Talks and workshops for congregations and societies.

45 minutes · adult class or evening

Before the last person who remembers

Why congregational memory has a lifespan of about forty years, what disappears first, and the four things any church can do this month at no cost. The talk most often asked for.

Half day · workshop

How to interview your own grandmother

Hands-on. How to ask, what not to ask, what to do about repetition and about silence, how to record it so the file is still readable in twenty years, and how to write up ninety minutes of tape without producing a transcript nobody reads.

Half day · societies

From tree to narrative

For genealogy and family history societies. Turning completed research into prose somebody in the family will actually read — structure, sourcing inside the sentence, and how to write uncertainty honestly instead of hiding it in a footnote.

60 minutes · clergy & leadership

The pastoral use of a written life

For ministers, chaplains and pastoral teams: what happens when a dying person’s account is written down and given back to them, why it is different from a eulogy, and how to do it without promising more than the time allows.

90 minutes · committee

Planning an anniversary history

For the committee that has just been handed a centennial and eighteen months. Scope, who to interview first, permissions, budget, printing, and the three mistakes that sink volunteer-run church history projects.

Bespoke

Something else

Tell me the audience, the room, the length and what you want them to do afterwards, and I will tell you honestly whether I am the right speaker for it.