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Archive for November, 2007

In ministry we often live under the tyranny of the urgent. Sunday comes about every three days, or so it seems. Often we are hard pressed from every side, not only in terms of sermon preparation, but all the other complex needs of complex humanity that we are trying to serve. So [...]

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As you may have read in previous posts, I think the best approach is to prepare a full manuscript, but then to preach without notes. The full manuscript allows you to sculpt and craft the language carefully in order to be precise and effective. This can be overdone and end up feeling like [...]

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Very few preachers are incoherent.  Yet many preachers are incoherent.  Before you accuse me of being incoherent, let me explain.  The other day I sat through a sermon from a visiting speaker.  I may be my own worst critic, but I try to be gracious to others.  Sorry.  On this occasion I failed.  Why did [...]

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Let me be honest. I love studying the subject of preaching. I want to be a lifelong student of the subject. But if I’m honest, a lot of books about preaching are somewhat dull, tedious, repetitive and unengaging. Not this book. Engaging. Compelling. Motivating. Intriguing. [...]

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Peter Adam wrote that when it comes to spirituality there is a curious phenomena in Protestant Christianity. In our bookshops we can find much on the subject from Catholic, Celtic and Orthodox sources. But strangely there is often very little that addresses the Bible as a source of spirituality. He notes that [...]

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If you are preaching today, it is tempting to be caught up in your own world.  Concerned about your presentation, the details of the sermon, even the peripheral details that you didn’t delegate to someone more passionate about them.  But know this – today’s sermon may be the last some of those people ever hear.
The [...]

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As I wrote my post yesterday, a package arrived. Having made a guess at how Andy Stanley views preaching, I received his book on preaching. I will soon post a review of the book. But let me share something from the book today. In fact, let me share one point that underlies his [...]

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In response to the Lazy Preaching? post, one reader asked the following questions – “Does not one run the risk of ‘imposing’ on the text your desire to extract one point? Should not the number of point(s) be driven by the text in question?” These are good questions. How would you answer [...]

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Well yesterday’s post stirred more response than usual!  Andy Stanley stated his point in strong terms, which probably sparked some response.  While as an Englishman I might state the same point in a slightly more understated way, I do urge people who attend my preaching courses to stick in their primary passage most of the [...]

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Andy Stanley, pastor of North Point Community Church, made a passing comment about lazy preaching in an interview with Preaching magazine.  He was talking about his desire to come up with a statement, a takeaway point in a sermon.  His stated goal was that a listener could come back to the same passage of Scripture [...]

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Imagine a history teacher that teaches history like it is fiction. Imagine a poetry teacher that teaches poetry like it is math. To do this would be absurd. History is not fiction and poetry is not math. Each subject functions differently. History functions through names, dates, and other facts whereas fiction functions through plot. Poetry [...]

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In a world that is highly charged, energized and empowered, somehow life can be such a draining experience. In the busy-ness of life it is easy to lose track of the space necessary for thinking, for communing, for dreaming. I’ve written about the critical importance of our personal walk with Christ. I’d [...]

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One more thought from the life and ministry of Jonathan Edwards. Piper states that Edwards probed the workings of the human heart and gained a profound understanding of it. He did not achieve this by “hobnobbing with the Northampton parishioners,” but by three things:
1. Diligent reading and contemplation of his own heart. [...]

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While I add a lot of posts on this site that are somewhat technical in nature, the foundation of effective preaching has to be our personal walk with the Lord. As good stewards we must do everything we can to be the best that we can, but none of that can replace the fundamental [...]

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Continuing on with Dwight Stevenson’s list from yesterday . . . “surrogate sermons” we should be avoiding:
Palace propaganda – Catering to the specific audience in a church by giving exactly and only what they want to hear (often determined by their socio-economic class, race, etc.)
Theological lecture – We must be able to give reason for [...]

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It is easy to preach something less than a sermon.  We thought of one example yesterday – the curiosity satisfier.  Today I’d like to list a few from a list by Dwight Stevenson (published in A Reader on Preaching).  His goal is to help us spot sermon replacements and erradicate them from our ministry.  Here [...]

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The Bible was not given to satisfy curiosity.  It is truth that always intersects life in some way.  Consequently as preachers we must not pretend that arms-length analysis is sufficient.  We have to wrestle with how to help our listeners experience the truth that is being preached.
Haddon Robinson has pointed out that for many people, [...]

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Today in the news there is a story of a man who got frustrated trying to loosen the wheel-nut on his car and decided to try blasting it from close range with a shotgun. The ricochet of buckshot and debris peppered him from ankle to abdomen.
While not wanting to make light of his severe [...]

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While this may not be true in every culture, many have little time for “pulpiteering” these days.  The appearance of performance is significantly off-putting to those who place high value on genuine, vulnerable, honest and natural speaking styles.  People do not appreciate the sales patter of a car dealer or the obvious reading of a [...]

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A pause is a simple concept.  Stop for a moment.  A non-preacher might assume it would be easy to stop talking, especially since most people would rather not talk in front of people anyway.  But no, pauses are hard to do.  Almost a constant piece of constructive feedback to beginning preachers is “a few pauses [...]

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Yesterday I had the privilege of evaluating fifteen sermons at the end of a preaching course.  For five days the students had been working through an introductory course in preaching at Tilsley College, many of them never having preached before.  I’ve heard negative comments from preaching instructors before about having to listen to student [...]

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Is there any stage of the preaching process that we should not be bathing in prayer? When people are first exposed to training in homiletics there is often an initial concern. Is this “process” reducing a highly spiritual ministry to a series of stages, techniques and professionalism? That would depend on the [...]

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Yesterday we considered spiritual gifting and learned skill. I would like to add two more elements into the mix today. Two things we should dwell on in regard to preaching:
Spiritual Element of Preaching – In the old days this slightly intangible element was called “unction.” Today many tend to refer to [...]

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Is it possible to have the gift and preach poorly?  Is it possible to not have the gift and preach well?  If I have a group of 20 students in a preaching class, should the gifted ones ignore the class because they have the gift, and should those without the gift ignore the class because [...]

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Our culture has shifted and is shifting.  Certainly in the west there is now a deep mistrust of inauthentic communication.  For example the slick sales pitch of a car salesperson twenty or thirty years ago has largely morphed into a seemingly more authentic approach today.  In reality much of sales communication is learned pseudo-authenticity.  Nevertheless [...]

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For many people the term “expository preaching” carries negative baggage. Often this baggage relates to some restrictive view of what is meant by it. Dry, dull, lifeless, canned – these are all possible, but not required. Irrelevant is also added to the list, but technically that is not even possible. John [...]

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Break the Routine

Some who read this blog are pastors/ministers who preach every week, perhaps multiple times per week.  Others are “normal” people who preach regularly as well as holding down “non-preaching” jobs as well.  Either way, it is easy to get into a routine. Perhaps a weekly routine where Monday’s are off, but Tuesday’s are back in [...]

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The final chapter of The Supremacy of God in Preaching by John Piper contains ten lessons from the preaching and writing of Jonathan Edwards. I’d like to list all, but highlight a handful for us this morning.
So here’s a list of half of the ten. Preachers should Saturate with Scripture their messages, and [...]

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This is neither a how-to manual, nor a full theology of preaching, but it does make a definite contribution to the field.  The book is divided in two parts.  The first part is a series of lectures Piper gave at Gordon-Conwell Seminary on the subject of preaching.  The second part is a series of lectures [...]

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The whole subject of illustrations in preaching is worthy of consideration.  For some of us, it is a constant struggle.  For others it seems to be an effortless delight.  Here are some points to ponder:
1. Determine the purpose of an illustration.  Instead of placing an illustration in a message just because it has been a [...]

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