At some point in the process of putting a movie together, the director always has to say goodbye to some very dear friends. But then, to some it may seem odd that he even calls them friends. They're inanimate. But not to him! To him they are his own—his children. They are those slices of film that painfully must call the cutting room floor their home. Sometimes they're snipped from the projector because they just don't "fit" when all is said and done. Sometimes they're sent away because they've become those stubborn creatures that stand between the adjectives "lean" and "mean." More often than not, they are banished only because of time.
One of my duties here at PreachingToday is to oversee the editing of the PreachingToday Audio series. I'm the guy who tries his best to make a sermon "lean and mean." I'm the one who has to figure out how to take a workshop that runs 90 minutes and cram it into 20 or so. I'm the guy who has to have his eye on the clock while his heart is in the Word. It's not easy. Nine times out of ten, I have to cut something from an upcoming edition of PT Audio simply because of time. Sometimes a snip here or there isn't that hard; sometimes it's painful. I must confess that when I look at the "slices of film" piled around my feet, there's some great stuff on the cutting room floor that I'd love to show you.
So I think I will.
I'd like to start a new, recurring segment on the PT Blog called "From the Cutting Room Floor." If directors get to have a Deleted Scenes feature on a DVD, why can't we have our own on the blog? As a new edition of PT Audio comes together, I'll take the time to gather some of the more intriguing "slices of film" and hold them up to the light for you to see and discuss. It may be an illustration for you to consider. It may be a fresh insight into a verse or two of Scripture. It may be an idea concerning the act or art of preaching. I'll do my best to create a little variety in what's shared.
The first edition of "From the Cutting Room Floor" is coming at you on Monday. It's lifted from an audio workshop by Colin Smith that will be featured in PreachingToday Audio, Issue 290. In the meantime, you can find examples of what we'll be doing here and here.
Before I leave you for now, I really do want to take a moment to make a plug for PreachingToday Audio in general. If you think what you see on the cutting room floor is good, you should check out what we kept. Every month, we offer two exceptional sermons and one very helpful workshop on some element or aspect of preaching. To be a part of PreachingToday Audio, sign up today!
Posted by Brian Lowery at 10:06 AM on August 22, 2007
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