Charles Kohler, in his book how to preach without notes, has written on the importance of using the Scripture as an resource for sermon illustrations. On page 45, he he writes, “one…
Category: blog
Are Preacher’s Merely Hypemen?
A few posts ago, I argued that we cannot trust “shouting” or other outward manifestations of congregational interaction as a valid means of determining if the message was an effective one. It…
Should You Use the King James Version When You Preach?
This is a common question that comes up from time to time. I feel like I might be stepping into the lions den in answering it, but here goes. First, one must…
Curiosity And the Preacher
The truly great preachers have a curiosity to life. They want to see how things work. They want to look beneath the surface. They are concerned about more than just skimming the…
Will The Preacher Shut Up?
H. Beecher Hicks, in Preaching Through the Storm, writes about three things that attempt to force the preacher into being quiet when they need to speak. Are you being silenced? The first…
Selling Sermons – Or Give Them Away Free?
If you sell your audio sermons that were recorded by your church or non-profit ministry, you might want to read this article. The article talks about the common practice of preaching your…
Stories in Sermons Don’t Always Work
A few weeks ago, I heard a sermon by a preacher who obviously had heard of the benefits of stories in effective sermons. However, a particular illustration had great difficulties for the…
Making Room for Celebration
The other day a preacher contacted me about a critique of his sermon. The sermon’s biggest drawback was the lack of a celebration, and yet the preacher was very animated and was…
Evaluating a Sermon Outline
There are multitudes of sermon outline sites. Some of them require you to pay for the outline, others are membership sites that give you access to thousands of outlines, and still others are completely free.
The Three Intertwining Stories to Exegete for Effective Sermons
On this site and in other places, we spend a lot of time discussing the need to exegete the scripture for effective preaching. This is a very important dimension in sermon preparation….
The Irrelevant Celebration
It is pretty rampant. It steals the point from the people’s minds and reinforces the same tired point that you have preached every week. It gets the people to shout, but doesn’t…
How Many Texts to Preach?
Preaching multiple texts can derail your sermon. It should be very clear to everyone who is listening what your main point and your main text is. If you have too many competing points or too many texts, the people will get lost and will simply choose one of the points to focus on, or check out and wait until you start whooping (or whatever kind of celebration you do) to check back in…
Use Other Texts Strategically
When Is Preaching More Difficult Than It Should Be?
John Claypool, in Best Advice for Preaching said that when we use preaching to get something for ourselves, rather than to give as an act of love, then the sermon will have great tension. And I agree…
Transforming Grace
Preaching Doctrine or Unique Denominational Teachings
This is a common question. How do I preach doctrine. We have some beliefs as Christians that we need to preach. Doctrines such as the deity of Christ, Salvation by Faith, and perhaps the Trinity.
Related to this are the questions from various tradtions. For example, a Pentecostal asked about preaching on the Gifts including speaking in tongues. An Adventist asked about preaching the Sabbath. A Holiness person wanted to know about preaching on Biblical Holiness.