some of mine

Would you please pass the salt. we are the salt!

The problem with high cholesterol
Sin creeps in (youth rally)

Bad to the Bone
Ezekiel valley of dry bones

Shut up and fish
soul winning , being pre occupied with everything else

american idol the final season
putting things before God

The stones live in concert
if you don’t praise me the rocks will cry out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When the voice in your head dosent match the one of your Heart.
Well you know…

When I was the associate pastor I used to just let the senior pastor come up with whatever felt good to him based on the text I had chosen and the general direction I was headed.

I could probably come up with a better title after the sermon has been preached, or at least in its finished state prior to preaching. But coming up with something at the time of bulletin printing is a challenge.

When I say “production”, I’m thinking of things like essays and lectures and songs and movies and books…other things which receive “titles.” In my view, a sermon is quite unlike all those other things.

I’m not at all ready to just read the text, as God has clearly commanded and equipped men for preaching, but I want the focus of the saints to be on the Word of God, not my cleverness, or not even this *sermon*. I would guess the answer is the title can serve that purpose as well. If it does, then glory be to God!

Perhaps my focus on propriety was out of bounds. I have no way to argue a sermon title is improper, but I’m still wrestling with what it says about our sermons that we title them, rather than simply giving chapter and verse.

Thanks again for your help!

Well you didn’t ask me, but since I am a proponent of using titles, I think I must at least give the outline of an answer. By the way, nice title….;-)

I wish to ask, What do you mean as if it were a product? I don’t really understand that question. It seems as though the sermon is a product. It is derived from the text, but it is not the text. It is a word on the text, but certainly not the final word on the text. It is a combination or product of text, spirit, preacher, and congregation.

Giving a title, I think, is no different than to go to the text and pull out the points to preach them. The title simply is a handle for the people to carry away the sermon.

I guess my main problem is to seek to understand why you think it is improper. In addition I would be interested in whether the position that you are espousing when taken to a logical conclusion would mean that we don’t preach a sermon at all…we simply read the text.

This is a good question that forces us to think about our theology of preaching…God bless and keep on preaching…

The more one preaches inductively as opposed to deductively the more one is likely to spend time and come up with a creative title as it (the title) can be part of the inductiveness of the sermon.

For example a pastor in my area recently preached a sermon title “God Opens Doors” from Acts 16. That leaves nothing to the imagination, but then again his sermon probably didn’t either. Why not hook people with a title such as “What Are You Going To Do When The World Slams the Door in Your Face?” or “Everyone Needs a Good Locksmith” (of course I don’t know what his big idea is so neither may work. . . )

…but this brings up a question I’ve thought about before. If we are committed to preaching expository sermons, why do we title them, as if they were something other? As if the sermon were a product, an essay, a lecture? I appreciate your thoughts about what a title can accomplish, but is it really proper?

I suppose I’m confessing that I’ve had the desire several times to scrap the whole “title” thing and just have in the bulletin: Sermon – Proverbs 19:18.

I like your point of not resolving all the sermonic tension in an inductive sermon. My 3 final points from my article are:

1. If one has a title, it should relate to the sermon in some way. Whether it is from the text, the major illustration, or some other hook, one should see the connection when the sermon is completed.

2. If one has a title, it should not overpower the sermon by either promising too much or giving the whole sermon away. Perhaps this is a little induction in me, but I agree totally with Long’s and Webb’s idea that the sermon title should only fully be understood at the end of the sermon.

3. A good title can help to orient the people before they get to the church.

The title is very important in my estimation, and I thank you for bringing it up….