Soul Preaching

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.

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…”

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.

Is the gospel you preach acceptable to everyone? It seems as though many of us are working under the asumption that our message will never ruffle any feathers and will always make everyone shout. It will never push us to a higher level of living. This type of Gospel presentation can foster no change, becuase it never even asks for it.

One powerful way to think about preaching, especially in this era, is to see the sermon as a series of images. It is set up like a motion picture or …

Today we live in an era that attacks the very idea of preaching to everybody. Our “church growth” consultants tell us to tailor our theology, worship, programs, and our community …

Great sermons will have increases in intensity. Especially as you near the end of the sermon, the intensity of the sermon causes the people to really get involved in truth of the Gospel.