Browsing Tag

Polishing the Pulpit

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

PTP or bust! (Or both!)

Posted on August 12, 2026

Every year the baggage seems to grow. This year we bought our own trailer to pull behind the SUV and we are bringing a mini-van, in addition to the SUV and trailer. We came TO THE WIRE on the Digging Deep books. We will stop in Nashville and pick up 1400 of them to bring to Sevierville and then we will stop again next week on our way home to load the rest of the 3150 Digging Deep books that we have bought. But we will all be studying by September first!  Glenn says that we always give away far more books than we sell because you are downloading the free version on Saturday afternoon like there’s no tomorrow!—Or maybe like there is an eternal tomorrow! 

There’s all the stuff for the kids’ skit that Glenn and I will do on Saturday. (You know Solomon and The Queen of Sheba have their whole entourage.) There are goodies to give the grandkids that live far away and will be at PTP. There’s food for the room to accommodate jam-packed schedules. There are lots of huge boxes of shirt and hoodies. There are little prizes for the Digging Deep finishers. 

There are all the lessons (that total in the twenties combined, I think) and the laser swords that Ezra has sold to a friend who’s coming and three bulging binders of AP cards for trading, and birthday presents for a couple of people.  There are bins and suitcases of clothes for six people and there are hanging clothes that have to go in last. There’s a printer and there are laptops and i-pads. And this year there is one more very large item for the Exhibit Hall. 

And Colleyanna called to ask me if I could come get this and fix it…and “could you please do it before PTP?”

It was this. It’s an eight-inch kitty who had lost her ribbon. Now, Ezra had about one shirt that would fit him, so his mom and I are frantic over here on Amazon.  And I’m hemming five pairs of pants for him, that are just about necessities for the trip. (That kid is growing so fast!) We had no books at the time  of Colleyanna’s  call about the kitty, and were not sure they were going to even be ready on time. (We were imagining of leaving PTP in between speeches and making a Nashville run.) One of somebody’s meds is running out and we are having that important thing shipped to the Wilderness. To top it off, four of us—yes four—just came out of Covid quarantine (So thankful it is not that we are just going into quarantine, and SO thankful we are well!) All of that and Colleyanna is worried about making sure this sunflower kitty (made and gifted by PTP teacher,  Susan Alexander) gets to go to PTP??!!  She’s calling back to say “Did you get her fixed and could you maybe bring her so I can pack her?” 

I love kids and PTP! What’s important to kids is just as important to kids as what’s important to you, is important you! Eliza Jane is ready. She can tell you all about the brook of Cherith. Colleyanna can tell you the four things that Elijah said Baal might be doing while the 400 prophets were calling him. Ezra’s biggest question is “Can I walk around in the Exhibit Hall BY MYSELF this year?” Lily is getting ready to do her traditional— brand-new-walker—walk across the stage in the ballroom. And they are ALL excited that we might all do something together when it gets to be next Thursday night! (You know when my legs are noodles and my brain is chow mein!)!

It’s all about priorities. And Colleyanna WILL have this little sunflower kitty with her. All of us should get to have a sunflower kitty with us at PTP if it puts the whole event over the top.  PTP is the best and it is (and should be) full of all the things we love! I can’t wait to see all the “things” I love!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Top 10 Things about Branson PTP (from My Little Vantage Point):

Posted on July 21, 2026
  1. The kids. Just so encouraging to see the babies and toddlers, school kids and teens, projecting their happiness and hope for the future. What a blessing!
  2. The knowledge gained about eternal things. More than silver and gold. Eternal treasure. 
  3. The family that is so interwoven in so many ways toward heaven (and all those crazy rushed meals with barely enough time for the accompanying laughter!) 
  4. Digging Deep. The awards. The amazing enthusiasm. The finishers. The meal together at Local Flavor. 
  5. The near impossibility of getting through that hallway to Short Creek multiple times a day. When these kinds of people stop you, it’s full of blessings every time. Long hallway/Short Creek.
  6. The singing. Tears every time. I really want to go to heaven. 
  7. Humility. Every speaker I heard was brimming with that characteristic that’s, in large part, missing from the screen and scroll all around us. The behind-the-scenes persona that you never see, of the directors of this hugely influential event.
  8. The family next door. We love them so much. I know they wouldn’t want us to say their names when describing how sacrificial they are. (I can’t even tell about the stuff they did because they don’t want people to know how much they were sacrificing to help said people.) But Kate and Drew and babies are in our world of big blessings for eternity. And they sneaked socks on our door for the man who can’t remember his!
  9. The hugs. Hugging people who have been praying for you daily for the 360 days of the year that you haven’t seen them or hugged them is a mountaintop embrace and you can almost see heaven from those arms!
  10. The influence. The security team stopped to talk on the last day after the halls were emptied. “We love this group. But next year, could you bring a little chaos?” It made me proud. 

I hope you are coming next year! You can still come to Sevierville this year!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Polishing the Pulpit…Game Changer.

Posted on July 14, 2026

Sitting here in the Atlanta airport, I just told Glenn that I’m excited to be doing PTP with him. I believe it is our 25th year to do this together. If I’m right about that, it means the women’s program at Polishing the Pulpit is 25 years old, as well. Attending the first year of the women’s program,  there were 12 of us and Hannah, at 14, was the sole worker in the “children’s program”. But it encouraged me, phenomenally. I am encouraged that much, times about 300, this year, since that’s the amazing growth the women’s program has experienced. I don’t know exactly how many of the 7000 or so people who will attend this year are women, but it’s a bunch of them. Digging Deep has been a big part of the program, for me, now for 16 years. I can’t even, in reflection, wrap my mind around how much PTP, through Digging Deep, has changed the landscape of my life. Life without the dig would not be the same. I’d have a lot more leisure time (or, more likely, I’d fill it with something else…likely something not as useful.)…I’d have real relationships with fewer sisters. I might not throw my back out every August (ha.) And, although, I’d probably be doing something I love, I would not know as much of the Word (though what I know is still a relatively piddling knowledge. “But then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13: 12). I am sure Digging Deep will help me get there. 

I think my marriage is better because of PTP. I think my children are stronger because of PTP. I think my grandchildren are more excited about being Christians one day because of PTP. I think I’m more connected to my extended family because of PTP. (It’s a  physical family reunion within a spiritual one.) I think I meditate/strategize about souls more because of PTP. I believe I love God more deeply because of PTP. I know I have more laugh lines because of PTP. 

If you haven’t yet been able to go and it is possible for you, make it happen. You can read about the upcoming events here: https://polishingthepulpit.com/

And, if I can help you, let me know. Once you experience it, the importance of that week in your year will be obvious to you. Its positive ramifications are immediate and eternal, all at once. I hope I see you in some future PTP session. 

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

The List: Babies have to Grow Up!… Part 4

Posted on September 17, 2025

Here’s the 4th little segment about helping our “baby sisters.” New Christians don’t come into the church walking the walk perfectly or talking the talk without a stutter. Here are some more ideas to help us take their hands and help them through the developmental stages: 

13. Invite her to do Digging Deep with you. I’ve just done this with a girlfriend here in town. She made a facebook page with an alias name just so she can be in the DD facebook group. (She had not been on FB prior to this, and she doesn’t really want to do the whole social media thing. Her FB name is so “hippie” that my DD “watch team” all contacted to say “This is an AI bot, right? We shouldn’t let ‘it’ in?”) But she’s in! She’s coming to the local study next Monday night and she’s probably the most excited one coming. And DD has converted people! It’s just the Word and the Word is powerful. Invite, invite, invite!

14. Be sure you make time to study with her. Start with the Lord’s supper. 1 Corinthians 15 says “some are weak and sick among you.” Guess who these people were? They were the men and women who didn’t take the Lord’s Supper with discernment. Start with a study of the Lord’s Supper and write some things down for her…thoughts on which she can meditate during the Lord’s Supper. Help take her from the NICU to a place of wellness. She needs you! Then go on and study the book of John and then Acts with her. In the process, you will find out what she needs most. Go, in the Word, wherever that need is. Always start your study with “Do you have questions for me?” Make sure you give her Bible reading assignments for in-between your studies with her.

 

15. Encourage and help her to attend some rich seminar with you, like Polishing the Pulpit or Bible camp or a great ladies day. If there’s a lot of expense involved, consider asking your elders to help you in making it possible for her. If she can, she should help pay for it, too. She needs skin in the game. (P.S. Polishing the Pulpit (www.polishingthepit.com) is the best growth starter I have ever seen! If your congregation has PTP365, get her connected)

16. Often, those we convert come into the body with financial needs Go with these new sisters to speak with the elders, if you have them, about these needs. This is tricky, of course. We don’t want to convert people to a financial welfare system, but a spiritual one. But we minister to those in the body. Godly elders will have the wisdom needed to help in the best ways and to advise you about personally helping in these cases. 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Small World in the Church

Posted on August 29, 2025

I love the body of Christ. I’ve said it before, but it’s a small world in the church. 

Wednesday night, we flew into Boston for a few days respite before we speak at this event in Tilton, New Hampshire. We had googled the church in Boston and had decided to go to the Bible class at the Roxbury church. It was a warm reception and a great study from Romans 5. They even gave us little gift bags with great evangelism tools and cookies. And they gave us lots of handshakes and hugs. 

Afterwards, the subject of Polishing the Pulpit came up organically and I said “Have you ever heard of “Polishing the Pulpit”? 

“Oh yes! Just a minute and let me get some people who went this year!” 

I was able to hug a sister, then, who had wandered in the “Wilderness” at Sevierville with me just last week! She explained to me how their first trip to PTP was in 2017 and two people traveled there together. “This year we had a group of 20!” 

“I didn’t make it to your sessions, but I was hanging out with that other lady (I love her!) that writes the books. What was her name?…You know, the one who wrote the book…let’s see…something about a dragon…”

I said “Oh you mean How to Train Your Dragon?”

“Yeah, that’s it!” 

“Well, you mean Celine Sparks!” 

“Yeah, that’s her. I just love her!” 

Then I got to tell her…”Well, you are not going to believe it, but she is my sister. I mean she is my sister in the flesh, too!” 

“Are you for real?!” 

Then she had to call over somebody else and tell her and we had to start exchanging our information and I had to give her a Digging Deep book…”

By the time we left, I just about had them saying “Roll Tide!” and planning trips to Alabama. 

I love the body of Christ. And we just might have a group one day soon in Massachusetts. I think that will be a new state for Digging Deep!

…And next time, more of “Babies Have to Grow Up”

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

The List: “Babies Have to Grow Up.”

Posted on August 22, 2025

photo credit: Traci Sproule

 

Polishing the Pulpit is in the books in Missouri and now in Tennessee. I am still in the hotel in Sevierville. Although I distributed hundreds of Digging Deep books, there’s a sense in which I’ll be going home with much more than I brought with me. If you attended, you will (or have), too. My heart is more full of the will to serve. My head is to capacity of ideas to facilitate the spread of HIS fulness. My spirit is just so very grateful to Him for the way he has encouraged through His people. I want to be better and there are about seven thousand other people who have the same will. The Colleys are deeply indebted to Allen Webster, David Barker, Luke Griffin, Mark Howell, Eddy Gilpin and the elderships that have overseen, for the 30-plus year commitment to serving the church through this, the most vibrant and effective event for Christ, of which we have ever been a part. What a privilege to have been in attendance this year!

Some have requested this list from the lecture “Babies Have to Grow Up”. It’s a list of some of the things we can do to help our brand new sisters to be nurtured; to have the spiritual needs of infant Christians met as we help them “grow up” in Him. If you are one of the many faithful women who are working in “labor and delivery” in the kingdom of Christ, you know that there are some pretty volatile days after the new birth (John 3). Some of our baby sisters are needing  spiritual life support. 

Watch here for a few installments of ideas—ideas to help “grow” the babies from the self-focused, crying stages of infancy, to the happy, serving stages of spiritual maturity. 

  1. Stamped and addressed cards. Sometimes you may have studied with the sweet young sister and others do not know her nearly as well as you do. Address a stack of ten note cards to the baby sister (not all one pack of cards—make them different). Get someone to help you, if possible, to address, so that all the handwriting will not be exactly the same.  Stamp them. Take them to worship with you and give them to dependable sisters and ask them to write personal notes of encouragement in the cards, and mail them. You may even want to put a “date to send’ in pencil on the back the envelope, so that all the cards will not be received in the same week.
  2. When you study with the next person you’re trying to bring to Christ, invite the new sister to come along. The blessings here are several and they are solidifying. 
  3. Make sure you KEEP studying with the new sister. Ask her to read, with you, a book of the Bible—say the book of John. Maybe just three chapters each week and then meet up weekly, if possible, to discuss the verses read and take lessons for her life. Perhaps your elders, like mine, will love for you to meet with new sisters, during one of the Bible class times, when everyone is already there at the building, and talk with her, about the scriptures. 
  4. Most of us know what “secret sisters” is: when each lady is designated a certain sister for whom she will do acts of kindness in secrecy, until the end of the month or quarter or year. If you do this program, be sure your “baby sister” gets one of the MOST spiritual sisters in the whole game. This kind of sister will send spiritual messages, secretly purchase and give spiritual books that are sound, and gift her with coffee cards with the specification that she take a sister to the coffee shop, etc…
  5. Call or text her often. Set your phone reminder to do this. Many times you will say “Just checking in. Is the cough better?” or “Hey! Did you make it back home?” or “Just making sure you know about the fellowship meal.” But sometimes, be sure you say “How is your walk with the Lord?” or “Do you feel like you are growing, spiritually?” 

More next time!