This morning, our 9 elders, Allan, Jim Dobbs and myself will be meeting at the Horseshoe Bay Yacht Club for a full day of praying and gazing into the future. I am grateful to be serving alongside these men whose aim is to grow a dynamic church in Marble Falls. Pray for us today.

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Another sample of the interview with Hugh Gainey of Austin Grad and Dr. Marva Dawn.

What do you think the main challenges are for preachers today?

A visual society has made it seem like somebody talking is irrelevant. People demand all kinds of gimmicks.

It's really hard to compete with the media.

It really is, but not if we bring the life giving Word. We need to trust the Word more. The Word will bear fruit, we have a promise. And we don't need to set it forth with gimmicks and clever devices. We just need to set it forth and let the Word do its work because it will. It might not bear immediate fruit but it will bear its fruit when it's preached in faithfulness and sincerity.

Give than competing with the media is one of the biggest challenges ministers face, how do we prepare them for the new reality that is out there?

I think we really need to understand the hardness of our culture. We need to know why the battles we have to fight, which are so subtle, are really crucial. I still hope...that these battles aren't that tough. But we are hard hearted people, I think, and the times are very much clouded by our multiple idolatries in this culture. They invade the church just right and left.

What sort of trends do you see (regarding the future of the church)?

I think one of the most interesting things is that young people in their twenties, thirties maybe are wanting old things. They are wanting tradition. They are wanting stuff that lasts because they are sick of everything changing right and left. They are turning back to churches that have held on to things.