Practical Preaching Advice for Pastors and Lay Preachers #33

7 Steps to Writing a Sermon - Part Two - Digging into Scripture

In this series of posts, I am revealing a practical guide to go from a blank page to ready for Sunday in seven steps. If you work through the seven action steps in this series, you'll have a sermon written and be ready to go. In Part 1 of this series we looked at step.... Read More

6 Marks of a Faithful Preacher

You and I want to be counted as faithful preachers of God’s word. But what does that look like? What should be our guiding light as we continue to walk in, what I believe is, the best vocation anyone could ever be called to? Read More

What Will I Preach This Sunday?! 6 Tools for Overcoming Preacher’s Block

Simple steps to help you prepare better, preach stronger and have a greater impact. Read More

5 Big Ideas That Will Improve Your Preaching

Beyond the starting point of a preacher’s calling and personal commitment to Christ, there are also practical elements that every pastor should master. And while that list is long, there’s five key mistakes I’ve seen most often during the last year, and here’s how to fix them.... Read More

Don't Be Afraid to Repeat Yourself
We can assume that our preaching has achieved far more than it has. It’s not at all uncommon for preachers to finish a series in whatever book they’ve been in and assume, because they’ve stood up and spoken about it systematically each week, their members now have Numbers or Acts or whatever locked down. No need to ever mention those things again because our people now ‘know them.’ At the risk of stating the obvious, it just ain’t so. Read More

When we preach a sermon, we never have full attention of our congregation. The human brain does not work that way. The minds of the congregation will attend to what we are saying, then wander off,  return to what we are saying, then wander off again, and so on. If we want to get a point across to the congregation, we will have to repeat it several times, using different words and illustrations. One of the times we repeat it, a member of the congregation may be attending to what we saying and hear and grasp it. When asked what a preacher was saying, members of a congregation will say different things. What they are recalling is what they heard when they were attending to what the preacher was saying. I have been privileged to hear the sermons of  two African preachers who taught a simple song to the congregation during the sermon. This song encapsulates a point that they want to get across to the congregation. The congregation may forget the sermon but they will remember the song.

12 Reasons Preaching the Gospel Should Be in Every Sermon

Greg Stier offers 12 reasons why we should preach the gospel in every sermon. Read More

Should We ‘Make a Beeline to the Cross? A Caution for Gospel-Centered Preaching

I am offering an alternative to those who think “preaching Christ” means giving a nod to the subject matter of the text and then moving to the real concern by ending every sermon with a rehearsal of what Christ did on the cross. I don’t think that is what “preaching Christ” means in the week in, week out work of the preacher among the gathered people of God. I say this for several reasons. Read More