Month: August 2007


Devotional #1
Good Religion versus Bad


Have you Got Good Religion….Cert’ly Lord
Have you Got Good Religion….Cert’ly Lord
Have you got good Religion.
Cert’ly, Cert’ly, Cert’ly Lord

Implicit in this spiritual is an important point: there is a difference between good and bad religion. The slave knew about bad religion for daily the slave was forced to look upon the master who was practicing bad religion.

The next pattern from Ronald Allen’s book Patterns for Preaching is Paul Scott Wilson’s approach described in his book The Four Pages of the Sermon The sermon under this structure is a manuscript with four distinct pages. Each page is a different approach to the materials.

Revised Edition of You Can Preach!

The totally rewritten revised edition of You Can Preach will be available in paperback in September, 2008.

This preaching manual provides aid in preparing and preaching effective sermons with information on exegesis, sermon construction, connecting with the congregation, and whooping. Here are the chapter titles:

  1. Introduction
  2. Finding a Text – How to find a text to preach
  3. Interpreting the Text For Preaching – The steps to exegete a text.
  4. Finding Theme and Purpose – Finding the reason for your sermon.
  5. Thinking about Conclusion, Title, and Introduction – Instruction on concluding, introducing, and giving a name to your sermon.
  6. Creating an Outline – How to create an outline using the “3 Points and a Poem,” Hagel’s Dialectic, or scripture created structure.
  7. Writing and Polishing the Sermon – How to edit your sermon before preaching.
  8. Whooping Description – An introduction to whooping, what it is, and why it is still needed.
  9. Whooping Theory and Practice – An introduction to whooping theory and a plan to integrate it into your preaching.
  10. Increasing Intensity – How to increase the intensity of your sermons.
  11. Connecting with the People – How to connect with the people in preaching.
  12. Using Black Folk Theology – There is some talk of using the so-called Black theology in preaching, here we look at using the “Black-folk” theology that helped black peoples through the difficult days of slavery and jim crow.

Stay tuned for more information on this important resource.

Request The Original Version of the Free Ebook You Can Preach

Wherever you are in the development of your sermons, we can help you. This site has hundreds of pages of information and free documents. In addition, there are audios, ebooks, and other resources. Please click below for more information.

Bookmark SoulPreaching.Com! (CTRL-D)

Where to Begin – Learning About the Site!!!

  1. Seven Steps to a Great Sermon – A good starting point to understanding this site is to read the seven steps to a great sermon. In a couple of months we will release the ebook version of this resource.
  2. What is the Black Preaching Tradition – This is the first of many attempts to define what the Black Preaching Tradition is.
  3. Celebration – What is celebration in preaching?
  4. Black Preaching to Name God in Human Experience – We are told to match human experience to the Biblical text in preaching. This post talks about how to make sure that you address the wide variety of human experience.
  5. Blog – Visit our daily updating Blog to find more information of interest to preachers.

Learning to Preach – How To Put Together a Sermon!!!

  • Finding a Text – The Steps to Finding a Text. The Text is the foundation of any effective sermon.
  • Exegeting the Text – How to Exegete the Text. Here you will learn how to specifically understand the text. This is before writing the sermon.
  • Structuring the Sermon – Here you will learn how to structure the sermon. Translate your exegesis into an effective sermon by reading these articles.
  • Sermon Titles – You have a great sermon, how do you title it? Learn how from reading these articles.
  • Preaching Without Notes – Do you want to preach without notes? Read these articles to learn the secrets of cutting loose from your notes.
  • Whooping and Style – Black Preaching is about theology and style. Go to these articles to learn about Black preaching style and specifically whooping.
  • Editing – How do you edit a sermon for preaching? Read these articles to find out.

Download Complete Sermons

SoulPreaching.Com Contributors

Sherman Haywood Cox II, M.S.

Sherman Haywood Cox IIElder Sherman Haywood Cox II is a Software professional and Master of Divinity student at Vanderbilt Divinity School. He holds the Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Sherman Cox’s posts can be found at this link.

Napoleon J. Harris V, M. Ed., M. Div

Minister Napoleon J. Harris is the Associate at Watson Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Nashville, TN. He holds the M. Ed. from Tennessee State University and a M. Div from Vanderbilt Divinity School.

You can see Napoleon Harris’ posts at this link.