Another Stowell comment that I appreciated last week as I drove in the middle of the night down that deserted highway called the M1. “A sermon prepared in the mind of the preacher only reaches the mind of the listeners. But one prepared in the mind, and in the heart and life of the preacher [...]
Archive for January, 2008
Some Sermons Need More Time
Posted in Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching on January 31, 2008 | 3 Comments »
The Sweetest Agony
Posted in Delivery, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, tagged discouragement, Ministry on January 29, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Somebody said that preaching is the sweetest agony. It is sweet when lives are changed. And it is agony all the rest of the time!
There is nothing as rewarding as seeing lives changed. Sometimes from a one-off sermon. Typically over the long haul. Sometimes it is hard to measure. Sometimes you receive a note that [...]
Good Thing It’s a God Thing!
Posted in Homiletics, Preaching on January 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Preaching is hard work. Perhaps it’s a unique kind of hard work. The emotional, spiritual, mental and physical expenditure can be significant. The time put in preparing and praying adds up. Some listeners may not realize it, but most preachers can have no doubt that preaching is very hard work.
It makes [...]
Struggling to Focus? Motivating Earthen Vessels – Part 2
Posted in Homiletics, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, tagged discouragement, distraction, EQ, loss of focus, ministry fatigue on January 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In the first part of this post we thought about the reality of almost constant discouragement in ministry. One part of our response to these things must be to look to God and press on. But then there is another side – look to God and renew.
Renewing ability to focus – Discouragement can easily steal [...]
Motivating Earthen Vessels
Posted in Homiletics, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, tagged criticism, discouragement, Ministry on January 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
If you have been involved in ministry for more than a few weeks, you’ve probably noticed that discouragements come with the territory. Of course, there are times when all is great, the mountain-top times. But discouragement will keep biting at us all from various sides. In this post we will consider one response to the [...]
Have Times Changed?
Posted in Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, tagged Oratory, pride, Rhetoric on January 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Times have changed. The New Testament was written in a time when the primary form of public entertainment, at least in the Greek context, was the oratory of the travelling rhetoricians. Today we live in a time of complex and numerous forms of entertainment, a time when oratory is frowned upon by many. Times have [...]
It’s Hard Enough Already
Posted in Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, Stage 2 - Passage Study on January 23, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Some readers preach every week, perhaps multiple times each week. Others only preach periodically. Perhaps this post is more for the less frequent preachers, but it could apply to all. Simple idea today – when you have the choice of what to preach, don’t make it more complicated than necessary. There’s always a lot to [...]
The Commitment to Expository Preaching
Posted in Delivery, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion on January 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Over time words can change their meaning and the connotations attached to them. This is true of both “expository” and “preaching.” As you probably noticed, gone are the days when the preacher in town was highly respected and appreciated by all. Today there are many who view the whole concept of preaching very negatively. As [...]
Protecting the Final Preparation
Posted in Delivery, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, tagged Church on January 14, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Yesterday I sat in church next to my wife (after the four children were safely in their classes) and got to listen to my friend preach. He did well. So I told him so. Turns out he had been run ragged in the 24 hours leading up to the service. I assured him that it [...]
Overcoming Fear of Public Speaking
Posted in Delivery, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, tagged BSF, Public Speaking on January 12, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Michelle just submitted this comment to the site, a plea for help!
I just joined a preaching/homelietics course at my church and we are using Robinson’s Biblical Preaching book. On the first day I learned that we will be giving a fifteen minute sermon at the end of the course. The course is seven wks. long. [...]
The Full Meal Deal
Posted in Delivery, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching on January 8, 2008 | 9 Comments »
I still remember the first pulpit advice I received. I was a teenager and had been asked to lead a meeting. I wasn’t preaching, but I was chairing the meeting, introducing songs, speaker, doing the reading, praying, etc. Afterwards my youth leader came to me and encouraged me that I’d done well. Then he offered [...]
Needed: Expository Preaching Promoters – Part 2
Posted in Homiletics, Preaching on January 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I would love it if 2008 is the year that sees a great return to excitement about expository preaching. Sadly, there are many negative vibes around that are hindering any such revival of expository preaching. These vibes may be experientially rooted, “church fashion” driven, repeatedly reinforced (as Haddon Robinson has said, expository preaching suffers most [...]
Needed: Expository Preaching Promoters – Part 1
Posted in Homiletics, Preaching on January 4, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Expository preaching is a label that comes with baggage. In many churches there is a negative vibe associated with the term. Yet we live in a day that needs true expository preaching as much as ever! Who will provide the positive PR for this vital aspect of church ministry? In part [...]
Listening to Others
Posted in Homiletics, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching on January 3, 2008 | 4 Comments »
One of the challenges of a regular preaching ministry is finding opportunity to listen to others. There are ways to make it happen though – give your pulpit to someone else sometimes, create a preaching team if your church doesn’t have one, listen to sermons online, listen to Christian radio at the right time if [...]
Mapping Your Thought
Posted in Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea on January 2, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Some people think in a very linear and text-oriented way. Others don’t. I find the use of mind maps or concept maps to be helpful in my Bible study. Somewhere between analysis of details and synthesis of discourse using a conventional outline, I often find myself doodling a map or diagram on paper. For instance, [...]
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