What The Blues Teaches Us About Preaching
It is axiomatic among many to teach that the hearer should guide the topics and content of the sermon and ministry in general. In this model, we go to the people to find out what they want and then give people these things. By doing that we are sure to give relevant ministry, it is argued.
Seeker-Sensitive Ministry and Felt Needs Preaching Read MoreIt was not really that long ago when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr dreamed of a better world and then had the audacity to go out and attempt to bring that world into reality. A reality that included a world without racism. A reality that included marching for poor people and workers who were taken advantage of. A reality that included not being invovled in unjust wars.
Ok, up to this point we have only used the Bible. We have not looked in any Bible commentaries or Bible Dictionaries. Now we want to go to these resources to find out what was going on when the text was written and why the text was written.
To understand the history of the text, we need to answer three questions as completely as possible. The first of these questions is: Who is writing the Text? The second question is: Who is reading the text? The final question is, Why was the text written?
Finding the History of the Text Read MorePreaching without notes is not a brain dump.
Audio 28 – Preaching Without Notes not a Brain Dump Read MoreThe Apostle Paul wrote that the Gospel was the Power of God unto Salvation. (Romans 1:16) As I contemplate this scripture, I come to the question, is there power in my sermons? If I am preaching the Gospel, then there must be power in them. Power to break strongholds, the power to change lives, the power to bring salvation to the weak, the power to break addictions, the power to bring good out of evil. The power to change structures of evil.
As a teacher of preachers, I often see many people who want to preach in my life. Look in any congregation and you will find many preachers who have never had a community of believers validate their internal calling. These people sometimes think that preaching is simply about pounding on members with Biblical truth, belly-aching about some wrong, lecturing on a religious subject, or simply getting folks to shout and praise us.
A Healthy Fear of Preaching – Do you Have It? Read More
Gardner Taylor preaches a sermon entitled “A Cry in
I was cleaning up another blog and thought this post might be of interest to SoulPreaching.Com readers….
Someone on a blog that has been discontinued asked an interesting question about Jesus, “Who would Jesus be today?” The answer given was a little unsettling to me, you can read it in part here:
Many of us have had the feeling, is my preaching going anywhere? Or maybe you are thinking, “Haven’t I preached this same sermon last month.” I know exactly where you are coming from. And what you need to do is engage in some sermon planning. In this planning, you should do a few things.
One of the most important rules for preachers is to have one major point. Now if you preach the three points and a poem, what this means is that each of your points should be connected in some way to the main point. If you preach a narrative, it means that you have a major point in mind as you preach the sermon. That way, the people can remember the sermon.
I am a planter. This means that I not only extract and re-arrange, but I deposit. We do not leave the soil empty, disturbed, and void. Far from it, we leave the ground altered by adding to it. We plant seeds! We plant seeds of hope, that hope that is in Christ and His gospel. That hope that shows the more excellent way of being and doing. We plant seeds! The seeds of self reliance and mutuality. We plant seeds! The seeds of community, and communal interdependence. We plant seeds!
I am a Planter – Part 3 Planing Seeds Read MoreWe have talked about this method on a few times. Some might call this extemporaneous preaching in that the preacher does not necessarily know what will be preached or how. The preacher prepares by immersing his or herself in the scripture. You take a walk around the scriptural area and simply look around.
Methods for Preaching Without Notes – Memorize Nothing Read MoreI am a planter which means that I have the duty of tilling the soil. I literally have to break the soil, and turn what was up, over so that it is down. They reverse things when necessary. Likewise, I have the task of placing what was down and under the earth up and on top. Likewise, I have to take that which is up and put it down.