Great Preaching Caught or Taught?
When I was in my twenties and was attempting to learn to play Jazz, one writer said, “all the answers are in the music.” What the author was saying is …
Great Preaching Caught or Taught? Read MorePreaching
Stories not Staying on Point
I preached a sermon where I told a story. It was a rather common story about flying into a city where the wind was blowing strongly. I described the calm …
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Serving Nothing But Desert
Some preachers only serve desert. They end up “shouting about nothing.” You know the experience. You have gone to church to hear a word from the Lord and you are …
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Refusing to Serve Dessert
When I talk about whooping or celebration, some preachers take exception to the idea that we should spend time on such things. They argue that we should just get up …
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Beating Up the People
“Stop doing this!” “You don’t do that!” These and other statements are often on the lips of preachers who generally berate the people. Here the preacher simply scolds the people …
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No Cross in Preaching
I was talking to a preacher the other day about “cross-less” preaching. This is the kind of preaching that does not have the Cross of Christ in it.
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Wrong Truth
I want to do a series on how we can preach the truth and yet still end up with a presentation that is unhelpful for the people in front of …
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Call and Response in Preaching
Robert Gelinas completes his look at the fundamentals principles of Jazz as it relates to Christian Theology by looking at Call and Response. When one listens to Jazz music, one will hear different instruments communicating and “calling” out to each other.
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Practice and Being Ready
The last post on staying ready received more feedback than I anticipated. One reader contacted me through facebook asking for more help in how to stay ready and avoid being rusty when it has been months between preaching engagements. A few other readers contacted me through email wanting to know the same thing.
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Improvisation and Preaching
Continuing on the themes from Robert Gelinas’ book Finding the Groove, we will discuss improvisation and preaching. What is improvisation? I remember when I first heard a jazz standard and …
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Syncopation and Preaching
I have been reading a very helpful book by fellow blogger Robert Gelinas entitled Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz Shaped Faith. Gelinas uses Jazz as a metaphor for understanding the Christian faith. I want to riff on the book over the next few posts.
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Preaching With Courage
Dr. Brad Braxton told me many times with various levels of earnestness, “Sherman, if you are going to preach, you are going to have to have courage.” As I interpreted this call, I always found that he was right, we have to have courage. This courage is a courage to tell the truth.
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Preaching That is an Echo Of The Status Quo
Perhaps you have seen this kind of preacher. She or he speaks with great conviction attacking sin with power. The preacher will often say words like “you may not like it…but I have to tell you” or “I’m gonna preach it anyway…”
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Don’t Lose The Cross
Sometimes the people shout, the preacher’s reputation as a great one increases, and the house is wrecked but something is slightly missing. The exhiliration of the moment feels good and yet it is noticable. Too often we can easily miss the cross in our messages.
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