What The Blues Teaches Us About Preaching
Thanks to the Jazz Theologian for finding this. Pastor Wintley Phipps teaches the origins of the song Amazing Grace in the Negro Spirituals even though it was written by a white slave ship captain. Then Pastor Phipps sings the song.
In the coming weeks, I will discuss some of the patterns that Ron Allen has defined in his book Patterns of Preaching: A Sermon Sampler. That book has 34 patterns and a sermonic example of each one.
Patterns of Preaching Read MoreWhat can a preacher learn from a novelist? What specifically can we learn from Earnest Hemmingway? The Preaching Today Blog picks up this interesting question.
There are two primary things that the author notes that he learns from Hemmingway. First is Hemmingway’s question for love and deep healing. The second is his effectiveness in communication.
Learning to Preach from a Novelist Read MorePeter Mead over at Biblical Preaching has a series going on Preaching without notes that I referred to in this post. In his first post he described why preaching without notes is a valuable method.
In the second post which can be found here, Mead emphasizes the HOW. Mead’s method can be summed up in one word, “internalization.”
The Unashamed Workman blog has a post up on Reading Your Audience when preaching. The author suggests that preachers must change their presentation based on the congregation that is actually there. He then notes five types of audiences and how we should change our presentation to address each one.
Communicate to the Real People in Front of You Read MoreThe Unashamed Workman teaches truth by quoting John Stott’s new book entitled The Living Church. Stott says in part:
Biblical or Contemporary? Read MoreBut authentic Christian preaching is a bridge-building operation. It relates the text to the context in such a way as to be faithful to the biblical text and sensitive to the modern context. We must not sacrifice either to the other.
Well sometimes I feel like I am beating a dead horse. But this time, I am quoting someone else. Peter Mead over at Biblical Preaching is beginning a discussion of why he doesn’t use notes.
Mead echoes just about everyone else who talks about this subject when he begins the post by saying that whether you use notes or not is less important than other concerns, namely is it Biblical, does it have a clear idea and purpose, and is it relevant. I would definitely agree with all of these points.
Should You Use Notes in the Pulpit? Read MorePerhaps one of the most common errors in sermonic structure is to have too many competing points. Sometimes preachers exhibit this error when they go on tangents or on asides that are only marginally related to the main point.
Xavier Pickett over at Reformed Blacks of America has done it again. He has presented a concise attack on the status-quo from the perspective of the Black Preaching Tradition.
He states:
Expository Black Preaching? Read MoreThe goal of preaching is not expositional preaching, but rather to present and proclaim Christ as resurrected.
The Brand New Biblical Preaching blog has an interesting post up on How to preach a text with a list in it. This is actually a helpful post. I encourage you to go over and read it. I especially like this point:
How to Preach a Text With a List Read MoreSecondly, within the list, notice the places of emphasis. These are almost always the start and end, as well as the middle on some occasions (especially if the structure is clearly chiastic). Notice any repetition of terms, or clustering of concepts.