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? …
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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 …
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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 …
Stories in Sermons Don’t Always Work Read More
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 …
Making Room for Celebration Read MoreEvaluating 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 …
The Three Intertwining Stories to Exegete for Effective Sermons Read MoreThe 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, …
The Irrelevant Celebration Read MoreHow 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
How Many Texts to Preach? Read More
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
When Is Preaching More Difficult Than It Should Be? Read More
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.
Common Way of Preaching These Things
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Preaching and Violence
David Goatly writes:
Preaching and Violence Read MoreRelevant preaching today must confront directly the pervasive violence that infects the world. Relevant preaching for African American life must unapologetically challenge violence that is experienced within and inflicted from without their communities.
Looking at the Spaces Between the Lines
When exegeting a text of scripture, we often spend a lot of time looking at what is in the text. And this is right. We put forth a lot of effort to read the text in the original languages if we have facility in them. We put forth effort to look at the narrative, theological, socio-cultural, and other important dimensions of the text.
Preparatory Plan – Supercharged Sermons Phase 1
In the next seven posts we will take you step by step through a system of sermon preparation that is based in the African American Tradition. I have called it the “Supercharge Your Sermons” system. The first phase is to have preparatory planning.
The Push to Eloquently Say Nothing
In today’s postmodern world with its severe reaction to the certainty that modernity seemed to have, there is in some quarters a great conflict with saying anything. Everytime you say anything there are some who would question the very idea of saying anything. You cannot know…whether it is the parishioner who says, “You cannot know my circumstances” or the philosopher who says, “Your appropriation of Truth is always clouded by your social circumstances!” Or, you need to open your eyes to other possibilities.
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