Yesterday I wrote about how narratives do engage us through identification and disassociation. We can’t avoid that reality – it drives the popularity of movies, of bedtime stories, of Sunday School stories, of family fireside reminiscences, etc. But biblical narrative always offers something more. Our challenge as preachers is to be sure to always go [...]
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Studying a passage effectively involves a variety of skills. Yesterday we mentioned matters of contextual awareness, scholarly awareness and original language study. Today I want to share a few more. Not a definitive list or blueprint for the exegetical process, but a series of prompts that may or may not be helpful reminders. Purposeful Study [...]
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When we take a biblical passage and study it in order to understand it, and then to be able to preach it, we need a variety of skills. This post (and tomorrow’s) isn’t an attempt to exhaustively define the exegetical process, but rather a selection of elements that may prompt your self-awareness in this process [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, Stage 6 - Message Idea, Stage 7 - Message Outline on June 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
A couple of other ideas that can be added to yesterday’s post: “Sermon Ideation Groups to plan a series through a book.” John suggested this and I heartily concur. Mapping out passages and initial ideas can be a great headstart to the sermon series planning process. Anything that helps to avoid the “from scratch” sensation [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Old Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 6 - Message Idea, Stage 7 - Message Outline, Stage 8 - Message Detail on June 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
This is not a complete post, but it may be helpful. I received the following question from a good friend: I have been asked to preach on psalm 22 and am at the moment soaking myself in it to try and make sure I understand the message, the structure and what God was saying then [...]
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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 [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, tagged Expository Preaching, Selecting a Preaching Text on April 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The first logical step in preparing a message (once you’ve been asked to preach, which is presumed), is to select your passage(s) on which to base the message. Sometimes the invitation comes with the passage, sometimes with a theme, sometimes an open invitation. Select then forget. What do I mean? 1. When you’re invited to [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Delivery, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 7 - Message Outline, tagged Expository Preaching, Unity Order Progress on April 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Can I offer three ways in which we can have unity, order and progress, yet still fall short in each area? Unity – We often fall short when we just tie together the sections of the text by means of a keyword or subject. In many passages it is relatively easy to make the two [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 6 - Message Idea, tagged Between Two Worlds, John Stott, Timothy Ward, Words of Life on March 22, 2010 | 2 Comments »
In Between Two Worlds (I Believe in Preaching), John Stott contrasted the typical weakness in more liberal churches from the weakness in the preaching in more conservative churches. One connected with the audience, but had no rooting in Scripture. The other started with Scripture and built straight up to heaven, without ever touching down. Timothy [...]
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Posted in Audience Analysis, Christianity, Delivery, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 8 - Message Detail on March 17, 2010 | 7 Comments »
I was just reading a post by Bill Mounce on the Koinonia blog (to see it click here.) He offers a simple and graciously toned introduction to textual criticism set in the context of a natural question raised by folks in the church . . . “why is verse 4 missing in my Bible?” Some [...]
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Today’s post isn’t one. It’s a 35-minute interview I did with Mike Reeves over at theologynetwork.org in their Table Talk series. It’s all about preaching and how our view of God influences our view of the Bible and therefore our approach to communicating it. So, here’s the link and I hope this is helpful: theologynetwork.org [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 7 - Message Outline, Stage 8 - Message Detail on March 8, 2010 | 2 Comments »
In a lot of preaching situations it is easier to simply present the text and press home the imperatives. Whether or not there is technically an imperative in the grammar, we can easily turn a passage into an instruction and press for change through our words. I wonder how often we miss the opportunity to [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, Stage 6 - Message Idea, Stage 7 - Message Outline, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Expository Preaching, Heralds of God, James Stewart on March 1, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Years ago I read Heralds of God by James Stewart. I just read a response paper sent to me by a friend. It’s time I read the book again. He reminded me of Stewart’s advice regarding preacher’s block, or those times when artistic inspiration simply is not flowing, but discouragement is pouring in like a [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Delivery, Genre, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Expository Preaching, Preaching Epistles on February 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
This is where we sometimes struggle the most. When preaching the epistles (less so the speeches of Joshua, Jesus, etc.), we can easily fall into logical information transfer and presentation of facts. But the fact is that all discourse is set in a narrative context. How do we make sure listeners feel the force of [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Delivery, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 7 - Message Outline, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Expository Preaching, Preaching narrative on February 18, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Yesterday we touched briefly on poetry and noted how easy it is to preach without conveying the force of the text. Today let’s have a brief reminder regarding narrative. If the “force” of poetry lies in often emotive imagery, the “force” of narrative rests in the lack of rest, the tension necessary for a story [...]
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Posted in Audience Analysis, Christianity, Genre, Homiletics, Old Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Expository Preaching, Preaching Poetry, Preaching Psalms on February 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
When we preach poetry, do our listeners really feel the force of it? Poetry is found in the Psalms and wisdom literature, of course, but also in the historical books and the prophets too. All too easily we can preach to the head, but not move the listeners with the force of the text. A [...]
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Last night I led a Bible study in the Psalms. This study series is deliberately designed to include some more challenging “academic” content, making participants aware of the possibilities in terms of formal study of the Psalms, hermeneutical principles, etc. But the bulk of the time is spent not talking about the Psalms, but looking [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Old Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, tagged Planning A Series, planning preaching, Preaching Series, Psalms, Sermon Series on February 9, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Some preachers plan series in a relatively simple manner. They select a book of the Bible and then preach, unit by unit, through the book, or through a section. Others select a topic and select appropriate passages to organize a topical series. I am not critiquing either approach, but want to offer another option too. [...]
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Posted in Audience Analysis, Christianity, Homiletics, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, tagged Expository Preaching, Fierce Conversations, Susan Scott on February 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I was just reading a synopsis of an intriguing book. The book is about the importance of conversations, both at work and at home. Nothing to do with preaching though? Well, perhaps more than might be obvious. I was struck by the author’s second principle – “Come out from behind yourself into the conversation and [...]
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Posted in Audience Analysis, Christianity, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged facebook, Feed-Forward on February 5, 2010 | 6 Comments »
James Wood made the following comment on the post Extent of Application: I think he brings up a good point. I’ve tried to combat this by forming the sermon through conversation with the community. The beauty is, technology can aid this! I will post questions from the text to my facebook page as I’m studying. [...]
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My first Bible study software was Bibleworks, which I’ve continued to use through numerous upgrades and continue to use very regularly. A couple of years ago I was given Logos 3, which was a great tool because of the library of reference tools on there. I just upgraded to Logos 4. First impressions? Wow! This [...]
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Most preachers develop of preparation cycle and rhythm. Perhaps it takes five days from start to finish (maybe with an extended period for collecting any interesting tidbits from the point the series are planned). Perhaps you have an eight or ten-day cycle. Perhaps you only preach periodically and so take two or three weeks to [...]
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I recently read a book about a certain denomination in this country (not important which denomination here), and it made an interesting observation. Over the course of a generation it seemed like there was a wholesale loss of confidence. This showed in evangelism, in church health, in preaching, etc. Today I was enjoying conversation with [...]
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I just stumbled across a quote that brought a wry smile. I don’t agree with it fully, but it is worth considering. The chapter is written by Carl George, although he doesn’t cite the source for the quote he includes: “Almost all ministers are well educated theologically. Most seminary graduates have more to teach than [...]
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Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, Stage 6 - Message Idea, tagged Between Two Worlds, Biblical preaching, exposition, Haddon Robinson, John Stott on January 4, 2010 | 3 Comments »
When we think through the expositional process, we are really concerned about three stages. The first stage is understanding the text (exegetical). The final stage is producing the sermon (homiletical). The link between the two is the bridge in John Stott’s metaphor (in Between Two Worlds). The bridge is the theological abstraction process. In Haddon [...]
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