It’s easy to fall into a rut with planning a series. Either a whole book, or a whole section, divided equally into chunks. But there can be variety in a series. How about a survey message to start and/or finish? Giving people a sense of the whole will help with the parts. Why not linger [...]
Archive for the ‘Stage 1 – Passage Selection’ Category
Creative Series
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, tagged Sermon Series on August 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
And Now For The Next in the Series
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection on July 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
A little double entendre in the title. I want to write briefly about sermon series. But this is also another in the series of posts started yesterday. In that post I suggested that we shouldn’t be overly dogmatic about whether we project the text or not. I have my opinions, obviously others have theirs too. [...]
Vary Text Length
Posted in Audience Analysis, Christianity, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection on July 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
On the one hand there is a simple guideline when selecting passage length to preach – preach a unit of thought. On the other hand, there are many sections that allow for combining units of thought and thereby preaching longer or shorter sections. The epistles, for instance, allow the preacher to combine several paragraphs. Equally, [...]
Single Verse Sermons
Posted in Christianity, Genre, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Old Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, tagged Charles Spurgeon, Doctrinal Preaching, Preaching Psalms, Psalms on May 12, 2010 | 3 Comments »
The site received this comment from Peter D: I have been studying Charles Spurgeon’s sermons. He would often take one scripture and expound on it from every direction he could, would that be thin blooded? I’m preparing a message for later this month and want to focus on one verse within Psalm 63 – it sticks out [...]
Non Solo Sermon Ministry
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, tagged BibleFresh on April 26, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
At the BibleFresh conference on preaching – here’s the online magazine – we discussed various aspects of preaching and how it can be refreshed in the UK. Over the next few days I’ll share a few of the thoughts coming out of that event. Traditionally the sermon was considered by some to be the full [...]
Obvious Texts and Not So Obvious Texts
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection on April 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
When you speak on a subject, rather than preaching an assigned text, you have the choice of which text to preach. In many cases there are obvious texts to preach. Asked to preach on the church, you might be drawn to Ephesians, or Matthew 16. Preaching on marriage? Ephesians 5 or Colossians 3. Preaching on [...]
Old Favourites and Oft Avoideds
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, Old Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection on March 4, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Every passage in Scripture is equally inspired, but not every passage is equally known or esteemed. Patterns of esteem can be traced, although they differ depending on church location, denomination and preacher preference. So in some parts of the world the books of Samuel are always flavour of the month, while in other parts it [...]
Preacher Pick!
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, tagged Heralds of God, James Stewart on March 2, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Yesterday I shared a helpful nudge a friend had picked up in James Stewart’s Heralds of God. Today I’d like to continue with a related thought. What to do when you have to pick a text on which to preach. What should we do when there is not an obvious text to be preached? “Then [...]
Planning a Selective Series
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Preaching, Religion, Specific text, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, tagged Expository Preaching, Preaching Series on January 27, 2010 | 1 Comment »
What criteria can you use when planning a series in a longer book that you don’t want to last for years? Obviously we’re not obligated to cover complete books in a series, but how might you do that selectively rather than comprehensively? Here are some pointers: Foundation – Know the message, flow and structure of [...]
Peripheral Vision
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, Stage 2 - Passage Study on December 22, 2009 | 2 Comments »
The first step in preparing a message is to prayerfully determine the preaching text. It’s important to make sure you are studying a complete unit of thought – a full paragraph, a full narrative, a full poem, a full wisdom saying, etc. But then be sure you have peripheral vision. Make sure you continue to [...]
Future Christmas Sermons
Posted in Christianity, Genre, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Old Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, tagged Christmas Preaching on December 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
It would be easy to push through this season and then leave Christmas sermons until next year. It would be a wasted opportunity. Just as it can save money to buy next year’s cards right after this year’s Christmas, so it can save time to give some thought to next year’s sermons now. Perhaps you [...]
Push Through To Unity of Main Idea
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, tagged Expository Preaching on October 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
When you are confident that you are dealing with a legitimate unit of text, then you can be confident that there is unity to the idea contained in that text. You will often need that confidence. Usually a passage doesn’t offer its unity on the lowest branch. It can take work and real wrestling in [...]
The Hardest Genre? Part 2
Posted in Christianity, Genre, Homiletics, New Testament, Old Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, Stage 2 - Passage Study, tagged Apocalyptic, Biblical Genre, Biblical Poetry, Expository Preaching, Genre, Prophecy, Wisdom Literature on July 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday we looked at just some of the challenges that come with preaching epistles, gospels and historical narrative. Now for the other four genre. Which do you find the hardest? Poetry – Psalms and songs are readily leaned on in times of personal trial, but preaching them well is not so easy. The imagery is [...]
Collecting Classic Phrases Describing Preaching
Posted in Christianity, Delivery, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection on February 21, 2009 | 2 Comments »
I was just talking with my Dad about preaching the other night. He referred to my Grandfather. Each of the three generations have been preachers, but I never knew my Grandfather because he died three years before I was born. Apparently, he would sometimes refer to preachers who are all over the place in their [...]
Preaching Trends
Posted in Christianity, Genre, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, tagged DA Carson, Discourse Preaching, Don Carson, Expository Preaching, Leland Ryken, Narrative Preaching, Preach the Word on February 5, 2009 | 2 Comments »
We need to be aware of preaching trends. Like all trends, they come and go over time, influencing some while leaving others untouched. Trends can be overt and in your face, or subtle shifts that sweep people along unawares. For instance, D.A. Carson writes concerning the current focus on preaching narrative: The current focus on [...]
Points on Picking Passages – Part 2
Posted in Audience Analysis, Christianity, Genre, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, tagged Expository Preaching on January 23, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Yesterday we saw that God is sovereign and all Scripture is “useful” (which sounds like an understatement when separated from 2Tim.3:16!) So when there is freedom to choose a passage for a message, consider: Consider the people. Who are they? What do they need? What issues are they facing in life, both individually and corporately? [...]
Points on Picking Passages – Part 1
Posted in Audience Analysis, Christianity, Delivery, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, tagged Expository Preaching on January 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
While you may agree that working through a book is the ideal default when planning a preaching schedule, what if you are only preaching a single message? What if a passage is not assigned and you are free to choose? What freedom to delight in! Or perhaps, what a stress to despair in! Today I’ll [...]
Preaching One Text
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, tagged Expository Preaching on December 26, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I emphasize the need to preach a single text in most sermons. There are exceptions, but generally one text is the way to go. I want to be clear why I make this suggestion (today) and address a possible misunderstanding (tomorrow). I strongly suggest preaching on one text most of the time, because it is [...]
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