Month: June 2009

Is Your Sermon a Balm or Band-Aid?

Posted on June 29, 2009

Salve is applied to a wound. It covers the wound like a band aid, but it does much more. Certainly it is important to cover the wound. It is important to block things from getting into the wound. Yes that is important, but a healing balm doesn’t just stop there.

Balm Goes Into the Wound

A healing balm actually goes into the wound. It attempts healing not from the safety of an outsider looking in, but from within the wound. Balm seeps into the wound and attempts healing there.

Don’t Just Preach to Yourself

Posted on June 24, 2009

Preachers must know themselves, if they are going to be effective preachers of the Gospel. Why is this? The reason is that many preachers can fall into the trap of preaching only to themselves rather than preaching to the people.

Audio 32 – Two Preachers

Posted on June 17, 2009

Which of these two preachers are you? Are you the one who continues to get better or the slothful one?

Entertainment and Worship

Posted on June 15, 2009

Marva Dawn, in her work A Royal Waste of Time writes:

If television is causing people to be dissatisfied with the worship of our churches, should we change worship to be more like television — or should the splendor of our worship cause people to ask better questions about television?

Sermons as Medicine

Posted on June 11, 2009

Paul Scott Wilson, on page 22 of the first edition of the book The Practice of Preaching quotes Phillip Brooks at length in writing:

The Necessity of Getting With the People in the Sermon

Posted on June 9, 2009

The preachers who preach truly great messages often come into the lives of the people. Listen to the preachers who really touch their congregations. Listen to the illustrations used. They are illustrations from regular life. They are illustrations that we all can understand.

Preaching Matters

Posted on June 8, 2009

Charles E. Booth wrote: “Therefore, the serious revivalist should always seek to preach as as if life or death hangs in the balance.” He was writing specifically about the revivalist, but it can actually refer to any preacher’s sermon.

The Pulpit is no Place for Busywork – Say Something!

Posted on June 5, 2009

You ever been on a job where looking busy was more important than actually accomplishing anything? Many of us at times have succumbed to the temptation to simply look like we were doing something rather than actually doing something. Those of us in the internet world know about spending time on facebook or checking our email versus actually writing the next article and/or recording the next audio. Busywork is a codeword for working but doing nothing. It is a hidden waste of time in that you are doing something, but you accomplish nothing.

Pathetic or Transformative Relevance

Posted on June 2, 2009

James Forbes, in his very helpful work The Holy Spirit and Preaching writes: “Preaching under the anointing of the Spirit deeply touches the hearer, evoking either acceptance or rejection of the gospel.”

Sometimes We Motivate Rather than Preach