbolically “raptured” the same moment as the world was flooded (judged). He was not rescued or caught away secretly a significant amount of time beforehand. Jesus said in his Olivet Discourse:
“as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating, and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until that day that Noah entered the ark and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
Matthew 24:37-39, ESV
If the second coming of our Lord will be like the days of Noah, then that means we will be here right up until the day He returns and judges the earth. In the days of Noah, this is how the pattern was, and a new physical world was established with the remnant of righteous men God spared from judgment and began to re-populate the “new” earth with.
We read in Revelation that the ones that come out of the Tribulation reign on the earth with Christ for one thousand years (Revelation 20:4-6). Just like the elements of the world at the time were changed–remember, it never rained before the flood, and possibly there never were mountains and valleys before this catastrophic event–so also the physical make-up of this earth will be completely burned up and dissolved and completely new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells will be established at Christ’s return (see 2 Peter 3:10-13).
The Exodus & The PlaguesAnother prophetic pattern to consider in Scripture would be to look at the people of Israel in Egypt before and after the Exodus, and compare it with the patterns in the book of Revelation.
We note that the plagues that God sends in the final years of human history are very similar to the ones He sent on the Egyptians in Exodus chapters 7-13. We read in Revelation 6-8:6 the different seals of the Lord, including widespread death (6:7-8) and in comparison we see the death of all the Egyptian first-born (Exodus 12:29-30). We can compare the seal of cosmic disturbances in Revelation 6:12-17 with the total blackness on the land–the ninth plague (Ex 10:21-29).
The trumpet judgments also in Revelation 8 are strikingly familiar to plagues, including the vegetation being struck divinely (Rev 8:7) compared with the vegetation being destroyed by locusts in Egypt (Ex 10:1-20). Likewise, we see locusts also coming out of the bottomless pit in Rev. 9:1-12 who were given the power to torture men for months but not to kill them. The second and third trumpet judgments, the seas and waters struck and the seas being turned to blood strikes an amazing similarity to the first plague in Egypt (Ex 7:14-25).
Is there something to notice regarding the sixth trumpet judgment in Revelation and how these angels bound at the River Euphrates waiting to unleash judgment on the inhabitants on the earth and how the geographic location is a key river in Egypt?
Two Witnesses Performing Signs and WondersAnother parallel that strikes me as worth noting is the two witnesses of Revelation 11 proclaiming judgment and performing noteworthy signs and wonders on the world and the similarity to the two “witnesses” of the Pentateuch, Aaron and Moses. God used these two witnesses in similar fashion before Pharaoh. Some even believe Moses is one of the two witnesses in Revelation 11, along with Elijah–another famous Old Testament figure who was taken up to heaven without seeing death.
Bowl JudgmentsThen there are the bowl judgments. The first one being loathsome soars (Rev 16:2), the exact same as the sixth Egyptian plague. Second and third bowl judgments of Revelation again have the waters and seas turning to blood, while the fifth bowl includes darkness on the land also. Hail is characteristic of both the end times judgment and the exodus plagues (Ex 9:13-35, Rev 16:21).
We note God’s people are in the land of Egypt—a type of world. Today God’s people are in the world (Egypt) until our Lord returns and we enter into our eternal Promised Land—God’s people then were only embarking on a journey to enter the physical promised land.
The Great Harvest Prior To The Exodus (“Rapture”) Out of The World into The Promised LandAnyone claiming there cannot be an end-time revival must not be familiar with the idea that God’s people grew and multiplied exceedingly in the land of Egypt—so much so that the Pharaoh feared they might grow and outnumber them and be capable of revolting (Ex 1:9-10).
Can anyone say that this is not a very real possibility for God’s people in our day and age—that evangelism can rock the population of the world and scores of people getting saved in countries all over the world could cause the leaders of the world to take notice of the very real threat of God’s people becoming authentic and sparking revolution in their midst?
This is very interesting stuff to ponder if we consider the events recorded in Exodus. If people can point to things in the Old Testament to look for a pattern of a ‘snatching away’ rapture, then I’m compelled to look at Scriptures and see a people who are preserved during the judgment of God on the wicked, not taken away from it.
The people of Israel were miraculously spared from each of the judgment plagues that befell Egypt as the land of Goshen, Israel’s dwelling place in Egypt, was always free from plagues. When Egypt was swarmed with flies, God’s people had none in their camp (Ex 8:22-24); when the livestock of the Egyptians were diseased, a distinction was made between the Israelites and the Egyptians when again, nothing happened to the cattle of the Israelites, while Egypt’s died (Ex 9:5-6); no boils broke out on God’s people when the Egyptians were plagued with boils (Ex 9:10-11).
The most severe judgment or plague, the death of the first-born is the most strikingly obvious parallel to a differentiation between God’s people and the wicked. In the Exodus account, it’s the people of God who are “marked” with lamb’s blood—a type of atonement for sin to avert to just judgment of God—on their doorposts, which an angel of death would pass over but would destroy the firstborn son in Egyptian houses that weren’t marked in this manner on the doorposts.
The Mark of the BeastIn Revelation, it’s the mark of the beast differentiating the wicked from the godly; only it’s the wicked who are marked with the number representing 666, and God’s people are spared from God’s judgment of loathsome sores inflicted upon those with this mark.
Nowhere in the book of Revelation does it state that God’s people will be affected by the judgments. The pre-trib rapture proponent would gladly agree with this statement because they believe the Church has been snatched away prior to this time, which would obviously indicate the wouldn’t be there for it. Israel was miraculously set apart during the plagues in Egypt, in lifestyle, conduct and divine protection, God’s people will also be clearly set apart from the unbelieving during the time of great tribulation. In fact, Revelation 16:2 states that it’s only those with the mark that a loathsome sore or boil breaks out on. This would imply that there is a distinction between the wicked and the godly at least in this specific instance of divine judgment.
In a time when evil is abounding to its utmost crescendo in human history, the Church will finally be its most authentic and holy and thus will be worthy of persecution and martyrdom that it would naturally bring on itself. Therefore, it’s perfectly reasonable to say God’s people will be shining their brightest and the Antichrist, reminiscent of the Pharaoh, will want to get rid of them and destroy them just like Pharaoh finally kicked Israel out of the land only to chase them through the Red Sea.
A Baptism of FireIn Exodus we watch Pharaoh assemble all of his army together to destroy the people of God who are trapped at the Red Sea where it seems like they had nowhere to go. In Revelation we see that all the armies of the world will be assembled in the valley of Megiddo, to basically fight God Himself and His people. At this point, God divinely intervenes for His people and parts the waters miraculously so they can walk out through on foot. The same water God brought his people through, representing a type of new birth or baptism, was used to destroy the army of Egypt as God made the walls of water come down on them and drowned them all.
In the Valley of Megiddo, when Jesus Christ our Lord makes his awesome return the moon will turn to blood, the sun darken and the stars will fall from heaven with His delegation, the saints–both those who were dead as well as those alive at the time of his coming (1 Thess. 4:13-17, Cor 15:50-54) meeting him in the air to escort Him to the earth (see Matt 24:29-31).
This will be a fiery return.
The same way God wiped out the earth with a flood in Noah’s day He said He’d do the same again at Christ’s return only with fire. This is understandable since the Bible states everything will be seasoned with fire (Mark 9:49).
It makes total sense that God’s people being tested by fire could possibly be this moment in the climax of the story—the same fire that melts one substance also hardens also hardens the other; while God’s people are purified by fire, the wicked are destroyed by it (Malachi 3:2-4). God’s people are translated so that they are physically able to experience this new heaven and earth, while God’s enemies are destroyed by this translating fire.
It’s instantaneous.
The same flood of water that destroyed the wicked in Noah’s day is the same flood that caused him and his family to rise above the earth; the same waters that God brought Israel throughout of Egypt God used to come crashing down on the wicked Egyptians, and the same fire he’s going to use to cleanse us and purify us with is the fire that will destroy his enemies.
When I look at the Old Testament, I see a pattern of people being purged through the tribulation, not escaping from it.
Check out this article Why Christians Should Stop Looking for the Rapture by J.D. King, author of The Beast of Revelation, a book I narrated for him.
Why Christians Should Stop Looking for the Rapture
The post Does The Old Testament Mention The Rapture? appeared first on Steve Bremner.
Have you ever found yourself wondering if artificial intelligence could offer an impartial perspective on your personal interactions—be it a heated political debate or a series of late-night text messages with a romantic interest?
In the last week I’ve seen two different intriguing examples via social media about the results of using LLM chats and showcasing AI’s prowess in dissecting human interactions, shedding light on biases and emotional subtleties:
- Someone put the transcript of the recent Trump vs Harris presidential debate night into AI, and instructed it to analyze it for bias. It concluded the moderators were favorable toward Harris and negative towards Trump and put him on the defensive more than the other candidate. It didn’t take AI to see this for yourself if you watched the debate live.
So this guy put the entire debate transcript in ChatGPT and asked ChatGPT to analyze the moderator bias and every single person needs to hear this because oh my God is it right on the money. pic.twitter.com/aRyythOB6V
— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) September 12, 2024
- The other example is of a woman on TikTok who took a screenshot of her text messages with romantic prospects and had AI analyze them to determine certain things in case she was reading things wrong.
This is the article I was reading, Woman Asks ChatGPT To Analyze Her Date’s Texts, Left ‘Shocked’ by Response.
Most of the comments I saw on the Twitter post were mocking the woman in the latter example to being playful at best, but I thought there was something brilliant in the subtext.
You Get Out What You Put InObviously AI and ChatGPT-like LLMs can only analyze data that’s submitted to it, like text or images or even the audio to transcribe, and are still as-of-yet severely limited in their abilities to analyze emotion and tone in those things.
From the article,
“The relationship expert knows that while AI-powered tools can offer possibilities for augmenting personal insights, the core of human relationships lies in the nuanced experiences that technology cannot yet replicate.”
However, if we take a “just give me the facts” approach based on only the input, AI chat tools can be very helpful precisely because of how they can’t read emotion and nuance, but only the raw data input, which in this case is written words.
This is precisely how I’ve been using AI a lot in my business and in writing. In the past year I’ve had multiple instances where clients have tried to scope creep and get me to do more work than I agreed to. I’ve had others assume I’ll do something they realize needs to be done, despite never having discussed it, let alone come to a mutual understanding of my role and the service(s) I had actually agreed to for the compensation.
I do my best to have things in writing (like contracts or agreements) but sometimes both parties and can read the exact same words a different way. Through a different lens.
What I Learned Working for “Love Offerings” & “Competitive Pricing”
I do my darnedest to have all my business and client calls over Zoom or Google Meet so I can use the Fathom Notetaker. The free version of this allows you to not just have the call recorded, but store that recording on their site via your account, and provide a free transcript. The cheapest premium version of Fathom lets the user get certain types of analyses like extracting action items from the transcript or use it.
I still use the free version and just copy and paste the transcript into my preferred LLM for this purpose.
Here’s a chat where I asked ChatGPT what are some uses for Fathom Notetaker.
Using AI as an Impartial Judge or Third-Party MediatorIn recent months, to avoid the scope creep problem I’ve had happen a few times, I have taken the transcripts of such business calls and submitted them to AI and have it analyze the call and tell me “what specific terms did both parties agree to, based on this chat”. And sure enough, I get the unbiased factual responses of what was actually discussed as assumptions can’t be extrapolated from the transcript alone. This helps protect me from both myself and the other party from “misremembering” things, but has also allowed me to stand my ground and not be pressured or confronted falsely for something the other party is mistaken about.
As technology continues to advance exponentially at warp speed, AI tools like ChatGPT and Fathom Notetaker are becoming invaluable allies in both professional and personal spheres. While these tools might lack the nuance to fully grasp the things like human emotion and tone of voice, their value lies in their unbiased, fact-based analysis. This can be especially beneficial in business dealings and personal relationships where clarity and precision are paramount.
By leveraging AI to parse through our recorded communications, we can avoid misunderstandings and hold each party accountable to what was actually said ‘on the record’. In a world filled with so much noise, sometimes it’s invaluable to have a tool that can cut straight to the facts.
The tool I’ve been using for the last 18 months for the kinds of things I’m talking about in today’s post is Magai, which allows quite a few of the most popular LLMs and Iterative image generation services in ONE single account. Get a free trial when you subscribe using my link.
How Magai’s AI Technology is a Game Changer for Christian Writers
In the meantime, since posting this article I came across this video on Instagram which I thought also proved the “using only these parameters, tell me _______” approach:
View this post on Instagram A post shared by BIBLE | GOD | JESUS | CHURCH (@food.of.spirit)
The post Why Artificial Intelligence is Your New Best Friend for Unbiased Communication Analysis appeared first on Steve Bremner.
Have you ever dreamt of holding your own published book in your hands, a tangible testament to your creativity and dedication? For many aspiring authors, the allure of traditional publishing can be incredibly strong, even in 2024; there are STILL many authors who drag their feet on releasing their book because they think self-publishing is beneath them and not “legit”.
In the world of publishing, the landscape is constantly shifting, and authors who cling to outdated models risk facing a rude awakening. Today, authors have more options than ever before, and understanding the advantages of print-on-demand (POD) and self-publishing, as well as developing a realistic sales strategy, are crucial for success.
Fear of Stepping out and Doing it WrongOf those authors holding out waiting for that ever-elusive publishing deal, there’s a segment who harbor a deep-seated fear of the dreaded “pallet purchase.” This is the idea of being forced to buy boxes and boxes of your own book, with the looming uncertainty of selling them all and recouping their investment.
This fear isn’t unfounded.
Then there are countless authors have fallen victim to predatory vanity presses who prioritize their own profit margins over the success of the author. It can be tempting to believe since these “publishers” want to publish your book (albeit for a fee) that this is a good indication of our book’s merit. But if you don’t know the difference between a vanity press and a true traditional publisher, you could wind up shelling out thousands of dollars for your services, regardless of whether your book sells or not.
I’ve had a few clients come to me to help them get out of shady contracts and republish their books after wasting thousands of dollars on publishing a book with a horrible cover and that their “publisher” had overpriced to the point of being unsellable on Amazon.
I Was Warned to Not Go with a Publisher — A Decade AgoIn the early days of my own publishing journey, I was warned by a few seasoned authors about the dangers of legit traditional publishing. One warned me of aces their publisher had up their sleeve that left him empty-handed whenever the publisher ran promotions for his books.
Another spoke of a contract that initially forced him to buy thousands of copies of his book. Decades later, this same man of God still had boxes and boxes of his book and outdated cover designs.
Image made with AI, and not any of the actual people I’ve mentioned so farThese stories instilled in me a healthy dose of skepticism and a firm belief in the power of self-publishing models.
With self-publishing and print-on-demand (P.O.D), your book is only printed when a customer places an order, eliminating the need for costly inventory and the stress of potential overstock.
Check out this neat video someone showed me of how print-on-demand works.
This innovative approach empowers authors to reach a global audience without the burden of certain upfront investments or outdated inventory.
However, not everyone is aware of the vast possibilities offered by P.O.D. Many authors remain in the dark, clinging to outdated notions of traditional publishing and falling prey to unscrupulous publishers.
Realistic Sales ExpectationsBeyond the pitfalls of traditional publishing, another common hurdle faced by authors is the tendency to overestimate book sales. It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing your book will be an instant bestseller, attracting hundreds or even thousands of eager readers. The reality is that selling books requires dedication, hard work, and a well-defined marketing strategy.
If you’re considering taking the plunge into the world of publishing, don’t rush headfirst into a deal that could leave you with financial headaches and unfulfilled dreams. Talk to someone who can guide you through the process, someone who understands the pitfalls of both traditional publishing and self-publishing.
Likewise, don’t let fear or outdated information hold you back from achieving your publishing goals. Educate yourself, explore your options, and connect with someone who can help you navigate the complex world of publishing with confidence.
Let’s rewrite your publishing story, together.
Additional Food For ThoughtThe following are just a few points you will also need to follow to avoid some of the typical pitfalls first-time authors fall into.
- Research different POD platforms and assisted self-publishing companies offer and compare their features and pricing.
- Invest in professional book editing and graphic design services.
- Network with other authors and learn from their successes and failures.
- Stay up-to-date on the latest publishing trends and technologies.
- Most importantly, never give up on your dream of becoming a published author.
By implementing these tips, you can navigate the publishing landscape with confidence and achieve your author dreams.
Ready to break free from the shackles of traditional publishing and embrace the possibilities of POD? Schedule a free call with me today and let’s discuss your publishing dreams! Let’s steer your writing project in the right direction together.
Or, if you know someone in need of specific tailored advice and think I’m the person to connect them with, give them this article.
The post Break Free from Outdated Publishing Models, and Launch Your Book The RIGHT WAY appeared first on Steve Bremner.
In a world obsessed with finding the “perfect” path, many Christians grapple with the daunting prospect of discerning God’s perfect will. We tend to envision a single, predetermined script laid out for our lives and thinking we need to discern God’s voice so we can know exact next steps to take in situations. We forget, or perhaps neglect to learn in the first place, that God’s grace and our capacity for responsible choice are integral to our journeys.
In discussions surrounding God’s will, we need to escape the trap of fatalistic thinking; the notion of a singular, predetermined path for each individual can ultimately prove stifling and discouraging. Instead, embracing a framework anchored in grace, personal agency, and informed decision-making empowers individuals to navigate their lives with purpose and impact.
Busting the Myth of Predetermined Paths
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
Isaiah 30:21, NIV
The fear of straying from a pre-ordained path often fuels our anxiety and frustration in navigating life’s significant decisions. We fixate on “doing the right thing,” fearing that any deviation might lead us astray from God’s perfect plan. However, a rigid, deterministic understanding of God’s will can likewise stifle our potential and creativity.
The above passage from Isaiah, obviously lifted from its broader context but still offering a Holy Ghost nugget, is one that I’ve always married with Psalm 37:4 which the NKJV renders as “Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
If we’re seeking God’s face, spending time in His presence and having intimate communion with him, we will “receive the desires of our heart” and can trust him whether we decide to step to the right or to the left when it comes to a path set before us.
The Bible tells us that humans are created in God’s image, endowed with the ability to choose, to rule, and to administer his Kingdom in the earth (Genesis 1:26-28). Remember that God tasked Adam with naming the animals He created, implying that as we co-labor with God in our relationship with Him, there are undoubtedly going to be decisions we make. Our lives are not simply scripts to be followed; they are journeys we actively engage in through our choices and responses to circumstances.
We can choose left, or right, and God will have our back, so to speak.
Embracing God’s Grace and Making ChoicesFar from being left to our own devices, we have the invaluable gift of God’s grace. His grace does not merely forgive our mistakes; it empowers us to navigate the inevitable challenges and, gasp — missteps, that come with navigating life with free will.
We will not always make the perfect choices. There will be errors along the way, and there will be occasions when we miss the mark. Yet, God’s grace remains our constant companion, offering redemption and guidance when we falter.
I’m not just talking about sin or making the obvious poor choices, either. But making even good decisions that were not correct, or were not God’s best desire for us, but in His grace, allowed us to figure out for ourselves the hard way.
Taking Initiative and Contributing to God’s KingdomPerhaps you also know that person or people in your life who have to pray about everything, no matter how mundane or innocuous. I’m not saying decisions we make in life should not be soaked in prayer, but I am talking about people who are so paralyzed by fear of making the wrong decision they don’t take any initiative one way or another.
I’ve seen this kind of thing repeatedly when I was younger and still single, in my own life and in that of friends, classmates and roommates in Bible college who couldn’t date or court the opposite gender because they needed a fresh “word from God” about if someone was “the one” or not.
One time I was in a dating relationship before I married my wife. In this particular case, I extremely was fond of the other person, and I had the impression she was feeling the same way — but she repeatedly indicated she didn’t have a clear word from God that gave her peace about everything like she was looking for.
I was of the thought that sure, soul-mates and perfect partners do exist, but if two God-fearing people want to be together and are a good match, and nobody in their lives think they’re bad for each other, and both are going after God, then what’s the problem? Obviously as I look back in retrospect I’m glad that relationship didn’t work out as I’m happily married now, but who knows what direction my life may have gone in had I married someone else?
But that’s sorta the point: this reality or the parallel universe where my wife met someone else and I married someone else would also be “God’s wills” had those paths been the ones we each took.
We can apply this same thing to other major decisions like jobs and careers: instead of passively waiting for divine revelation for every decision, embracing God’s grace equips us to engage in proactive living. We can seek wisdom through prayer, study the Bible, and consult with trusted advisors.
These actions show our earnest desire to align our choices with God’s will, even as we recognize the freedom to navigate diverse options.
God’s Permissive Will vs Perfect Will — is This Dichotomy Even Really a Thing?Depending on the circles you’re in, you likely have heard this. It’s like God uses this dartboard and the bull’s eye is his perfect will and the outer rings are the permissive will, and then if you get off the dart board altogether, you’re “out” of God’s will completely.
Have you ever worried you “missed” God’s will for your life? Do you ever feel like you’re in Plan B for your life instead of the “perfect” Plan A? How about erasing the idea of perfect and permissive will for our meditation today, and instead think of God writing our his plans for our life with a pencil that has an eraser on the end? We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).
This approach doesn’t preclude or prevent mistakes, but it equips us to learn from them and grow, ultimately contributing more meaningfully to God’s Kingdom. We become empowered to rule, manage, and administrate our lives with wisdom and purpose, making a lasting impact on the world around us.
Forget the Script: Embracing Freedom and PurposeThe Bible tells us that the Kingdom of God is not merely a future reality; it is also a present experience (Luke 17:21). We participate in this Kingdom now by living lives that embody its values – love, mercy, and justice.
We do this not by clinging to rigid notions of a pre-ordained plan, but by embracing God’s grace and the freedom to make responsible choices. We become agents of positive change, shaping our lives and communities in ways that reflect God’s love and purpose for the world.
Forget the perfect script. Embrace the freedom to choose and the joy of finding your impact within God’s Kingdom. Let go of the fear of the predetermined path and discover the fulfillment that comes from embracing grace and making informed choices. Your journey is yours to create, guided by wisdom and purpose.
The post Finding Joy and Impact in Everyday Choices appeared first on Steve Bremner.
I recently lent my voice to the illuminating work, “The Trojan Horse of Tithing” by Jonathan Brenneman. This book slices through the fog around traditional tithing teachings with a sharp biblical and historical critique.
Narrating Brenneman’s thorough analysis was not just an assignment but a mission, I’ve been in situations where I’ve had abundance and tithed, as well as in situations where in my lack I’ve tithed and faced… more lack.
I’ve also not tithed from my abundance, and not tithed when I lacked, and seen financial breakthrough that seemed to contradict the idea that if you’re struggling with your finances, it must because you owe “back tithe” or something.
Why This Topic Has Mattered to MeHaving lived on the mission field for many years, I’ve wrestled with this kind of stuff, and frankly, Jonathan’s book is a breath of fresh air as he tackles some of the things many believers struggle to ask questions about out loud without fear of getting judged by other sheep.
This book peels back layers of misunderstandings and boldly questions the cookie-cutter tithing doctrines that misalign with the pure Gospel message.
Jonathan doesn’t just skim the surface; he delves deep, challenging the sneaky distortions that have slithered into mainstream Christian thought. His scriptural breakdown and historical insights reveal why tithing, as often preached, doesn’t jive with New Testament principles of voluntary, Spirit-led giving.
Feeling uncomfortable with the tithing pressure at church? This audiobook might just be what you’re searching for. As the voice behind the curtain, I’ve endeavored to make Brenneman’s pivotal insights resonate in every chapter, ensuring it hits home for all listeners.
Check out one of the reviews:Tap the link to snag a snippet or secure your own copy from Audible. Dive into Brenneman’s liberating insights on Biblical tithing, and may it free you as much as it educates.
Check out a clip in the YouTube video below.
Pick Your Audible StoreUSAUKCanadaAustralia
Manna From Heaven — Why Modern Tithing is Unbiblical
The Truth About Tithing?
The post Breaking Down Biblical Tithing in My Latest Narration Project appeared first on Steve Bremner.
As an author in today’s diverse publishing landscape, and a prolific narrator who has worked on nearly 40 books to date, I know the allure of getting your book into as many formats as possible is tempting. With audiobooks gaining immense popularity, platforms like KDP offering Virtual Voice AI narration in beta might appear as a golden opportunity to quickly and cheaply convert your eBooks into audiobooks.
Especially if hiring a professional narrator or doing it yourself has been cost and time prohibitive up until now.
However, before diving into the world of AI-narrated audiobooks, it’s crucial to understand the potential long-term implications this shortcut might have on both your sales and author brand, if those sorts of things matter to you.
Again, I obviously may have a bias toward human narration but my years of narration are not a factor here. I have also used Google Voices early in 2023 to test the waters with creating audiobooks for my two Spanish translated books without breaking the bank. That said, I still want to throw out some considerations so you can make the best decision possible about whether virtual voices is worth it in the long run.
I also concede some of these thoughts are hypotheticals I could be wrong about, while others are using logical outcomes, as well.
First impressions are lastingThe quality of an audiobook can significantly influence a listener’s first impression of your work. AI, while advanced, still often lacks the ability to convey the emotional depth and nuanced storytelling that a professional human narrator offers. For many listeners, a bland or monotne AI voice could be their first and last encounter with your work, potentially skewing their perception of your storytelling abilities permanently.
I recently tried listening to the audiobook of a colleague and I couldn’t make it past the half hour mark or so before giving up. The AI struggled to properly cite Scripture references, pronounce names correctly, and deal with nuance like a human skilled narrator would. I had patience and understanding as, again, I’m a human narrator. But what about a first time listener dipping their toe in the audiobook waters and this is their first experience?
Brand perception and overall experienceAudiobooks are not merely an alternative format—they are an extension of your brand. A poorly received AI-narrated audiobook might lead potential readers to perceive all your formats—eBook, print, and audio—as inferior. This assumption could deter them from exploring your work further, thereby affecting your brand’s reputation and decreasing the likelihood of future sales across all platforms.
The value of word-of-mouthIn the literary world, recommendations are gold. A compelling, emotionally engaging audiobook narrated by a skilled human can turn passive listeners into active promoters of your work. This organic marketing is invaluable.
On the contrary, AI-generated audiobooks might not inspire the same enthusiasm and could lead to less favorable reviews, limiting your exposure and potential sales growth.
Meeting listener expectationsListeners today expect a high-quality audio experience. They look for the kind of engaging, dynamic storytelling that human narrators excel at delivering. AI-generated narration, often lacking in personality and adaptability, can fall short of these expectations, potentially leading listeners to abandon the audiobook, and with it, a negative impression of the associated eBook and print versions.
For fiction especially, human narration will continue to be a strong market as AI still has not mastered the variety of voices and nuance humans can. Human narrators can understand and interpret literary devices such as irony, sarcasm, and humor in ways that AI typically cannot.
However, non-fiction, which I specialize in, is more informational, so the utilitarian digital voices may be more acceptable. But ask yourself this; Would individuals who routinely utilize text-to-speech for non-fiction material actually invest in AI-generated audiobooks, given they already have access to a similar technology at no cost? Time will tell.
Long-term financial impact?While the initial costs of AI narration might seem low, the potential decrease in book sales across all formats due to poor reception can be much more costly in the long run. Engaging a professional human narrator might require a higher upfront investment, but it also offers a higher potential return through better listener engagement, stronger sales, and a more robust fan base.
Building a loyal audienceThe journey of building a loyal readership requires connecting with your audience on an emotional level. Human narrators can make your characters come alive, delivering performances that resonate and remain with listeners long after the story ends. This emotional connection is hard to replicate with AI, potentially making it more challenging to build a dedicated following.
What about releasing an AI version first to “test the waters” and THEN later hire a narrator if sales are good?Consider the consumer’s choice between purchasing a frozen, oven-ready pizza and dining at a finer restaurant. The frozen pizza represents a convenient and cost-effective option; it’s readily available, quick to serve, and fits a tight budget. On the other hand, dining out at a finer restaurant for a freshly made pizza offers a premium experience – the ambiance, the service, and the superior taste of a pizza made by culinary experts.
In this scenario, the sales of frozen pizzas wouldn’t necessarily provide accurate data on whether a finer restaurant would flourish in the same environment or circumstances. Many customers prioritize quality, experience, and the pleasure of eating a meal prepared by a skilled chef, despite the higher cost.
That said, if a customer purchased your pizza expecting delivery from your restaurant but instead received a frozen pizza with oven instructions, they’d be disappointed.
Similarly, while AI-generated audiobooks provide accessibility and affordability, they cannot yet fully replicate the immersive and emotive experience delivered by a talented human narrator. Therefore, judging the potential success of human-narrated audiobooks solely by the performance of their AI-generated counterparts will likely be misleading if used to determine whether to invest in a fine dining Italian restaurant, so to speak.
Each product appeals to different segments of the market. Some consumers will always prefer the convenience and price point of AI and are willing to tolerate it, while others are willing to pay a premium for the enhanced experience offered by human narration. Thus, it’s crucial for an author to understand these market dynamics and consider providing both options to cater effectively to diverse listener preferences.
Conclusion (for now)Choosing the right mode of narration for your audiobook is a critical decision that goes beyond mere cost analysis. As tempting as it may be to use AI for its speed and affordability, the potential damage to your sales and brand might outweigh these initial benefits.
Investing in human talent not only preserves the integrity of your narrative but also enhances your chances of success in the competitive literary market. Remember, in the world of storytelling, quality should never be compromised.
Also, if we’re not connected on social media and you’d like to contribute to this post, feel free while it’s still public and before I delete the embed to this article:
Should Authors Make Audiobooks? A Narrator’s Perspective
THIS is Why You Shouldn’t (Necessarily) Narrate Your Own Audiobook
The post Expert Warning: How Using AI Narrators COULD Backfire for Authors appeared first on Steve Bremner.
Depending on the streams you swim in, you probably have heard a lot about Matthew 18 lately and whether this confrontation or that public call out followed the proper Biblical protocol.
OK, I won’t bother sidestepping that I’m talking about the Stronger Men’s Conference and how after Mark Driscoll got Matthew 18ed for publically stating the opening of a confernce where a shirtless pole dancer/climber swallowed a sword was proof of the Jezebel spirit being present, and then got yanked from the stage by the pastor citing the Matthew 18 way of allegedly going to him first instead of publicly.
Did pastor John Lindell have a point about this? I don’t know, since they reconciled on stage later that day, and then days later Lindell issued a public rebuke to Mark for something, seemingly not eating his own dog food, and calling Driscoll out publicly.
Anyway, my head is spinning and my eye balls are rolling, too, but bear with me as I didn’t share the following thoughts in last week’s episode of the Fire On Your Head podcast where we covered entertainment and spectacle in the modern Church. Check it out on Spotify below.
DON’T LIKE SPOTIFY? THAT’S OK, WE’RE ON MOST POPULAR AND EVEN OBSCURE PODCAST PLATFORMS!You’ve heard of the Matthew 18 “protocol”, right?Most Bible experts and even casual churchgoers have heard about, and perhaps even been smacked with the billyclub of Matthew 18, especially when controversy brews within the flock. It’s touted as the go-to process or “protocol” for dealing with disputes, often hammered down as the procedure for resolving conflicts.
However, even just a casual reading of the passage in its context reveals reasons why it’s not used as correctly as many seem to think.
Plucking it out of contextIn a stitching mishap akin to patching a denim jacket with silk, many extract Matthew 18 from its narrative flow. Jesus doesn’t flip subjects like TV channels. He speaks in full subjects, developing his themes in a continuous stream. Directly before he introduces the steps of confrontation in Matthew 18:15-20, he presents the parable of the lost sheep, a vivid illustration of God’s heart for restoration.
This parable sets the stage for understanding Jesus’ ensuing instructions, something many miss when they yank the passage out of its scenic route.
Misinterpretation of intentionsA natural follow-up blunder comes when the intent woven into the fabric of Matthew 18 is overlooked.
Post-lost sheep parable, Jesus isn’t shifting gears to legalistic protocol; he’s escalating his plea for persistently pursuing a wayward brother. Yet, rather than seeing this as a call to mend fences, it’s often morphed into a mechanism for ostracism or ‘righteous’ exclusion. Verses like Matthew 18:17, “if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector,” don’t mean shun or shame. It’s not an eviction notice but a last-resort plea to bring someone back into the fold.
Misapplication on the wrong groundsNow here’s where the rubber meets the road, or more accurately, where it skids off track. We’ve hammered in a rule meant for personal skirmishes into situations Jesus was not actually talking about.
Matthew 18 deals with personal offenses – not public errors or pastoral misconduct. That’s a whole different ball game, one better suited for passages like 1 Timothy 5:20, which instructs churches on handling sinning elders in a very public manner. Yet, many misuse Matthew 18 as a blanket policy for all types of disagreements, leading to its weaponization.
As Julie Roys aptly said in the article she published in the aftermath of the controversy, piritual abusers routinely use Matthew 18 to keep misconduct and scandal from becoming public.”
Leaders, in their mischief, have brandished it to silence dissent, ensuring their narrative remains unchallenged and their power, unchecked, all the while gaslighting sincere believers who sound the alarm with legit concerns.
The bigger pictureUsing the Matthew 18 billy club in scenarios it was never designed to handle not only distorts its purpose but robs the church of genuine restorative opportunities. It morphs from a healing salve into a blunt instrument. When wrongly wielded, it doesn’t encourage repentance or restoration; it fosters resentment and division.
By realigning our understanding and application of Matthew 18 with Jesus’ original teaching, we can reclaim its profound capacity to heal rather than hurt, to unify rather than divide. And isn’t that the heart of the gospel after all?
As followers striving for truth and reconciliation in every corner of our community, it’s high time we stitch this patch properly onto the quilt of our church practices.
Church Discipline & Matthew 18Check out this episode of the podcast I did with David Edwards over 12 years ago on proper church discipline, one of the last times Mark Driscoll was making waves for other reasons and using the Matthew 18 rod as a punishment on members of Mars Hill. We didn’t say that in the episode, but that was the context at the time.
DON’T LIKE SPOTIFY? THAT’S OK, WE’RE ON MOST POPULAR AND EVEN OBSCURE PODCAST PLATFORMS!Further Reading
Opinion: The Irony! Mark Driscoll Gets ‘Matthew 18ed’ for Slamming ‘Strip’ Act at Men’s Conference
You Need to Talk TO People Instead of ABOUT Them
The post The Most Common Ways Christians Get Matthew 18 Wrong appeared first on Steve Bremner.
If you’re reading this I’m sure by now you’ve heard of the controversy surrounding the Stronger Men’s conference put on at local event venue by James River Church a couple of weeks ago.
The opening act was a shirtless former stripper doing a sword-swallowing act on a large … pole… of some kind. Then, a controversial preacher began his session by saying Jezebel had opened the event before the pastor yanked him off the stage and cited Matthew 18 as the proper way to deal with the matter.
Then they both bot back up on stage to reconcile.
Then the pastor preached a 40 minute midweek sermon to call the bold preacher out for stuff he allegedly said in phone calls and text he had not actually seen but trusted his son’s recollection of.
Then the sword swallower issued a statement saying the pastor was mistaken about details shared about him and says he gets saved every time he goes up and down the pole.
Then there was another public message delivered by the Matthew 18 pastor this past Sunday to apologize for inviting both the sword swallower and the fire-breathing controversial preacher to the same event
More Drama Than a Low Budget TelenovelaYou know what? I give up, I can’t keep up with the drama! Why does the Church have to have more scandal, twists and turns than a low-budget Mexican telenovela?
The picture used for this episode’s publicity image or cover, depending on where you’re seeing it, comes from an attempt to use AI to generate an image for me.
The stock image of a Strangler fig or “MataPalo” in Spanish I used as a reference for the AI image I used for this episodeUsing a photograph of a matapalo, or strangler fig in English, known for its distinctive characteristic of enveloping and ultimately overpowering its host, I asked DALL-E 3 to craft an image with the following prompt:
Create an image of a strangler fig where the main tree is depicted by or symbolic of the church, being constricted by representations of entertainment, stardom, money, and fame chocking it out.
It took a few attempts, but this one was ultimately my favorite one:
The result is compelling visual metaphor—a tree at once vibrant yet ensnared by the very elements meant to augment its growth.
Does entertainment belong in the church?In this episode of the Fire On Your Head podcast, I first share some of the deep sense of disillusionment that arises when respected spiritual leaders fall from grace, citing examples a couple of high profile example figures who’ve irreparably ruined their earthly legacies. Listen to find out who, I’m referring to.
Then we approach the current controversy du-jour as it pertains to Mark Driscoll’s recent controversies, reminding us of the ongoing challenges within the Christian community about leadership, integrity, and accountability as well as what role, if any does entertainment even have in the church?
We also discuss my main theme: the dangers of distractions and idolatry, and how “killing sticks,” can hinder our spiritual growth and relationship with God. I challenge you to reflect on any aspects of your life that may be taking precedence over your faith.
This episode deviates from my usual monologues in a few ways longtime listeners might notice, and perhaps be disappointed in as it serves as both a lament for the current state of parts of the Christian community, but also a hopeful manifesto for a return to a more grounded, Scripture-informed faith practice.
Amid reflections on personal and collective failures, the overarching message remains one of hope, redemption, and the transformative power of returning to the core of our faith in Jesus and an organic approach to Christianity free from the matapalo of the American Gospel Enterprise.
Listen to the podcast at your favorite podcast player or through Spotify below.
Don’t Like spotify? That’s ok, We’re on most popular and even obscure podcast platforms!Books and Links Mentioned in the PodcastThe Imperishable Seed of Christ: Understanding the Believer’s Spiritual D.N.A. by Steve Bremner
Screwtape Proposes a Toast by C.S. Lewis
Gospel Houses by Art Thomas
The Beast of Revelation by J.D. King
Mesmerize by David W. Edwards
The post Do We Need Entertainment at Strong Men’s Conferences? appeared first on Steve Bremner.
Are you trying to build electric fences to protect Jesus’ sheep when He didn’t ask you to?Lately, my thoughts have been wandering through the winding paths of faith, brushing up against the paradoxical edges in Scripture that defy our neatly packaged beliefs.
Imagine a world where theology is not just about crossing theological ‘T’s and dotting ‘I’s, but encountering stories in the Bible that leave us puzzled, challenging our carefully constructed views.
Have you ever felt the shock of an “electric fence” in your spiritual walk, guiding you back to the well-trodden path, making you wonder who set it up and why?
It’s in these moments of wrestling with divine mysteries and questioning the man-made boundaries we’ve erected around our faith, that we find the most profound invitation — not into rebellion, but into a deeper communion.
What if the key to untangling these complexities isn’t in more rigid structures, but in gazing deeper into the fire in Jesus’ eyes, letting the unforced rhythms of grace guide us?
What if the very essence of belief is not found in the restrictions we place on ourselves and others, but in the boundless, embracing love of the Divine?
Hear me out!
Have you ever wondered why the Pharisees accused Christ of being a glutton and a drunkard when He walked the earth? It’s not that Jesus actually was either of those things, but He obviously was doing something so much that the religious establishment of the day could look at His life and ministry and assume to take up these accusations against Him.
In order to be falsely accused, you have to be doing something worthy of accusation, after all. He was a friend of sinners and tax collectors. He wined and dined with those whom the religious folk of the day would have nothing to do with.
Why Didn’t God put an electric fence around the tree in the garden of Eden?Does it bother you that in the first few chapters of Genesis, the Lord told Adam and Eve not to eat of a tree that He Himself PUT there in the middle of the Garden of Eden?
Like, seriously; how come God would put it there in the first place and not build an electric fence to stop them from going near it?
Or if you’re a devout believer who thinks Christians should abstain from all forms of alcohol, does it bother you that Jesus’ first public miracle was to make wine for believers who were already drunk? Does it bother you that He would make something that can be abused, and has been, for the people who were already well under the influence of it? In order for them to run out of wine at the wedding, that means — GASP! — they were drinking wine!
I know, right?! Put that one in your Bible and read it!
Just as an electric fence restricts physical movement, what ‘fences’ do we construct that limit our spiritual freedom and growth?
Does God Need Your Help?An electric fence is a barrier that uses electric shock to deter animals or people from crossing a boundary. The voltage of the shock may have effects ranging from uncomfortable, to painful or even lethal.
We, much like well-meaning guardians of faith, erect barriers—some made of fear, others of shame—to protect and to define the sacred, perhaps going beyond what was divinely intended. The tale of Eve’s added commandment not to touch the fruit exemplifies human nature’s inclination to build fences where none were necessarily meant to be.
Even if the Holy Spirit didn’t “say that”. The serpent asked Eve about the tree in the middle of the Garden, and she added to it the idea they were to not even touch it, when God didn’t actually say that.
Venturing further into this exploration, ponder the nature of divine commands juxtaposed with human interpretations. Consider how Jesus’ first public miracle involved turning water into wine at a wedding full of guests who had already indulged. Does this divine act align more closely with the spirit of freedom or of restriction?
Too often, we find ourselves, like the Pharisees, adding extra layers to divine instructions, creating regulations that reflect our preferences rather than God’s intentions.
There are a lot of things in contemporary Christianity God didn’t and still doesn’t say, but we have thought He needs our help, so we’ve erected electric fences to stop others from crossing boundaries we might not go past. When you live in another culture than your own, such as I do living in South America, you get confronted with the fences your culture has constructed — whether that’s a national culture or a Church culture, or both.
Living cross-culturally, you are confronted with things which are a part of the Gospel universally versus things which are really just the electric fences you or someone else has erected or had built by others around you.
Does Revival or the “Manifest Presence of God” Fix People?I once had an e-mail exchange with a friend who I assume would not like me to use his name, for various reasons that will be obvious as you read the following quote. In passing, he made this remark about how people tend to get into rules and regulations when the Spirit of God is not among them — especially if they have previously experienced “revival”;
Once the phenomenon is over, and souls begin to join a work who never experienced the revival, the rules not only become burdensome, but more rules are added in an attempt to re-create the holy environment that might be more conducive to a renewed renewal or “fresh wave”. So the pattern goes from repentance to revival to rules to legalism to elitism to judgementalism to ostracization to isolation. You can see this pattern having formed in the time immediately following the Cane Ridge Revival in the early 1800s, and many of the offshoots from the Azusa Street Revival. That was certainly the direction I took in the years after leaving [the Pensacola revival…]
…I’ve heard horror stories, some very humorous, of fellow grads who went to work for other churches and attempted to implement these extra-biblical revival-era constraints on their youth groups or congregations, resulting in confusion and division more than in deep inworking and outworking of Biblical holiness.
Living in the Spirit: Beyond the BoundariesThe true antidote to our tendency to box in the divine with human-made fences? A deeper, more authentic encounter with the Holy Spirit.
History and scripture teach us that revival, transformation, and true holiness don’t come from adhering to a rigid set of rules, but from an intimate relationship with God.
As we learn to distinguish between conviction and preference, inspired by wisdom from Romans 14 and First Corinthians 9, we find that real transformation occurs not through external compliance, but through internal renewal prompted by the Spirit.
Concluding ThoughtsSince the Holy Spirit is the One who guides us and will guide us into all truth (John 16:13), then I think we don’t need to build fences and tell people to “Keep Out!”, but encourage them into a deepening encounter with God Himself. The closer we get to Him and look into Jesus’ Eyes of Fire, we’ll become more like Him, and the things of this world will burn and drop from us.
Maybe the electric fence mentality is symptomatic of a lack of actual relationship, both in terms of with one another in community, but also in teaching people — especially maybe when people are newer believers — how to relate to the Holy Spirit for themselves.
Admittedly, it’s easier to create rules and expect conformity much more than it is to let the chips fall where they may and deal with messes that may come up — but that’s what happens in real relationships!
Paul had a lot to say about this kind of stuff, and it wasn’t always pleasant. So, based on Romans 14 and First Corinthians 9, what is the difference between a conviction and a preference?
How do we show grace to others who may not share our personal convictions? Some thoughts…
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How do we respond when someone’s puking on us for not living holy enough for their standard? Or vice versa — when we think the other person is in compromise and needs a kick in the pants?
Our fences and boundaries, though well-intentioned as they are, are just man-made attempts to try to coerce each other by law-code. If we’re helping people connect to Christ Himself, or are in relationship and encouraging each other and not JUST holding each other ‘accountable’, then these types of rules and regulations are unnecessary.
Let the Holy Spirit guide you and be free in Christ.
The post You Need To Transcend Man-Made Religious Boundaries appeared first on Steve Bremner.
I originally wrote and published this post about the manna from heaven as article on my site in mid 2011, and more or less still feel the exact same way. I’m republishing it all this time later with minor changes, you know, fixing typos and misspellings and other formatting issues.
That, and I recently just published my narration for a new audiobook on the subjected called The Trojan Horse of Tithing by Jonathan Brenneman and thought I’d give this particular article a bump and get some conversation going again.
I’ve been giving some thoughts to the concept of tithing and what most believers understand to be offerings, and I couldn’t help but re-evaluate what I’d always known and believed. My thoughts led me to this particular passage:
In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat. (Exodus 16:13-15, ESV)
Recently on social media, I asked the following question:
Did Israel have to “sow” to receive their provision of manna every day?The responses were just as I thought; people said no, but only a few elaborated to explain how God, through and through, provided and all they did was gather.
Now think of this if you will; Israel, the people of God did nothing to cause God to give it to them.
There was nothing in their own actions which God reacted to.
They merely gathered the harvest, which appeared like dew on the ground in the morning whenever they woke up each day during the whole time they were in the wilderness until they entered their promised land.
God specifically designed this substance in order to teach Israel a lesson about Himself regarding His provision.
It Was There Every DayThey could trust that God would provide it and not forget to one day, nor would He change his mind and make them fend for themselves. Its characteristics changed miraculously on the sixth day–its shelf life lasted longer, so they wouldn’t have to gather any more of it on the seventh day, but after that it went back to only lasting one day.
I know of no other food or substance on the earth that operates this way or whose expiration date changes based on the day you bought it or obtained it.
Manna is not like bread, which you need to sow seed in order to obtain. With bread, you need to sow seed to create wheat, and grains, and so forth, and then you must go through a process (a type of works) in order to kneed the dough, bake it and prepare it. Human effort is still required for almost any other food on the planet, through either the creation of it, or the preparation of it.
Not so with manna.
It was simply provided. What seed can man so in order to yield a crop of manna? There’s no store on the planet that sells ‘manna seed’. Almost anything and everything man eats, comes from the earth, whether meat he hunts or crops he sows and reaps.
Yet this manna came from the sky.
Everything about its existence was miraculous and simply… provided by God.
Manna From Heaven That SatisfiesOne of my favorite things to think about regarding the manna is that God designed this food to be something humans would desire, since Scripture says it tasted sweet. He didn’t make some bland tasting vegetable show up every morning but instead something similar in taste to cake, possibly.
Why?
Because that’s what God is like — He’s good!
Since God could have designed this food any way He wanted, why did He design something where man could do nothing himself, nor sow any seed in order to obtain it?
Most things in the Old Testament are a type and a shadow of something in the New Testament, and it’s said of Jesus that He was manna that came down from heaven, we notice something interesting.
The same way we’re told by Jesus that whoever comes to Him will not hunger, and whoever believes in Him will never thirst (John 6:35b), Israel came to follow God in the wilderness and never lacked and never went hungry. Manna was there every morning until they reached the promised land, and then it was a land flowing with milk and honey and abundance.
I like what I once heard Dave Roberson say of this; a Savior cannot come from a spiritually dead gene pool. There was nothing man could do to save himself. God had to send a Savior — no religious effort on our part.
No formulas.
Offering God Pennies That Were His In the First Place?Many believers undoubtedly understand this to be talking about salvation, and God providing Jesus to pay for our sins on the cross and we merely receive. But they stop there and don’t understand this at all when it comes to money.
We stop there and listen to pastors in pulpits all over the place talk about sowing your ‘seed money’ in order to reap something (usually finances) from God. That’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard, and yet people gobble it up and give with those very motives in place.
Can you imagine picking a few pennies off the ground, and then offering them to God and saying “here, I’m sowing this, now I expect my 100-fold return”? He provided those pennies in the first place, and you think giving them back to Him will make Him give you a multiplied amount of them in return for the effort (works) on your part?
Hello! The whole earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof (1 Cor 10:26, Psalm 24:1)!
As believers, whenever we give financially or give of our time, it’s because it helps whatever we’re giving to. God doesn’t need it! A lot of churches pay their pastors and staff from the offerings and donations received. Missionaries tend to live on support and need it since, as I can attest to firsthand, often times they’re on visas that don’t permit them to work in the countries they find themselves in. Or they are doing something full time and it doesn’t pay the bills.
This I understand and relate to. But friend, please make sure you’re not falling for some kind of “tithe or else you get under a Malachi curse“. If you’re believing any of that stuff or you’re puzzled or perhaps offended with this post, consider what Jesus himself said:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:25-34, ESV, emphasis mine)
Unfortunately, a lot of what passes as teaching about giving, tithing and offerings advocates doing these very things–sow so you will reap, tithe so you can get God to provide!
Job 41:11 says basically Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine.”
Stop acting like God owes you because you followed “all the rules” you were taught about what He’ll give you because you put that cheque in the offering bucket for that minister that told you 100 fold return was coming.
Check out my new audiobook project, The Trojan Horse of Tithing: How Tithe Traditions Have Undermined a Pure Gospel Message.
Steve G. Bremner · The Trojan Horse of Tithing | Jonathan BrennemanPick Your Audible StoreUSAUKCanadaAustraliaThe post Manna From Heaven — Why Modern Tithing is Unbiblical appeared first on Steve Bremner.
Have you ever found yourself feeling frustrated with your writing progress, even though you’re putting in the time and effort? Or maybe you’ve set writing goals, but struggled to make consistent progress towards them. If so, you’re not alone.
Over the last several years, I’ve gone up and down in weight, and in the last month I’ve gotten back to the gym again and really paying attention to what I eat, not just what I do while working out.
The first time I lost a substantial amount of weight in my mid-thirties, I exercised at least five days per week for 1-2 hours a session, and eventually used a tracking app to calorie count on my phone.
After about a year (or really, sooner) I had lost an accumulated 45 lbs and maintained that weight for a long time. But eventually I eased up, went to the gym less often, wasn’t tracking what I ate anymore and I would eat if I was hungry, stopped paying attention to the portions, ate until I felt full, and eventually I found I had gained like 20 lbs back.
Then of course the pandemic happened and we were in lockdown for longer than many other places on the planet, so of course I fell off the wagon with regard to cooking sometimes now just to pass time, not getting anywhere near the amount of exercise I used to, but continuing to eat as though I was.
You can’t go by your feelings — they lieIt was a bit insidious because I was still fitting into the clothes I had shrunk down into, and when we started going back out in the wild post-pandemic, people who hadn’t seen me in a few years would still mention I had lost weight since they last saw me. However, they didn’t know that I had backslidden and had actually lost even more weight than I currently showed for it.
I knew I had given up ground I previously gained, even if I wasn’t as heavy as I used to be.
In 2023 I found I had gained enough weight to the point I was now equal with the heaviest I had ever gotten before that original weight loss journey, and decided to revamp my life again a month before the new year. I hadn’t been going 5 days per week again, just 3, and it wasn’t until a few weeks ago I started logging my food in a fitness app and I realized…
I can’t argue with data.Neither can you, dear writers and authors.
You see, I can “feel” or think I’ve accomplished something just because my emotions about it are strong. I may think I’m doing more than I am, or less than I really am, but I can’t go by that.
I could THINK I’ve not gained weight because of my feelings on the matter, but as soon as I step on the scale I can see for myself whatever the truth is.
The scales don’t lie! My belt buckle no longer reaching the way it did previously can’t be argued with feelings or arguments.
It speaks the truth with no bias.
There’s a point I’m building to with regard to writing, don’t worry.
The same applies to society and the word of God. You may be giving into a besetting sin over and over to the point your conscience gets seared and you are no longer bothered by something like you used to be. But the standard is the Word of God, no matter how you or I feel about something.
The majority of society may accept something and celebrate it despite what the Word of God has always declared on that subject, and it doesn’t matter — it’s still sin. Period.
When I’m working with writing clients of mine, publishing and launching their books, especially if it’s their first one, I’m no longer amazed how often we all tend to get overly optimistic about how easy we think it will be to get early reviews for a book on Amazon — heck, reviews at all, let alone early ones.
Going the Way of Least Resistance FEELS BestIt’s inconvenient and awkward to ask people for a huge favor such as taking 5-10 hours of their life to read our book (depending on how long it is) when they have other things going on, or other books they’d rather read when they have the chance.
What if they read it and don’t like it or give a negative review to something we’ve spent a long time working on?
Look, I get it.
When I’ve done appointment setting and outbound sales in recent months (my sales journey is another story for another article), I would keep track of how many people I’d message or called each day/week, and use that as my gauge as to how much prospecting I was doing, and how much more I needed to hit my KPIs.
I quickly learned if I wanted to get paid, I needed to sow a lot of asks out there into the ether. Then, maybe 30% would respond favorably, and of that another 30% of those respondents would book a call, and of those who showed for their calls, only a certain % would actually buy.
It’s the funnel.
The top of the funnel has a lot of the prospects, but if I want the number coming out the bottom tube of that funnel, where the sale actually takes place, then I needed to throw a LOT of prospects into the hopper at the top of that funnel.
Otherwise, nothing comes out the bottom.
The same happens when you want favors from people like getting reviews.
EVERY single writing or book coaching client I’ve had, minus one, has used the same system I’ve used in sales to keep track of those they’ve asked or reached out to for reviews, and the majority of them underestimate how many people they’ll need to ask (top of the funnel), and assume everyone they ask is going to follow through without understanding the sales funnel concept.
You Have Not, Because You Ask NotI had one author tell me “nobody’s responding when I ask if they’ll leave a review!” Another one told me “none of the people who said they would read it have left a review yet”.
Each time I then ask “how many people have you asked?”
The author told me he had only asked eight people.
I told him if he wanted to get 8 reviews total, then to ask at least 100 more people. And to ask them personally, not just sending out an email blast, no matter how large his email list.
Personally asking people, specifically those who might be an ideal reader or who are the target audience.
How to Destroy All Your Goodwill in a Few Paragraphs at the End of Your Book
Of course, my personal coaching and guidance when an author works with me will help them figure out who in their sphere of influence to ask so they don’t just “scattershot” their ask by going to social media and assuming anybody who breathes oxygen is an ideal reader, or waste their time asking a lot of the wrong people in their life.
Which is the mistake a lot of authors, especially newbies make: assuming more people are interested in reading their book than really are. And to make matters worse, they give up way too easily.
You can’t go by your feelings. You may feel like you’re not gaining weight, or not overeating, or not letting up on the exercise, but eventually the results and the scales speak for themselves.
You may feel the sting of rejection from asking people and hearing no or not getting a response, but try detaching yourself from the emotion of it and just document your efforts and see what progress you’re making with it.
I had a particularly bad morning or few hours calling warm leads for my appointment setting job. I felt like “everyone” was hanging up on me if they picked up, and while I wasn’t ready to quit or take a break or whine about it to other setters or my manager, I was feeling like it was a bad day.
When I logged into the stats for my account on that company’s dialer, I could see I had only been making dials for less than an hour. My talk time and numbers dialed was quite low. But if I let my emotions guide me, I could have sworn it was like 10X the number of rejected calls.
I couldn’t argue with the data, despite however I was feeling.
Getting reviewers for your book(s) is the same — if you’re not asking people, you will get the corresponding results. If you’re selling a lot of copies of your book, then you’ll start to see the reviews trickle in as a result, but I’m talking about asking for that initial launch.
We must face the numbers and data in order to truly understand our progress.
The simple solution: keep track of who you ask, what their response was (if there was one), and make the list super long.
Emotions can cloud our judgment and lead us astray, making us think we’re doing better or worse than we really are.
Still not convinced you need to worry about this as a writer?
The post Why Your Feelings are Sabotaging Your Writing Success (And How to Fix It, Sorta) appeared first on Steve Bremner.
If you’ve followed my audiobook and podcast journey over the years, you know that David Edwards and I have been meshing minds for quite some time.
Now, we’ve taken that up a notch with two enthralling audiobook collaborations. The most recent being “Mesmerize: When Heaven & Earth Collide” and “Activating a Prophetic Lifestyle: Learn to Recognize the Ways God Speaks to You and Through You” which has already been on Audible for a few months now.
A couple of years ago Dave released the first of two volumes, that one being named Mystify and thanks to it being published with Destiny Image Publishers, was able to score an interview on Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural. Due to copyright and other behind the scenes issues, I wasn’t able to narrate that one for him so we did Mesmerize instead.
Check out Dave’s appearance below:
When Heaven Invades EarthIn “Mesmerize,” prepare to buckle up and journey to places GPS can’t pinpoint. Riding shotgun with David, you’ll witness the grand collision of the divine and the earthly. It’s the matrix moment you didn’t know you needed, where worship sets vibe with angelic soundtracks and neighborhood strolls turn into encounters with the Almighty.
- Picture this: A Ministry School where gravity’s just a suggestion, and coffee shops pulsing with the heartbeat of God.
- Ever thought about hitching a spiritual ride in prayer meetings or catching a sneak peek at Jesus in 3D, both in Heaven and your backyard?
- How about front-row seats to Heavenly portals and God’s throne room visits?
In “Mesmerize,” that’s just Tuesday.
Oh, and because we’re living in the future, the book comes with QR coded sprinkles – tap your phone’s app and see the accompanying PDF and dive deeper with videos and snapshots of these divine encounters.
It’s like augmented reality, but the Holy Spirit’s in the driver’s seat.
Tuning into God’s FrequencyNot one to leave you hanging in the misty realms, “Activating a Prophetic Lifestyle” is all about getting personal with God’s Spotify playlist – you guessed it, His voice. David dissects this with the precision of a divine surgeon, unpacking dreams, visions, and even that ‘Aha!’ moment you had while munching cereal this morning.
It’s like a treasure hunt where ‘X’ marks the spot for revelation, interpretation, and application. We’re talking prophecy, words of knowledge, and words of wisdom – the spiritual toolset to craft Heaven’s narrative right here on Earth.
In this prophetic guidebook, you’re not just reading (or listening) – you’re stepping into the shoes of a spiritual trailblazer, sparking Heaven’s blueprint into your corner of the world.
Echoing the DivinePairing David’s insights with my own vocal wanderings, these audiobooks are not just to be heard – they’re to be lived. “Mesmerize” is your all-access pass to the divine unknown, while “Activating a Prophetic Lifestyle” is the hands-on manual to making your life a hotbed for prophetic encounters.
From the sacred echo of angelic choirs to the daily nudge of God’s whispers, these audiobooks are crafted for those hungry for a spiritual adventure. Whether you’re a seasoned saint or just spiritually curious, these books will stoke your spiritual flames in a big way.
If you’re ready to explore beyond the veil and engage in a dialogue with the Divine, I’m thrilled to be your voice through the captivating writing of David Edwards. Let’s unravel the divine mysteries together and rediscover our world, pulsating with the rhythm of Heaven.
Oh, and APL is Dave’s second book he self-published over a decade ago, and has turned out to be one of his best-selling over the years as of this writing, while Mesmerize is the most recent one.
It’s fascinating to look at how both of us have grown in our writing journeys over the last ten plus years.
Check out the preface to Mesmerize in the Soundcloud player below:
The post Mesmerize & Activating a Prophetic Lifestyle appeared first on Steve Bremner.
As a Christian entrepreneur, overthinking can become a constant struggle – especially if we wear many hats, face big decisions and carry heavy responsibilities. When faced with launching a new product, expanding a business or completing a writing project, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by every potential obstacle and problem. Even if they’re imaginary. For […]
The post Overcoming Overthinking With Prayer, Peace and Perspective As an Entrepreneur appeared first on Steve Bremner.
Imagine having a secret weapon at your disposal, a powerful ally that can supercharge your writing process and propel your content to new heights.One that’s NOT Chat GPT-4 and won’t cost you $20.00/month? At least, not for the basic plan.
What if I told you you could have all the top generative AI tools packaged in one place, with an easy-to-use interface?
My Kingdom-minded friend Dustin W. Stout has developed such a tool and it’s called Magai. I’ve been internet-connected with him going back to the days of Google Plus, blogging challenges, and I have at least dabbled with other apps and programs he’s developed or flat out invented over the years, and so of course I wanted to give this a try.
I realize there are a lot of case uses for it already out there, but I’ll just focus on what my particular use for it looks like.
When You’ve Got Writer’s Block, AI can be The Chisel and the Pick to Get SculptingI asked Magai to elaborate on this analogy, and this is what it told me:
If for some reason you can’t see the image, it says this:
When writer’s block strikes, it can feel like being stuck in a dense wall of solid rock, hindering your thoughts and creativity.
AI, much like a sculptor’s chisel and pick, can help chip away at this barrier, methodically breaking through the obstructive layers. By tapping into the power of AI tools like Magai, you gain access to an extended arsenal of ideas and inspiration, enabling you to carve out the masterpiece hidden within the rock.
With each precise chisel or pick strike, you can gradually bring your vision to life, rekindling your creative energy and overcoming the dreaded writer’s block.
Case in point: I wrote this post on whether listening to audiobooks instead of reading books is cheating using AI (months ago before Dustin released Magai) and used it as my first draft and then re-wrote it two or three times.
Also, one of my favorite aspects of Magai is how you can open up a document to the right of the chat and edit what you’re working in there. I have to admit, when I heard Dustin describe this particular feature to someone in an interview, I thought “meh”, but once I started using it I realized how incredibly helpful it is to work on the text with the AI-generated output in my site.
The document itself is very minimalist and not overly complicated or cluttered, too. See the image below.
Streamlining your Writing Process and Podcast TranscriptionsI’ve been using Magai in particular to help me with cleaning up segments of podcast transcriptions I’m turning into blog posts for someone (not sure if I’m allowed to say who or if he wants me to backlink to his site), as well as taking some of my recorded interviews with ghostwriting clients and helping me streamline my processes in manuscript prep.
For now, I’ve been using Descript to take the mp3s of that client who will remain nameless’s podcast episodes, run them through Descript and then take out the fluff or stuff I don’t want Magai processing.
Some of the episodes I’m transcribing are over an hour long and the transcription is way too long for inputting into Magai as of this writing, so I still need to do some listening and cutting in Descript to shorten either the transcription or to help me zero in on the segments or sections I want to write into articles.
Then, I take what I’ve gotten from Descript, and paste it through Magai and use my client’s “Persona” we created in there, and I go over it carefully and rewrite it since it is NOT ready for public consumption, but still requires humansauce.
But Steve, you’re a writer, how can you betray the human race in such a way?! I thought for sure YOU would be against AI – haven’t you seen The Matrix or Terminator 2?!
I’m actually sorta relieved it’s become a big thing.
Like, it has helped pour some gasoline on my fire and helped me get some things started, while bringing some other projects closer to the finish line.
AI is certainly not a replacement for nuance or sarcasm (at least not yet) but it IS a significant time saver in parts of my workflow now, such as cleaning up a lot of transcription notes and helping me condense it into what I’m aiming for.
However, the output AI provides me still requires a human touch to clean up and make suitable for public consumption.
AI is a TOOL, NOT a ReplacementI’ve said it before, and reposted other people saying it as well, but it bears repeating: AI is A TOOL.
If you’re a writer of some sort, you aren’t in danger of being replaced by AI but by someone using AI properly and efficiently.
The point is not to have it write everything, but “assisted” writing. It should get you most of the way there, and then you make the necessary edits to make sure it is in your tone. The question is, would you rather start at 0, or start at 80% done?
And for those of you who have privacy concerns about what info you’re providing the machines, Dustin posted this the other day:
A built-in benefit to using Magai as opposed to directly using ChatGPT is that your data is automatically opted-out of OpenAI’s data training.That means OpenAI cannot use your content produced through Magai to train its AI models. On top of that, no personal information is passed along—OpenAI only sees Magai.
If you’re using ChatGPT directly, everything you enter into it can be used to further train OpenAI’s models. You can opt out of this inside of ChatGPT by going to Settings > Data controls > Chat History & Training.
Now, all data is retained for 30 days for the purpose of abuse and misuse monitoring. But if you’re opted-out, none of your data gets used for training future AI Models.
That’s a big deal for a lot of people who are concerned about privacy and how their content is being used (or not used).
Other differences between ChatGPT and Magai In conclusion, as artificial intelligence gains momentum in the all areas, but especially in content creation like writing, it’s crucial to remember that it remains a valuable tool rather than a replacement for human authors.
While AI undoubtedly aids in tasks like spelling and grammar, it falls short in capturing the distinctive style and voice that comes naturally to skilled writers.
Ultimately, writing is a specialized profession demanding substantial effort and mastery, but that doesn’t mean AI can’t help you along the way in your own writing journey.
Get 7 days (10,000 words of generated output) free to see just how much more you can accomplish with Magai!
Admittedly, my link is an affiliate, but you should know I asked Dustin for one a few days before finding out he was creating an affiliate program — I already knew I wanted to share this with people and skim a few coins off the top if you get a subscription thanks to my recommendation.
Check out this interview Dustin did with The Digital Church Podcast:Related Reading
Boost Creativity with ChatGPT for Content Marketing
10 ChatGPT Mistakes You’re Making and How to Fix Them
The post The Future of Christian Writing: How Magai’s AI Technology is a Game Changer appeared first on Steve Bremner.
In the last year I’ve been working closely with J.D. King from Christos Publishing, narrating Pentecostal fire and faith healing audiobooks in his catalogue as well as having discussions with him on the Fire On Your Head Podcast.
I’d been wanting to dabble my feet in narrating or even republishing public domain books by giants in the faith who pioneered things I’ve been passionate about in my ministry and in the topics I’ve written about or even narrated for others.
Earlier this year J.D. dropped the idea in my mind to collaborate on a few titles he’s repurposed, including a well-known one by the late Smith Wigglesworth, and another guy that until recently I had never heard of before named Ethan O. Allen.
Ever-Increasing Faith by Smith WigglesworthFirst, most Pentecostals and charismatics, at least those with a passion for faith healing have at least heard the name Smith Wigglesworth (1859-1947). There are scads of books of his on Amazon from a variety of publishers.
Wigglesworth was a legendary healing evangelist from the United Kingdom often referred to as the “Apostle of Faith” because of his unshakable confidence in the Word of God. Thousands received healing through Wigglesworth’s ministry and reports of his exploits were widely circulated.
I first read this book, along with Roberts Llardon’s big hardcover green volume of Wigglesworth’s teachings during my second semester in Bible college, and these influenced my faith and healing books as well as ministry.
Ever-Increasing Faith, a compilation of sermon transcriptions, is one of two books that Wigglesworth penned during his life. The chapters were published in Pentecostal periodicals before they were amassed and distributed in a book form. The editors’ work is unmistakable—rough edges were smoothed, and vocabulary cleaned up.
But underneath it all, Wigglesworth’s faith-filled voice remains, and I try to bring that forth in my narration while also maintaining my smooth delivery.
Twenty-first century books aren’t as robust as those from a century ago. Contemporary authors can be sensationalistic and superficial. Many brag about heavenly revelations, but their conjecture will be forgotten in a few years. Wigglesworth is different. His ever-green and eternal observations resonate many even decades after his passing.
It is time for Twenty-first century believers to rediscover what Smith Wigglesworth knew about ever-increasing faith and hear it in audiobook form. Check out the first chapter below:
Steve G. Bremner · Ever-Increasing Faith: A Charismatic Classic | Smith WigglesworthEthan O. AllenA quarter of a century before Smith Wigglesworth, John G. Lake, and Maria Woodworth-Etter, Ethan Otis Allen pioneered an extraordinary move of God.
Rising from abject poverty, this uneducated man became, in the words of A.B. Simpson, “The father of divine healing in America.”Who was this forgotten man, and what did he discover about the mysteries of the Kingdom of God?
Faith Healing: Insights From Ethan Allen, The First Healing Evangelist is a labor of love J.D. has undertaken as there’s little that’s known about this healing pioneer, and even fewer writings of his made available.
Check out the famous ‘pig story’ in the sample below from the audiobook:
Steve G. Bremner · Faith Healing: Insights From Ethan Allen, The First Healing Evangelist | J.D. KingThis book is a short read compared to the Wigglesworth one, but just as interesting. You can currently get the audiobook on almost any of the major places you can buy or stream audiobooks, or get it directly from Christos Publishing.
Order The Ever-Increasing Faith Audiobook and Get 18 PLUS Hours’ Worth of Bonus MaterialIn the meantime, you can get the Smith Wigglesworth classic all over the place online. There are people who’ve narrated versions of it on Audible, and there’s even one you can stream free over YouTube. We have striven to make our version stand out by including a bonus chapter called Faith of a Higher Order, which to our knowledge has not been included or printed in any other release or collection of Wigglesworth material.
That doesn’t mean it hasn’t been, as all sorts of people have been reproducing pamphlets and tracts from his lifetime, but this is one we’ve not come across out there in our search to try including bonus material distinct from other Wigglesworth collections out there.
During our launch of the audiobook and promotion of this charismatic classic, we’re offering some exclusive bonuses you can only get here.
For a limited time, order this new and updated audiobook version of the classic and quintessential Pentecostal Smith Wigglesworth book, including a never before published extra chapter “Faith of a Higher Order”, and get all four of my authored and narrated books included FREE (total value on Audible/iBooks: over $35 USD)
PLUS 7+ hours of exclusive bonus teaching on practicing and imparting the Baptism of the Holy Spirit by Brian Parkman (priceless).
Get it by going to this link.
Faith Comes by Hearing the Word of God — LiterallyOne of the things I’ve come to love about both narrating audiobooks and listening to them is how I process and internalize the writings of an author. For this reason I prefer and seek out doing Biblically-sound and edifying material.
I first recorded the Ethan Allen book and then immediately proceeded to work on Ever-Increasing Faith as soon as I could because I’ve got my sixth Praying Medic book in the pipeline and wanted to finish these before I got started on that one.
It has been my prayer on each recording night while in my booth that this audiobook would pump you up in your faith and give you the courage and confidence to step out into the miraculous.
Even if you don’t like my version of the project but go and look up one of the other versions out there, just get one you like and just listen to it over and over.
Enjoy!
The post Pentecostal Fire and Faith Healing appeared first on Steve Bremner.
Does the Bible teach there will be a final end times revival right before the return of Christ?
Are college campus revivals a sign we’re living in the last of the last days before the Lord’s return?
What is the Mark of the Beast?
Does the Bible teach there will be an end-times revival, or a final end-time rebellion?
And most importantly, should we cancel dentists?
This week I talk with J.D. King, author of The Beast of Revelation: Unraveling the Mystery (and audiobook narrated by yours truly) as well as Why You’ve Been Duped Into Believing That The World is Getting Worse; as well as Leo De Siquiera, founder of Hopeful Eschatolgy, and rounded out with our third guest who is the author of The Power of His Reign: An Easy Introduction to Amillennialism.
We tackle quite a few things related to the end times, including where the different view points place Israel in the scheme of things, and the importance of one’s worldview and outlook and what responsibility we have in implementing the Gospel in the earth, whether we’re going to be here a while, or His return is nigh.
If you have no idea what the difference is between premillennialism, postmillennialism, and amillennialism, or between preterism, historicism, idealism and futurism — the most popular of endtimes views, make sure to check this out and hear some of our thoughts.
Join us for a great discussion.
Also make sure to check out a recent audiobook I narrated by one of our guests, The Power of His Reign: An Easy Introduction to Amillennialism on Audible.
Audible USAAudible UKAudible FRAudible DECheck Out Leo’s Hopeful Eschatology Masterclass.
And make sure to check out J.D.’s website Christos Publishing for the books mentioned in today’s discussion as well as other Pentecostal material he’s worked hard on for the last few decades.
The post Should We Expect to See an End Times Revival? appeared first on Steve Bremner.
When I started writing this post, I hadn’t seen the recent Super Bowl ads that some people are discussing online yet, and I admit I know nothing about the company or organization who paid for the two ads that have people saying “they could have spent that $100 million by giving it to the poor instead of paying for TV ads”.
When I began writing this, I did so from just having an allergic reaction in the form of a nervous twitch in response to the “Jesus would never…” and “what a waste of money that could be spend better on…” tweets and gripes on social media.
For as long as I’ve been living in another country and a part of a few ministries I’ve secretly struggled with judgmentalism toward other people who have the resources to do as they please with and secretly thought “I knew another thing they could do with the funds instead” or “If I had that kind of money I would use it differently on some noble thing or need.”
Secretly Judging Others Who Had When I Didn’tEarly in our marriage and before my freelance years, there were people I’d prayerfully reach out to to ask if they’d partner with us and support us monthly. If I even suggested only $20/month or thereabout, and they said no, I would “notice” other things they posted on social media and wonder “how do you have the funds for that but don’t want to sow into missions?”
Back then I would have leaned on the “a little bit goes a long way” (literally; the USD to local currency basically triples your money on this end in Peru in those days) point of it all.
But God did a work in my heart where I don’t pay attention to anybody anymore in that sense.
But that is just me and I’m not projecting that motive on anyone else other than to say it’s easy to criticize other people when I’m not in their shoes and remind myself to “stay in my lane” knowing I will give an account for whatever I did and didn’t do with my time and resources one day.
But I’m not saying Scripture doesn’t speak to one’s motives…
“Why Such Waste?”People saying “Jesus would never spend $100 million on ads!” or on some other thing might do well to remember He reigns from a place where the pavement is made of gold, and that he owns a thousand cattle on a thousand hills, and does other things that would offend people into burying him under a pile of folding chairs if we were really honest with ourselves.
“Why such waste?” is hardly a new complaint and it was made toward Jesus himself.
The religious people of his day got mad that a disreputable woman broke open an expensive bottle of perfume to wipe his feet with and complained “this could have been sold and the money and given it to the poor.”
In John’s account of it in chapter 12 of his Gospel, Judas is the only one mentioned and the text states he said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief.
Interesting, eh?
In Mark 14, in what appears to be a different account but similar story, there are several people complaining while a woman pours expensive perfume on Jesus’ head as opposed to his feet. Then in verse 10, Judas dashes off to the chief priests to work out a deal to betray Jesus to them for money.
Things that make you go hmmm…
Again, I know nothing of these ad sponsors or whether I’d be on board with what they do and stand for and that’s not the specific thing I’m speaking toward. I’m just reacting to armchair critics are always experts at how and where people with money should spend it, including and perhaps more with more ire directed toward Christians, which such critics otherwise spend their time championing things Jesus would not and does not approve of according to Scripture.
Nothing new under the sun.
Related Reading
Are Short-term Missions a Waste of Money?
The post Would Jesus Waste Money on Super Bowl Ads? appeared first on Steve Bremner.
I recently listened to old podcast interviews I did for the Fire On Your Head podcast, and there was one that I thought “wow, I didn’t remember how amazing this particular conversation was”.
Then I remembered what a MESS it was before I had edited the audio.
You see, a publisher had sent me a few guests to interview so they could promote their latest books. When I edited the recording (back when I used to still do all the things myself) for this particular guest, it drove me NUTS!
I know many podcasters who leave interviews “as is”, but after taking Steve Stewart’s podcast editing course several years ago before I pivoted completely into books, I couldn’t NOT edit my interviews to a high standard. He taught that you ALWAYS enhance and elevate the speakers and remove/edit whatever hinders that.
So in my own podcasts, I would now get rid of a LOT of “ums”, “uhs”, crutch words, and so forth. This particular guest repeatedly would start a thought, then backtrack and go in a different direction, and I’d realize in post production that to help it flow I needed to get rid of all those restarts and help them stay on point.
Anyway, I removed all the stuttering and restarting with the goal of helping ENHANCE the guest’s thoughts, not to censor or get rid of anything they said.
The published interview was around an hour or so long….
AFTER I had enhanced (edited) it.
Before I had published it, I shaved off 16 MINUTES of starts and stops, crutch words, and other filler.
That’s a lot of material! But listeners would never have any clue the guest was a rambler because of my ninja editing skills that I’ve largely retired from and now work with Jeremy Munns for in my audiobook editing and mastering and Bryan Entzminger for other coaching and consulting related to audio production as it comes up.
In Writing, Editing is More Than Proofreading For Typos and ErrorsOver the years I’ve confused a lot of people into thinking I’m an editor and I hear from people all the time “Steve, when I’m done writing my book and looking for an editor I’ll hit you up.”
I’m not an editor, but a publisher and writing coach. What’s the difference?
You see, very often I re-write a client’s manuscript (depending on what they’re hiring me for or request help with), because, well, you’ll see in a minute if you keep reading. And then I after I’ve done that, I hand the work to someone else yet still (most often, Lisa Thompson).
You may call such persons an “editor” I suppose.
But an editor is NOT just a glorified proofreader who catches mistakes and typos in someone’s writing. Rather, I always refer to them as writing ENHANCERS.
Your retired aunt who was an English teacher for 30 years MAY do a good job proofreading your manuscript for you, but it doesn’t [necessarily] mean she knows how to enhance your writing for the market.
When A Manuscript Needs EnhancingI once started reading a Kindle book I came across and I KNEW this was good stuff and could impact a lot of readers…
…but I could also tell it had not been properly edited.
I didn’t catch any typos or anything, but it had a lot of fluff and took forever to make his points.
It needed ENHANCING.
I messaged him and had a conversation with him privately, and he was humble and open to my suggestions, so I recommended Lisa to him, and they worked together and re-released his book a few months later in much better shape.
She helped him bring his overall word count down from 60K words to about 48K, and when I read it, I could barely tell what was different except I had remembered the things that made me reach out to him had clearly been addressed.
You may be worried you “don’t have enough content” for your book, which may be true, but that’s usually not the case.
If anything, I encounter a lot of Christian authors who have TOO MUCH material and need help trimming the fat and getting to the point (conciseness).
Many, especially first-time authors and ESPECIALLY Christians or people have experience in the clergy and preaching, believe they’re transcribing fresh revelation the Lord gave them and that to cut it down or take anything away from it would be violating a heavenly command or tarnishing the work.
The message you’re writing might be annointed but an anointing for communication doesn’t automatically mean your words are going to be understood the way you wanted.
Writing and Preaching are DIFFERENT Modes of CommunicationWhen you’re writing, you don’t need to repeat yourself repeatedly like in-person where people need help paying attention in a sermon or at a conference.
People can turn the page back and re-read your words. They don’t need you to say the same thing 4 or 5 times.
When I first started working with Kingdom authors in assisting them with self-publishing their books, I had a few complain when I gave their manuscript back to them after Lisa had done her magic and they were irked at paying for editing because they “couldn’t tell what we did with it”.
So, Lisa graciously sent me a Word version with “track changes” turned on in showing how it looked before she worked on it and what she did. Then I showed these clients the difference and it humbled them (at least I hope it did) and they never complained again.
But that’s beside the point I want to make.
A GREAT editor takes your good writing and helps you say it even more goodlier.
No, that’s not it. Lisa tells me I should say:
“A great editor helps you figure out exactly what you want to say. But even better.”
If you need help with taking your writing, especially a manuscript and saying it much better than you currently are before you put it to market, hit me up.
Let’s Talk about your Book!This is the button you click to go to my calendar
Schedule a CallThe post This is NOT What a Book Editor Does appeared first on Steve Bremner.
The study of endtimes is a contentous topic for many Western believers, especially if you’ve only ever been presented one view and don’t know what pre, post or amillennialism even is. But most Chrisians today seem to believe by default that there’s going to be a rapture, and that they’re on the first train out of here whenever it comes!
It’s easy to become convinced whatever you’ve been taught IS the way it’s going to be. Proverbs 18:17 says the first to present their case seems right, until another comes forward and questions him.
WHAT IF whatever you’ve thought about the endtimes is incorrect?
What is Amillennialism?Many Christians struggle to find the balance between ignoring the topic altogether and reading too much into current events.
But what if there was a different way to understand Jesus’s prophetic teachings?
If you can stand the sound of my voice narrating someone ELSE’s thoughts, then you’ll love The Power of His Reign: An Easy Introduction to Amillennialism, an Amazon bestseller in Eschatology by Jonathan Ammon that presents a refreshing perspective on the end times.
This book is a clear and quick introduction to the truth that God’s Kingdom is now and will continue until the Resurrection. That is the message of Amillennialism; a belief that God’s kingdom is right here and now, and that it is the reign of Christ on earth.
Built on a strong academic foundation, The Power of His Reign delves into the mysteries of Revelation 20, 2 Thess 2, and more, presenting a simple and easy-to-understand picture of Christ’s reign and return.
Don’t miss out on this transformative experience. Immerse yourself in the audio version of this primer on amillennialism and discover a new understanding of Christ’s reign and return.
Challenge what you may have previously believed and see the world in a new light.
Order your copy today or share it with someone who you’ve not yet burned bridges with from arguing about the end times.
Get the Audiobook exclusively on Audible Just click on the appropriate button.
Audible USAAudible UKAudible DEAudible FRThe post Discover Amillennialism with my latest Audiobook on Christ’s Reign and Return appeared first on Steve Bremner.
Is listening to audiobooks instead of reading “Cheating”?When it comes to reading books, many people consider physically turning the pages of a paper or hardback to be the only “legit” way to consume written content. However, with the increasing popularity of listening to audiobooks, some gatekeepers and reading purists insist listening to a book doesn’t “count” as actual reading.
And let’s face it, those people are probably not a lot of fun at parties and church potlucks, so who cares what they say anyway?
Can we do away with the myth that listening to audiobooks “doesn’t count” once and for all?Audiobooks can be a great option for individuals who struggle with reading due to physical limitations or learning disabilities. For example, I personally know several individuals with dyslexia who’ve told me it’s much easier for them to consume and process written content when it is read aloud to them via audiobooks.
Similarly, individuals with vision impairments may find audiobooks to be a more accessible form of reading.
Scientists have proven that people use the same part of the brain to listen to an audiobook as they do when they are reading a written book. When we read or listen to a book, our brains are engaged in the same process of comprehension, which involves a number of cognitive processes such as decoding the words, understanding their meaning, and making connections between the words and our prior knowledge or visualizing what’s being read.
These processes involve the activation of multiple brain regions, including the prefrontal cortex, the temporal lobe, and the parietal lobe. So, whether we are reading a written book or listening to an audiobook, our brains are working in similar ways to understand the text and derive meaning from it.
The Science of Listening to Audiobooks is Settled!According to a recent article in Discover Magazine, people who listen to audiobooks can understand the book just as well as someone who read it.
So while YOU may find that you retain information better when you read a physical book, as it allows you to go back and re-read sections or make notes in the margins, it isn’t the case for others. Some people may find that listening to an audiobook is less immersive than reading a physical book as it can be harder to visualize the characters and settings when they are described through spoken words.
But scientifically, it makes no difference to our brain.
It’s just a matter of personal preference.
Despite these potential drawbacks, there is no denying that listening to audiobooks can be a convenient and effective way to consume written content.
While some people may prefer the traditional method of physically reading a book, others may find that listening to audiobooks is a more convenient and effective way to consume written content. Ultimately, the most important thing is that people are engaging with and enjoying written content, regardless of the format in which they consume it.
Historical Precedence of Listening to TeachingMy Christian readers should appreciate the fact that in early Jewish culture and first century Rome, only a small percentage of the population were literate. Most of the stories and teachings of rabbis and eventually epistles that made it to our Scripture canon were passed down orally.
People listened to the teachers.
The Apostle Paul repeatedly asked for his letters to be READ aloud in local congregations. They weren’t printed and Xeroxed and a copy given to every person present.
And remember, just like Romans 10:17 says, “faith comes from reading.” Oops.
Let’s try another one, “man shall not live on bread alone, but from reading every word that once came from the mouth of God and was transcribed into our Bibles”.
You get the point. Absorbing teachings and information is very much an auditory experience as much as a visual one.
Whether you read or listen doesn’t matter.
Plus, the science is settled and if there’s one thing our culture tells us it’s that you can’t question science no matter what!
Further ReadingIs Listening to Audiobooks Really Reading? WIRED’s spiritual advice columnist on bardic traditions for a modern age—and why book snobs worry about the wrong things.
Of course audiobooks count as reading. “The notion that there are cultural gatekeepers who get to say “what counts” feels … medieval. And I mean that literally.” by Judi Ketteler on NBCNews.
The post Is Reading a Book More Legit than Listening to One? appeared first on Steve Bremner.
This week I got to talk to a long-time friend I’ve kept in touch with over the years since we both attended Bible School, albeit having both gone on way different albeit similar journeys. Kris Bennett was the one who answered the phone when I called FIRE School of Ministry in the summer of 2001 […]
The post Biblical Wealth and a Good Reputation | Kris Bennett appeared first on Steve Bremner.
This week I got to sit down over Zoom and talk to my first French Canadian guest, Sebastien Richard. He is an author, Bible teacher, and the founder of Thriving on Purpose. He was brought up in a poor, broken, and unstable household and surrendered life when he had a powerful encounter with the Lord Jesus […]
The post What is the Scribe Anointing? How to Thrive on Purpose appeared first on Steve Bremner.
We finally have a new interview on the podcast, and it’s with someone I would have had on the show earlier had I actually been podcasting in the last three years. Welcome J.D. King. This show is still called ‘fire on your head’, and we’re all about spreading the fire of the Gospel to as […]
The post Christian, Stop Being So Afraid Of Marketing Your Books! appeared first on Steve Bremner.
This week I was a guest on a podcast geared toward pastors and the tech people who work with churches and ministries. Talk about a niche audience. Again, KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE ;) I was invited to talk about book writing and whether it would behoove pastors to create a book since most of them are already […]
I’ve seen this come up in varioius writing and narration groups I’m in, and also have read horror stories of authors finding out someone else out there had stolen their work or put up obstacles regarding the copyright claims of a book on ACX but earlier I found out about it directly affecting an author […]
Greetings friends, enemies and frenemies hate-reading my blog. ACX has just released the latest audiobook I performed for Praying Medic. This is my fifth one to date in his Kingdom of God Made Simple series. Which book this time? Traveling in the Spirit Made Simple. I began recording it immiedately after I finished the Dream […]
You may have already seen or heard that Creflo Dollar did a teaching recently that has gone viral (depending on the circles you’re in) and so, of course, people are arguing over whether tithing is biblical or not. You can see the video here. Regardless of what you think of him or his teaching or […]
Ebook before Audiobook, not the other way around. This seems like common sense if you want to do a good job, but convoluted if you’re in a hurry and would rather do it fast, right? I’ve seen this come up a few times in a few business groups I’m in on Facebook, usually by gurus […]
“My book is so good, and even IF there are any typos or misspellings, I have a good eye for that stuff and don’t need an editor.” You may have heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect: a cognitive bias in which people of low skill at something mistakenly believe their ability is much greater than it actually is. […]
And most importantly, do they know how to get there? “If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” Matthew 15:14 It’s extremely important we don’t just believe and follow whomever or whatever, whether online or offline, just because it already suits our preconceived notions. On Facebook I’m in writing […]
This post continues some of what I’ve brought up in past articles with regard to whether authors should even make audiobooks in the first place, but specifically, those Christian authors who may consider narrating your own audiobooks at some point. I’m not here to talk you out of it, but to give you something else to […]
If you don’t look the part of a professional and trustworthy expert, people will ignore your higher prices and question them. People can spot that disconnect and incongruity from a mile away, yet so many authors and experts I meet who are trying to launch a book give this no thought, to their own peril. […]
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Steve Bremner (@steviebremner) Greetings friends, enemies and frenemies hate-reading my blog. ACX has just released the latest audiobook I performed for Praying Medic. This is my fourth one to date, and the fifth one in his Kingdom of God Made Simple series. The book? Dream Interpretation […]
I recently finished reading a sales book on my Kindle that I had picked up at a business mentor’s suggestion. I read a lot, so even if it’s a book I already intend to read, it can still take me a while to get around to it. In fact, if you are an author and […]
I once saw this meme somewhere, probably one of the writing groups or business pages I’m in on Facebook. But when I couldn’t find it again I decided to re-make it so I could share it. So here you go, but please don’t share it. It’s stupid. Next time someone tells you self-publishing isn’t a […]
This is a “future reference” post. I know a lot of people don’t need this information, but the frequency with which I’m contacted with this particular narration request, through the form on my website, is high enough that I’m posting this so I can refer people to it instead of constantly answering emails with a […]
Greetings fellow revolutionaries. I recently got to narrate another book in Praying Medic‘s Kingdom of God Made Simple series. This is my third time narrating for him, and incidentally is also the third book in that series, Hearing God’s Voice Made Simple, and some of you might have heard of us each other’s podcast over […]
I showed this Blockbuster Video membership to my daughter once last year after finding it while cleaning out my desk. I explained to her the archaic way Gen Xers, older millennials, and Xennnials used to watch movies. I’m not sure she appreciated it, so let me tell you a similar story to what I told […]
This Instagram tag was a pleasant surprise to wake up to one morning several weeks back. I realize if I had wanted to post about this the week it happened, I’m a bit late. I took a screenshot of Jen Sincero‘s post and was going to share it on social media, and then … I […]
There, I said it. I’m not writing that title as clickbait, either. One of my absolute favorite clients I’ve ever had was also a Boomer, as are some of my repeat/recurring clients, but hey, I see generalizations made ALL. THE. TIME about millennials, Gen X, Gen Z, walking fossils, etc… so it’s fair game. I […]
Note: I’ve updated this post to reflect that the book has since come out. I also apologize for this post having more links than a Polish sausage factory, but what are you gonna do? Desperation repels, and we trust referrals I’ve been thinking of how often people chase after me to get me to hire […]
Recently I had already talked to 3 prospective clients all before lunch one Monday morning. Two of the calls were about traditional publishing versus self-publishing.
I don’t expect new authors who’ve never released a book before (or even written one, yet) to realize all there is to navigate in the world of publishing. This helps me to not roll my eyes when I see first-time posters ask in writing groups:
“Should I self-publish or go with a traditional publisher?”
Simple answer: unless you already have a built-in following that you can sell at least a couple thousand books out of the gate to, you don’t have a choice. Self-publishing is the path before you.
Something like fewer than 1 in 1000 manuscripts that the average publishing house receives actually leads to getting published. Even then, getting your book selected to be printed and distributed into bookstores is still a lot of strategic work on the part of the author.
It’s NOT a magic bullet to success.
That said, I recently had someone tell me they no longer wanted to self-publish their book but instead planned on getting a traditional publisher, otherwise, they feared they’d never be able to make the bestseller lists.
Let’s back up a little bit.
Sales are what determine your bestseller status, not whether you were under a big name publisher or self-published.
But while we’re at it, most new authors are not as close to being in that position as we wishfully think we are. “Best-selling” status is often just a vanity metric of little to no actual value.
I’ve lost track of how many times I see a listing on Amazon that refers to itself as an Amazon Bestseller because one day, perhaps during launch week, they were able to sell a concentrated number of copies in a short window and ranked number 1 in an obscure category with no competition like Microscopes & Microscopy books. Yes, that category actually exists.
Amazon sales ranking must be taken with a grain of salt. Being #1 in a niche category is a far cry from being #1 on Amazon overall.Click To Tweet An Amazon sales ranking only gives a rough idea about a book’s actual sales on their platform. Their system updates rankings every hour, so the numbers constantly change throughout the day. A book could have a good ranking in the morning and a worse ranking that same night. You could have been a bestseller at one moment, but then a few days later fell off the map and rank in the millions again.
That’s why I take it with a grain of salt when I see an author refer to themselves as an “Amazon Bestseller”. I assume they’re either a new author who doesn’t know better or a disingenuous marketing guru trying to pull a fast one.
This article by Rob Eagar elaborates more on why and how Amazon rankings work in relation to sales. Telling people your book is a #1 bestseller on Amazon means absolutely nothing, as he explains,
Any author who makes such a claim smacks of desperation and a lack of ethics. Here’s why:
Any author can mount a marketing campaign that temporarily spikes a book to #1 in an obscure Amazon category for a brief period of time – maybe one day or two. But, that spike is a fleeting moment, which quickly drops off. If a book gets to #1, you could use my chart above and guess that it sold 100, 250, or even 1,000 copies in one day. That’s good, but it’s still not that many copies sold.
Then, what about the next day when the ranking quickly falls off to 500, 2,500, or 5,000? Sales are back to modest amounts of 50 – 100 per day. Therefore, a brief spike to #1 on Amazon doesn’t mean a lot of books were actually sold. In order to hit the legitimate bestseller lists, such as the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, or Publishers Weekly, you’ve got to sell around 5,000 copies or more in a week.
Yeah Steve, that’s why I want to go with a traditional publisher. Duh! Well hold on there, Mr. imaginary composite of many different people I’ve talked to.
This other article, How Bestseller Lists Actually Work — And How To Get On Them is a few years old and is specifically about how bestseller lists (particularly the New York Times) work, but this point is pertinent: Unless you know you’re going to sell, say, even AT LEAST 2000 copies in the first few months after your book’s release, a publisher is not likely to take a chance on your book as a first-time author in the first place:
“Many experts will tell you that you only need to sell 5,000 books to hit the bestseller list. That’s not wrong, but 5,000 doesn’t work many times. In my experience helping dozens of authors work through this process, if you are an unknown author, the bar is higher. The 5,000 number is applicable to known authors and books that have already been on the list, but it is very dangerous for first time or non-established authors.
How do you get 10,000 pre-orders? There are two basic ways to do this — you already have an audience who is willing to pre-order your book or you spend a lot of money to buy your way onto the list. The latter is basically cheating, and it usually costs more than $200,000.
and,
If you don’t have an audience or email list who are used to buying from you, don’t bank on podcasts and Twitter promotions to find that audience. It won’t work. Only a systematic and well-executed plan will.”
and,
For entrepreneurs whose main revenue source is their business, and they use books as marketing tools, I can tell you this — hitting a bestseller list creates very few tangible results for your book. It doesn’t get your book much more attention. It doesn’t help sales much. It doesn’t get in front of many more clients or help your marketing.
I’m not saying it has zero effect. It can have some. Almost all of the impact of hitting a bestseller list is personal and social impact. There is not much business or sales impact, and when you measure the low impact against the high trade-offs, it’s a bad decision.
Simply put, in Stevie B-ese: it’s a very vapid and useless goal to strive for. Especially if you read stories like this one of Brent Underwood, who took a photo of his foot, uploaded it to Amazon, and in a matter of hours, had achieved “No. 1 Best Seller” status, complete with the orange banner and everything.
How did he achieve this?
By asking his friends to buy the book.
You can buy the book he wrote about here:
Just worry about building your platform, creating quality content, and along with that, learn some sales and marketing skills, network with other authors and influencers in your niche who can perhaps help you spread the word of your book — and oh, did I already mention create quality content?
These are ingredients that are more likely to help you achieve best-seller status. Let other people, a.k.a your readers help you become a best-seller.
On that note, I’ll close with a link to a brilliant article about not calling yourself a thought leader.
3 Reasons You Should Never Call Yourself a Thought Leader
If I see your Amazon bio states that you are an Amazon bestseller or a thought leader, I immediately assume you’re not actually either one, and you instantly lose all credibility with me.
And we all know how hard it is to correct a lasting first impression.
Imagine for a moment that you’re a renowned chef at a decent restaurant. One day you have a patron, who let’s say had eaten the entire meal, took a week to write a review on Yelp about your restaurant and what they thought of the food, and then this patron calls the restaurant and asks for a full refund of that meal because they didn’t like it.
The meal that they ate over a week ago.
To make things more relevant to the analogy I’m going with (which I got from a fellow narrator named Dan Lewis), let’s also pretend that this restaurant you work for as a chef was bought out in recent years by a much larger company and this company promotes a policy to their patrons that if they don’t like the meal, they can get a refund or be compensated for it, no questions asked, even if it’s weeks after they have already eaten it.
Not only can patrons get a refund for a meal, even if they’ve already eaten it, but the policy is that you, the chef are required to pay for it out of YOUR salary, each and every time a patron does this.
You’d be none too pleased, you say? Good! That’s the appropriate thought process to this analogy. But yet it’s exactly what Amazon/Audible does to the content creators who provide the books produced for the big company to sell and make money from on their platform and marketplace.
The Viral Article Making The Rounds on How to Game the Audible System There’s an article whose link is getting shared and making the rounds in various narrator and audiobook groups I’m a part of on Facebook that I wanted to make a blog post of my own to address.
The title is How to Rent Books with Audible, and the article’s blog header actually says “Free Audiobooks”, like in this image below:
From https://www.yaplex.com/blog/how-to-rent-books-with-audible The post evidently was published in April 2020, although in a screenshot I’ve seen from an email he wrote another narrator acquaintance he claims to have originally written it 5 years prior. I’m including as much detail from it as necessary just in case he’s now getting a lot of haranguing emails from narrators and decides to take this post down (Oct 27th edit: it appears the author has taken the post down since I published this article, but either way, a simple Google search turns up results just like this article or this one). It appears to only lately have been getting under the noses of many of the narrators I rub shoulders within certain groups on Facebook.
The article’s author, Alex Shapovalov, founder of a software development company in Mississauga, Ontario, begins his article with the following observation:
As many of you know, you can buy audiobooks from Audible, but not all of you know then you can also rent books from Audible, although Audible does not call it “renting” and does not advertise anywhere on their website renting option. The service called Great Listen Guarantee and what it is doing, is allowing you to return any book back to Audible if for some reasons you did not like the book, and get your credit back (also you get credit each month with your subscription) and use this credit to buy a new book.
Though Audible may not “advertise renting” or even call it that, it’s evident users are using the service in precisely this way. And being encouraged to do so.
I don’t judge Shapovalov’s motives or reasons for sharing these findings with his readers, because I’m sure they were and are well-intended. But let’s look at this “Great Listen Guarantee”, which according to the author, “is allowing you to return any book and get your credit back.” It should be noted, a quick search of Audible didn’t yield a Great Listener Guarantee result at the time of this writing, so perhaps they don’t guarantee this anymore or call it something else since the publication of the original article.
Shapovalov then goes on to show in detailed instructions along with screenshots just how to go about returning a book, and follows that up with the following:
I know that a lot of people has concerns if returning books too often can flag their account or even block it. I also had the same concerns, so I contacted the support team and asked a direct question if I can return books because I just want to read another book. The answer was YES, and I was assured that there are no consequences to such behavior.
Whoa boy!
So the preoccupation Mr. Shapovalov may have had when he wrote this is not about any of the consequences this has for those of us — authors, narrators, publishers, and audio producers who create the content which Audible sells and makes a profit on, and how we are the ones who get charged with paying out-of-pocket for returned audiobooks. Instead, the worry is whether it will get the consumer’s Audible account flagged!
I wonder if Shapovalov would feel the same way about his software being pirated and users online being encouraged by employees at his company to go illegally download and pirate his software free of charge?
Following these comments, he shows a transcript of his conversation with someone from Audible, basically encouraging this use of the exchange system. It should be noted, though, if you go to Audible’s site for yourself, they claim:
Our exchange policy allows active Audible Premium Plus members to take a chance on a new narrator or story without losing a credit. Our ability to continue to offer this benefit is dependent on our members using it for this purpose only.
In instances where we find the benefit is being overused, Audible reserves the right in its sole discretion to limit the number of exchanges and refunds allowed by each member, including, but not limited to, the loss of this benefit where Audible suspects abuse of the spirit of the program. Eligibility for this program ends immediately if a customer cancels or fails to maintain his or her membership in good standing.
Well, that would be all well and good, if not for how widespread the expectation seems to have become among readers and listeners that this is an effective way to get free audiobooks. Shapovalov shares the transcripts between himself and an Audible rep who encourages this practice. Screenshots and captures like this below demonstrate some readers/listener’s view of the exchange program is that it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread:
I saw this comment on an author friend’s post who had accidentally bought a german audiobook and was glad she could return it for the English one. a few people left comments like this. Audible Even Encourages Exchanges Now, I don’t blame most readers and listeners for not being aware of what this is doing to audiobook narrators and their authors. Everywhere you look, Audible not only encourages it but makes it easy. Take a look at these images:
- From the Sign up page at Audible UK
- Audible UK Mobile sign up page
- From the Mobile app (Thanks Sean Dureggar)
- With wording like “Exchange”, customers may not even realize they are abusing the system (Thanks Richard Karowski)
Readers and Listeners, Here’s What You Might Not Realize More and more, Amazon/Audible is positioning itself as a subscription service without having to pay royalties for its content. Many authors and narrators put a LOT of work into our books, and when you return an audiobook to Audible to re-use the credit on another book, they take it out of our pockets. We do not get paid for returns even if the entire book was listened to. The multi-billion-dollar Amazon subsidiary company is not really affected by returns but the indie authors creating those books are.
It’s the narrators and authors who spend thousands of dollars of our own money to create these titles, with every recorded hour of an audiobook easily representing 6-8 hours of time spent by professionals to produce it.
We submit an audiobook to ACX who distributes it to Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. And ACX keeps 60% of all sales on that project, and give only 40% to the rights-holder (usually the author or publisher). And that’s ONLY if we’re selling it exclusively with them. If we do a non-exclusive deal so we can sell our audiobook elsewhere (like Kobo, Google Play or subscription sites like Scribd, to name but a few), ACX only pays 25% per copy sold on their marketplace.
So we’re already getting a crappy deal in terms of how Amazon by comparison gives its self-published authors 70% royalties on ebooks sold on their platform, but its subsidiary is actively encouraging customers to return books for another one, screwing us over.
As a reader, I appreciate and am grateful for the option I can get a refund for any accidental purchases and can count on one hand how many times I’ve availed myself of this feature. But even in that case, you have to do it within 7 days of the purchase.
Audible, not to be outdone, gives people 365 days, AND with “no questions asked, any reason”. If that weren’t bad enough, it’s been brought to my attention many times this month that Audible is apparently ENCOURAGING listeners to use this feature. I’ve even seen blog posts teaching readers and listeners how to keep getting returns on Audible with one credit being used repeatedly. In fact, just do a search on Google for “Audible exchange” or similar wording, and you get a lot of tutorials from even popular websites.
Why is This Such a Big Deal? Susan May, a fellow author and founder of a group on Facebook currently named, Fair Deal for Rights Holders & Narrators points out in one of her posts I share a portion of below with her permission, the issues with the way Audible is marketing their Guarantee is that:
- There’s a growing awareness and perception that this is an acceptable practice as it is featured in advertising and spread through word of mouth and groups;
- There’s no mechanism to stop those misusing the “easy exchange” system;
- It’s implemented as a way of keeping members since when members attempt to cancel, they are taken to a page that suggests they simply return books, to gain greater use of the service. If you’re not a member you can’t return books.
- Anecdotal evidence suggests whole series and back catalogs are being consumed with one credit, despite Audible claiming you can only re-use a credit on one more book or reuse a credit only once.
- There’s a perception that Audible/Amazon is rich and they can afford to do this or that it’s not a big loss to their bottom line. Readers and listeners are rarely aware it is affecting the content creators.
- Audible/Amazon are teaching readers that authors’ and narrators’ work should be free and assigning no value. This is probably a consequence of the increasing “Netflix’ model of paying a monthly membership fee for “unlimited” content where consumers now expect access to a catalog of such content for a small monthly fee.
I would just like to appeal to you that if you want to listen to unlimited audiobooks, there are other services you can do that with who at least compensate the authors and narrators to some degree. And, Audible now has “Audible Plus“, which is a monthly membership like Kindle Unlimited or Netflix where you can get unlimited listens for a monthly fee which includes a large selection of books, including classics. (Link on Audible here for more info).
Most indie authors are not listed in this Audible Plus program, but the selection of available titles is large enough that if you’re on that tight of a budget that you can’t afford a new audiobook each month with one of your Audible credits, then I’m sure you can still find plenty of original and exclusive content to enjoy.
So if you want your favorite narrators and authors to continue to produce audiobooks, please spread the word to be ethical audiobook consumers. The only direction this can go in is either enough authors get so frustrated they boycott Audible and make their work available elsewhere, and leave you, the listener less selection in Audible than you’d otherwise get. OR, your favorite narrators and authors give up on producing such audiobooks due to the high cost of producing them, not to mention the unfair return rate eating into whatever profits would have offset their production cost.
Simply put, everybody but Amazon/Audible are hurt by this in the long run.
Since many listeners and Audible customers don’t realize the way narrators are shafted by this policy of Audible’s, please share this article with them and spread the word. Further Reading Audiblegate! The incredible true story of missing sales
We Need to Talk About Audible
Why this author is taking a stand against Amazon’s audiobook dominance
Other Resources on This Issue
If you want to receive deferred results-based payment in your business that’s up to you and you don’t have to listen to me. I’m not your mom.
But let’s discuss this a little bit so you can take some things into consideration so that way I don’t see you posting in Facebook groups asking how to get a deadbeat client to pay you for your work when it could have been avoided in the first place.
These are just a few of the things I’ve learned over the years, both through the school of hard knocks and thanks to some of my business coaches.
How do you handle it when a prospect wants to forego paying you in actual cash and instead requests to pay once they get results? Every so often I get a prospective client on a strategy session, discovery call, or who slides into my DMs who’s looking to pay me “with the results”.
In the audiobook world, for example, a lot of authors hire a narrator and split the book royalties. This attracts a lot of authors on a shoestring budget or who, for whatever reason, are unable or unwilling to pay a narrator or producer’s going rate. The way it works, in theory, is that the narrator is basically recording and narrating your book for free, or really a deferred payment plan, and you both agree to set up ACX or whatever other services you’re using to publish your audiobooks who will divide the royalties evenly between the two of you for the next 7 years.
Narrators who are new to Audible or Amazon and are “building their portfolio” are enticed by this payment setup more than seasoned pros who have no problem finding clients who will pay their rate or who know how to pick good royalty-share projects that are likely going to make back more than enough to pay the narrator’s rate. Perhaps newly self-published authors who haven’t the faintest clue how much work narrating and producing an audiobook is are more prone to look for the cheapest way they can get their book produced and the deferred payment of royalty-splitting is appealing.
I’m almost never keen on doing a royalty-split in the context of audiobooks nor in writing services, which is not indicative of me disbelieving we can make a project sell well. I have tangible expenses like paying my editor and designer upfront for their roles. Having done a few royalty shares with authors on the audiobooks I’ve narrated for them has left me gun shy about working for a deferred payment with no guarantees of compensation, and my projected budget for a project like this would require me to, and result in, paying my subcontractors out of my own pocket.
For that reason, I charge a flat fee in the first place as this is a largely paid-for-work service I’m offering.
But the reason I’m asking this today is not specifically audiobook-related.
Why should I have more skin in the game with your book than you do? You see, my guarantee that your written book will sell well is if only I’m involved in being able to have creative input or control in certain key aspects of the book, like making sure you have a quality (read: professional) cover, the content is stellar, professionally edited as well as well-written in the first place.
Oh, and that the client will DO what I suggest and implement.
Otherwise, the marketing effort we put forward will not result in success.
And if no success, such a client expecting to only pay when they get results, will not want to pay.
Um, no thank you!
So, my “guaranteed results”, if you will, depend on me actually being able to do everything with excellence. This doesn’t happen if I can’t pay my team and I’m forced to volunteer my skills.
If you want to let your niece design your cover because it would hurt her feelings if you didn’t, but yet she can’t design a cover for market or that would actually sell your book, then I’m sorry to say it, but I will not expect results. I’ve said before just because you get a nice cover doesn’t mean it’s one that will sell.
I’ve been thinking about this as I’ve had authors in strategy sessions who’ve suggested having me work for them on some kind of “commission basis”. I’m not sure how that would work in their minds exactly, as the services I offer have to do with helping coaches and thought leaders write and launch their books, but things like ghostwriting and audiobook narration are time-consuming, so… why should I not get compensated for that time? My standard packages all include ALSO providing a cover and working with a professional editor.
Both of whom I pay.
No editor worth their salt is going to work for a % of royalties on a book or deferred/results-based performance. If I’m being hired to ghostwrite or heavily re-write the content, I’m now spending MY time working on it, and not making any profit for those hours, as well as shelling out money from my own pocket to produce a quality book, so….
. . . how do I know the author will pull their weight to promote the book and sell it enough to pay me back for my time and expenses?
Basically, why should I have to pay to work for you?
Why should I have more skin in the game for your book than you do?
There’s no way you will be able to answer the above questions with even close to a good answer.
So no, I don’t work for results-based payment. You either trust me and decide to hire me, or you don’t. But if you do, then my focus is to make sure you write a bestseller or become a thought-leader in your space thanks to your book.
“Clases pagada, clases dada” My wife used to say about English classes she’d offer to neighbors of ours: “Clases pagada, clases dada.” It doesn’t rhyme or sound as lovely in English as it does in Spanish, but translates basically “classes paid for, classes given”. We came up with this policy after she had parents stiff her for 6 weeks’ worth of English classes and tutoring.
Every Saturday morning for that period was blocked off while she helped this pre-adolescent with her English homework and helping her learn more intermediate English while I watched our recent-born. It was an inconvenience and not really the way we’d liked to spend our weekends, but the thought never entered Lili’s mind that these parents would not pay her.
Until they didn’t.
After six weeks and numerous requests for payment, Lili put an end to this manner of teaching and tutoring and required upfront payment in the future from other parents who asked her to tutor their kids, until motherhood inhibited her from being able to anymore.
It was a lesson for us in forgiveness and not chasing after the parents, no matter how awkward passing each other in the street may have been in the months, even years, that followed.
You’ll protect yourself from wasting time working for nothing when you charge a deposit or upfront payment, even if the client or prospect doesn’t think it protects them much if you receive a down payment or installment before you lift a finger to do any work for them.
I only have two repeat or recurring clients I do accept payments from once the work is done, and in both cases they are super generous and have built trust with me over the years that they can be relied on to come through, paying my invoices super promptly.
But there’s no way I’m going to take this chance on you if you’re a new client and we’ve not built up trust.
It’s appealing if you’re new and haven’t had any clients yet. Beginners in any service or client-based business should NOT do these kinds of performance-based deals. If you are in coaching or consulting and offer your knowledge and intellectual property in a “pay when you get results” method of payment, which is totally your prerogative if you do, what happens if your client doesn’t implement on your action steps and gets no results? How do you measure and value your time wasted in that case?
If you offer your talent and skills and create something (art, design, writing, music, etc…) there aren’t always “results” to point to as to whether you’ve earned your payment. What’s to stop the prospective client from deciding you didn’t follow through on some arbitrary results? This, of course, is assuming you both had a clear agreement or contract of expectations and what constitutes “results”.
I learned this lesson the hard way when I first started. I think four out of my first writing coaching clients were offered payment plans where the final payment was due when our work was complete or super close to it.
Care to guess what happened?
Each of them didn’t follow through on their part, complete the work or delayed it immensely. If I was dependent on them to do their part (finish writing a manuscript, or review and approve ghostwriting of mine, etc…), and only then would I get paid, then guess what? I most certainly didn’t get paid as they each dragged their feet and felt no urgency as payment was results-based instead of timeframe-oriented. This put me into financial binds more than once as in those days I was budgeting as though clients would do the right thing, and I otherwise give people the benefit of the doubt.
Since changing my policy, and charging recurring payments on a fixed date or timeframe (i.e. every 30 days), rather than milestone-based payments, I’ve not only avoided this problem, but I’ve seen it work effectively with the type of clients I work with who actually DO the work.
There is something motivating about investing in something first.
I got this on social media, but it looks like it comes from https://creativeyadley.com/ Lowballing and Deferred Payments Actually Hurt My Mission work In closing, let me repeat something I once said in a previous post, Scarcity vs Abundance Mindset or “I’m no longer taking on Ishmael Clients”:
I’m no longer willing to say “no” to the things the Lord tells me to do [in ministry], but I am getting better at saying no to certain prospects who otherwise could use my help. My prices reflect the anticipated amount of work required for something I’ll agree to so that I can afford my missionary objectives without worrying about the finances to manifest. I have disciples in this lovely nation whom Lili and I help substantially more than we used to when we were broke.
I owe it to the people I serve in Peru to charge “high” prices in my client work and not lowball, otherwise, my wife and I can’t serve them or help them in truly meaningful ways like we ought to.
To add clarification to that thought, when I undercharge or work for deferred payments that I’m not truly guaranteed, my time “per-hour” becomes much less profitable and I’m forced to take on additional work to compensate. As such, I’m less available to even do the ministry such work is designed to fund!
So, no, I will not jeopardize my ministry, either, by lowballing myself.
Another thing to take into consideration, especially if your prospect believes only paying when they get results is an “incentive for you to do a good job” is that, again, it often has the opposite effect: When you’re committed to only being paid once you’ve completed the work or you provided some specific result, you may need to tackle other projects to pay your bills and wind up getting pulled in several different directions at the same time, and the focus you can give that one client is more easily divided and you need to push them to the back of the line.
I learned this lesson the hard way, and then a particular client in question was frequently upset I wasn’t giving his project my undivided attention when in reality, I had no choice since I had lowballed this client and allowed them to break up my fee even more into multiple-month installments. The individual payments were way too low to be able to work exclusively without also taking on other work. That didn’t matter to the client.
There are many additional reasons why you should at least charge a deposit before starting any client-based work or service, but these are at the top of my list for now and this is a long enough post for today.
The Kind of Clients I Work Best With Are you looking to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry, and gain more speaking engagements?
Your own book will open those doors.
Perhaps you already are busy in the conferences (or right now, Zoom conferences) and want to sell or give away a book of your expertise at your events.
If you are willing to trust my creative input and expertise, we’ll be a great fit. So long as you recognize that building your authority and influence needs to be your #1 priority, and you trust my process of delivering this to you through the creation of your book, then I’m more than happy to serve you.
Just not on a “pay-with-results” payment plan.
If you are a coach, consultant, entrepreneur, or an expert looking to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry, but need help writing or launching your book, my team and I can help.
Book a call with me and let’s get down to it!
Schedule a Discovery Call
Further Reading: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-i-wont-write-your-biz-book-royalties-joleene-moody/
Click on image to Get the book on Amazon In an alternate reality that splintered off from this one sometime in the mid-to-late 1990s, Steve Bremner pursued his improv comedy career. Not realizing until he was in the thick of it that he was not very funny at doing characters and sketch comedy, nor particularly talented as an actor, he focused mostly on writing bits for others and performing stand-up comedy instead.
In this other life, he wound up going down a path that led to him becoming a writer on Saturday Night Live and a sometimes on-air talent, but never a full member of the cast.
It’s in this venue that his passion for creating content, writing, and impacting peoples’ lives comes to fruition.
Through comedy.
After many years writing thousands of mediocre sketches that never made it to air, and hundreds of ones that do but are hit or miss, Steve finally followed in the footsteps of his hero and fellow Canadian comedian Norm Macdonald (who’s self-narrated autobiography Based On a True Story is also hilarious) and becomes anchor of the long-running Weekend Update fake news segment.
And by “fake news”, I mean sarcastic and satiric takes on current events delivered from behind a desk like the news.
OK, back to this reality.
I rarely watch SNL down here in Peru live when it’s broadcast, I’m well aware of Jost’s comedic stylings and delivery on the WU segment with co-anchor Michael Che thanks to YouTube and FB page videos.
The on-air performance-done-live aspect of it, as well as the behind-the-scenes writing and creation of that particular American TV and pop-culture institution.has always fascinated me.
For this reason, I thought nothing of spending one of my Audible credits on the new memoir from Colin Jost, A Very Punchable Face. Some chapters made me think there was little rhyme or reason for including them other than the funny delivery, which Jost does himself, but otherwise, the self-deprecating book was very entertaining, insightful, and enjoyable.
You see, Jost and I are close in age, and in many ways, other than the Harvard graduation thing and actually having hair, I see a lot in him that reminds me of myself if, as I mentioned in the 3rd intro to this article, I had gone another route in life.
I didn’t previously know or realize his mom was a first-responder on 9/11 and was actually buried under rubble for a time when the first tower collapsed and survived to help others.
I also didn’t previously realize a lot of things, like that he didn’t speak a single word until he was 4 years old. This was encouraging to me because my current 3-year-old and second daughter struggles pronunciation and expressing herself. This is almost the polar opposite of her 6-year-old sister, who I affectionately nickname Jabber Jaw, who was yakking away with everybody and always inquisitive when she was not even 18 months old yet.
So, it gives me great hope and encouragement for my own child who is late so-far at developing her verbal skills.
I also didn’t know that fellow SNL alum Will Forte was originally hired to write for The Late Show with David Letterman when he sent in crudely drawn images that looked like a child had drawn them as part of his writing packet. According to Jost, the writers of that show thought they were hilarious and Letterman walked by the writers’ room one moment when they were all being pass around, saw them, and on the spot said “hire that guy!”
Then Forte was fired nine months later.
Most importantly, and the real reason for even bothering to review the book here on my website is for the same reason I once wrote a review about why every writer needed to read Stephen King’s writing memoir: Jost is a writer, first and foremost, albeit in a comedy institution.
You see, I’m a sucker for podcasts and audiobooks by other comedians, especially when it involves the craft of writing itself. There is a lot to learn from comedians as there’s not a lot of difference between writing personal non-fiction, whether in a blog, ebooks, or even creating a podcast. I’ve learned a lot about the mindset and the way different performers and entertainers create their material. Probably as much or more so than reading or learning from other non-fiction authors.
Another bonus is that even though I don’t believe all authors should perform or narrate their own audiobooks, Jost is definitely in the category of writers who know how to do it right. Perhaps from his 6 plus seasons of writing and performing on Weekend Update.
Colin has just enough enthusiasm and self-deprecation and a dose of laughing at his own recollection of certain experiences and events in his life, which is only picked up in the audiobook version. I mean, how many other authors do you know who will write an entire chapter about how many times they’ve crapped their pants as an adult and let the whole world know about it? His timing and comedic delivery are brilliantly executed more often than not.
I realize that not every author or memoir writer will be writing in a profoundly humorous way, but there is still a lot to learn from reading or listening to this particular book. Just a warning to my more sensitive or Christian friends and followers that the book has a LOT of vulgarity and some chapters glorifying lifestyle decisions with some pride I wouldn’t imagine you relating to unless it’s your “BC years”. You’ve been warned, so no need to write to me and complain I’d promote it.
If you’re open to it, there’s a lot to take away here, and I’m probably going to listen to the audiobook again in another 6 months just for the clever wordplay alone. And like the story shared above about Will Forte, even whenever Jost deviates from his own narratives and shares details about other people, they are always fascinating enough that they never feel like he’s deviating from his own story. They always fit in enough to service the point he’s making.
Also, as you read or listen to this book, it’s likely the tidbits he decided to share are probably just a fraction of the stories he probably could have included if this is the one-shot he’s going to take at writing a book. What I mean by that is it doesn’t feel like a book filled with fluff or stories added to pad the page count, but that the things he’s included were given careful thought, but still like mentioned earlier, sometimes I didn’t understand his choice for chapter breakdown or why certain chapters or stories are included.
If you’re a writer, or more specifically if you’re a writer who’s thinking of narrating their own audiobook, then listen to A Very Punchable Face: A Memoir for a lot of insight on how to do it the right way.
However many stars I feel like out of however many stars there are.
If you’ve been connected with me a while, you may already know I do a lot of writing and helping others write and launch their books. So either because of that or perhaps as a result of it, my brain is trained to think and read words a certain way.
ONE aspect of that involves sources, citations, and verifying information before automatically accepting it as fact or processing what I’m being told.
Whenever I see someone write in their manuscript “it’s been said that…” my question is “WHO said that?” If the author can’t provide the answer, we need to address that by either finding it out or using such a quote in a different way. Or removing it altogether and making the point in their own words.
If a quote is not cited or the author doesn’t PROPERLY credit where it comes from (I admit that not that many years ago, I also didn’t know how to do this correctly), then sometimes the editor I work with finds them out for an additional fee. Shout out to the amazing Lisa Thompson.
As a result, we’ve stopped some authors from unintentionally causing problems for themselves, like accidentally attributing something to themselves that they didn’t actually come up with or plagiarizing material and getting into trouble with other content creators or rights holders who may find out about the unattributed quotations.
That said, I endeavor to apply critical thinking skills in other areas of my life. As a result, Facebook almost gives me an aneurysm on a daily basis anymore. It has already been like this for a while, but I feel like this pandemic as well it being a US election year has poured gasoline on the fire with all the unverified memes and videos different people post or even send me in my inbox telling me “reshare this before Facebook deletes it!”
It drives me bananas how many people share unverified information, debunked information, or just flat out disinformation or ~~one-~~lopsided information usually with good intentions but still showing their confirmation bias nonetheless.
Every time someone PMs me some kind of “please share this with everybody you know” message, I’ll ask “why?”
If the person is willing to dialogue and answer my questions, it helps me understand what the thing is or why they’re sharing it with me, just in case I am wrong and may learn something, or whether it will show me the person is gullible and I’ll know to ignore future messages like this from them.
But if I get no answer or a person persists with sending stuff like that, I just block them and ignore their messages now. I simply don’t have the time to try helping others use common sense on the internet.
The words “Please share this before Facebook deletes it” has become a trigger warning for me because almost 90% of the time it’s hogwash, and FaceBook is likely NOT deleting it or there’s some kind of obvious violation of the terms of use that are being violated and OF COURSE FB might delete it in such a case, etc..,
But that’s not the point of my thoughts here.
The words 'Please share this before Facebook deletes it' has become a trigger warning for me. 90% of the time it's BS, and FB is likely NOT deleting it OR there's some obvious violation of the terms of use that are being violated.Click To Tweet Here’s another:
“Does this piece of content let me easily find out WHERE it came from?”
I’ve seen friends of mine who I’d consider to be right-leaning post memes of liberal politicians with an unflattering image and a quote alleged to have been given by said politician. So of course I’ll Google it and see if I can find the occasion they allegedly made such comments. It amazes me how rarely I ever find a source this way, but yet my friends will believe it anyway and think nothing of republishing it on their Timeline.
Why?
—> Confirmation bias.
They already dislike such and such a figure and would believe any story or quote depicting that person in a negative light.
Oh, and lest you think I’m bashing right-leaning or conservatives, I’ve got left-leaning friends who are guilty of that exact same thing.
If I ask you questions to verify what you’re sharing, it’s simply because I like truth and not knowingly duping myself. Perhaps for this reason I am naive in a different way and assume other people would also like to not be duped themselves and believe false information.
Nor share it or broadcast their ignorance to many people on social media.
I don’t ask questions like “where did you get this information?” or “who is the person you’re citing?” or “where can I go to process this same information to see if I might reach the same conclusion as you?” just because I’m a jerk or looking to make a fool of you.
It’s usually because either I’m genuinely curious, or interested and have never considered the point of view or angle being presented. Wait, being open to change my mind about something? How odd, right?
OR…
…because the shared content has telltale signs of misinformation or misleading information that I’ve stopped assuming everybody knows how to recognize.
Critical Thinking Skills in the Digital Information Age: A Few Tips That all said, notice I haven’t told you what to think or what conclusion you ought to reach. That’s because it’s more important to me that I know how to think or use critical thinking skills in the digital information age, rather than making sure everybody I know feels the same way I do about topics.
So here are just a few tips on HOW to think and safeguard yourself against falling for hoaxes or believing and spreading misinformation.
- Take a breath and slow down The biggest reason for misinformation being spread online is simply the fact many of us share things without thinking or fact-checking. Especially when it’s something we already agree with or confirms something we already think. This is multiplied during times of uncertainty and confusion when many people are scared or confused.
When I originally started writing this as a draft over 5 years ago, it was to help people avoid falling for Clickbait. The principles I’m sharing here are not new, nor do they apply only to the current pandemic, but it feels like current events in 2020 have only exacerbated this tendency.
Am I the only one with friends on social media who bemoan fact-checkers and sites like Snopes, but yet are the very people who post stuff that badly needs fact-checking?
— Steve Bremner (@StephenGBremner) August 5, 2020
- Check the source I’m also amazed how many times I get a message in my PMs that says “this was shared on the radio!” to which I’ll ask the sender “which radio station?”
If the response is “I don’t know, I just reshared this how it was sent to me”, then what you’re doing is showing me how gullible you are and unable or unwilling to use critical thinking skills.
If you re-share something on FaceBook you can usually see where it originally came from, or at least who your friend reshared it from. But I’ll still take it with a grain of salt if I can’t get to the source. That said, WHO is the person who created the original post, and WHY should I listen to what they say?
Are they credible?
Why should I listen to this person instead of someone else?
If you can’t tell who said it or where it came from, then this is a major red flag as people who tend to want credit for their writings and research.
- Google it Seriously, there’s no reason in 2020 you can’t take 19 seconds and Google something. It’s ironic that as a planet we have basically all information conceivable at the touch of our smartphone fingers, but misinformation and fake news are as much of a problem as they are. Wouldn’t the availability of information lead to better-researched thoughts and opinions? One would think.
Most media outlets, whether mainstream or fringe leave enough of a digital trail online that you can find out whether they’re credible or if people at least know who they are. If not, danger Will Robinson!
- No Seriously, check the source That said, again, if you haven’t already done so, ask yourself where does this come from? I’m not talking about seeing where on Facebook it came from, but if it’s an article or video linked to outside of social media, who said it? If there are no sources cited, why not? It should be easy to get to the bottom of this, but if you can’t, then that’s a giant red flag.
One of the things I ask myself or see if I can find out in 19 seconds from a quick Google search particularly regarding the current global situation is…
“Was the author of this post/article/video an expert or interviewing/quoting someone who was an expert in infectious diseases or a similar field that would qualify them as an expert on the topic BEFORE the pandemic started?”
If not, then why should I find this credible?
There are so many more tips, but they can basically be distilled down to the points above. But we all have our own confirmation biases and opinions on matters.
Again, I’m not telling you WHAT to think, but these are some tips on HOW to think, which I hope you’re willing to try if you don’t already.
In closing, I encourage you to do a Google search on logical fallacies, and cognition in general. One of my favorite books on the subject is You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You’re Deluding Yourself by David McRaney. It’s not just insightful, but also humorous and enjoyable.
Seriously, get yourself a copy of this book You’re welcome.
Also, since posting this I’ve been having Amazon recommend to me Messengers: Who We Listen To, Who We Don’t, and Why by Stephen Martin and Joseph Marks. I have not read it yet, but the description makes it clear it tackles similar subject matter and may be worth a read as well.
And please, don’t be one of the people in the sea of faces on social media who spreads misinformation, even if it’s already widespread, and on the surface “feels true” (words someone actually said to me when I fact-checked them on a photoshopped image they were sharing).
Since posting this, I’ve heard a GREAT episode of the James Altucher Show I’ve linked/embedded below that I’d encourage you to also listen to.