In many churches there is a separation of sermon and worship. Both are seen to occur in the service, but they are perceived to be distinct elements. In some churches the service feels like two events – the song service and the sermon. In other churches the preacher is expected to lead the whole service [...]
Archive for April, 2008
The Pieces of Style
Posted in Delivery, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion on April 29, 2008 | 1 Comment »
One last post prompted by Bryan Chappell’s book, Christ-Centered Preaching, from the appendix on style (pp340-343). Chappell advocates a preaching style that is:
Natural – natural expression avoids pretense and artificiality. A personal, humble, natural style communicates care, transparency and acceptance (of self and others).
Plain – we should be as clear as possible. People may be [...]
The Connection Counts
Posted in Audience Analysis, Homiletics, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion on April 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Preaching to the same people all the time is quite different to preaching to different people. I have the privilege of regular preaching in our home church, but also regular preaching to different churches and groups of people in my role with OM. I had an interesting experience recently that highlighted the importance [...]
Don’t Treat Everything As Essential – Part 2
Posted in Delivery, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion on April 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
So, three more issues that are non-essential in defining expository preaching. Let’s not allow our passion for preaching become a passion to prove our preferences are the only legitimate approach to expository preaching!
Preaching Attire – Some people make a big issue out of ties and jackets (”we are dressing for an appointment at the palace” [...]
Taking Series Seriously – Part 2
Posted in Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection on April 20, 2008 | 3 Comments »
For a series to work well, it is important to recognize the role of the Spirit and have flexibility in scheduling. Here are two more important issues to consider:
Avoiding the sameness – A long series in the same book can get old. There are several ways to avoid this. Vary the message structure (include a [...]
Taking Series Seriously
Posted in Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection on April 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday I shared a few reasons why I think sermon series are generally the way to go. However, for series to work well, several issues need to be addressed. Rob’s comment yesterday raised several key issues. Today I’ll mention two, then the next day two more:
Role of the Spirit – Does a series quench the [...]
Why Preach a Series?
Posted in Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, Stage 2 - Passage Study on April 18, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Some may ask, why do so many of us preach in series? There are many reasons, but here are a handful to start with:
A series of sermons has greater leverage than a solo sermon. By reinforcing and reviewing a Bible book, the series allows for the lessons to sink in and be applied. We often [...]
Culturally Default Texts
Posted in Homiletics, Preaching, Religion on April 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Philip Jenkins has written a book entitled The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South. I can’t tell you what I think, because I haven’t had opportunity to read it yet. However, based on the comments that I heard when the book was recommended to me, it seems to [...]
The Basic Elements of a Preaching Definition
Posted in Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, tagged definition, exposition, Expository Preaching on April 12, 2008 | 4 Comments »
It is a good exercise to think through what should be included in a definition of expository preaching. One way is to collect several definitions and recognize what is present in all of them, or unique to some of them. While wording may change, it seems to me that a definition should include the following [...]
Revisiting That Definition
Posted in Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion on April 11, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Yesterday I mentioned Haddon Robinson’s definition of expository preaching. Many writers seem to quote Haddon rather than offering another definition. So let’s look at it and make a few comments.
“Expository preaching is the communication of a biblical concept, derived from and transmitted through a historical, grammatical, and literary study of a passage in its context, [...]
Don’t Presume They Know
Posted in Delivery, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion on April 7, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Effective preaching requires good understanding of both the passage and the people. Purposeful audience analysis helps the preacher know how to tailor the study of stages 1-4 into a message in stages 5-8. Obviously the preacher will try to aim for relevance and pitch the messaeg at the right level. It is this level that [...]
The Preacher’s Heart – Part 3
Posted in Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion, tagged McNeal on April 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Culture and call, community and communion. All arenas of life, sub-plots in the story God is writing in us. All are arenas of critical importance for us, since it is in respect to these that our choices in response to God’s initiative determine how God shapes our hearts. The final two arenas:
Arena 5: Conflict – [...]
The Preacher’s Heart – Part 2
Posted in Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion, tagged Jesus Creed, McNeal on April 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Last time I introduced the first two categories in Reggie McNeal’s book, A Work of Heart. These six “arenas” are the sub-plots of our lives through which God is shaping us as his followers, as preachers, as leaders. How we respond to these initiatives will determine what we become. Last time we considered briefly culture [...]
The Preacher’s Heart – Part 1
Posted in Homiletics, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion, tagged McNeal on April 4, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Whenever you teach a preaching course you are faced with the same challenge. It is possible to teach skills and principles, but it is not possible to fully train a preacher. There is that element that can only come from God’s work in a person’s life. Partially it is a matter of spiritual formation and [...]
Does Stance Just Happen?
Posted in Delivery, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, tagged appearance, Body language, proxemics, stance on April 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
There are central issues in preaching – interpreting the Scriptures, applying with relevance, relationship with God and with listeners. But there are plenty of other factors worthy of our consideration. Not central, but worth considering since our goal is effective communication. One of these is stance.
The visual presentation of a speaker is a complex series [...]
If You Could Preach Any Passage
Posted in Genre, Homiletics, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Stage 1 - Passage Selection on April 2, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Just imagine you weren’t in the middle of a series. Imagine you could free up two or three days to study any passage and then prepare a message just because you want to. What passage would it be? Would it be an old favorite that you haven’t looked at in a while? Perhaps Psalm 23 [...]
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