Give me 10 minutes, and I’ll teach you an approach to effective preaching that might be a game-changer. This is an approach that can be used with any preaching archetype, any personality, any length of message, any passage, etc.
Preaching Preferred Pronouns
Personal pronouns have been all the rage and debate in recent years. It's amazing how important such short words are in our everyday speech and in our anthropology. That being said, personal pronouns are also some of the most important words to interpret when reading the Scriptures.
Should We Preach Exclusively From the Bible or Address Cultural Issues?
Should pastors speak to current events and cultural happenings or just stick to preaching the Bible? Okay, as promised, here is my simple answer: Yes.
6 Reasons to Build Pauses into Your Sermons
“Speech is silver, silence is golden.” So goes the old proverb that teaches the power of things “not said.” Applied to preaching, what can occasional moments of silence do to improve the delivery of our messages? With this question in mind, here are six reasons to “hit the pause button” periodically while preaching....
How Do Most Pastors Plan Their Sermons?
Pastors have numerous church responsibilities, but the one they say takes up the most of their work week is sermon preparation. According to a 2008 Lifeway Research study, the average U.S. Protestant pastor spends almost 14 hours each week in preparation for their Sunday message.
4 Advantages of Advanced Planning for Sermons/Teaching Series
When I served as an executive and teaching pastor in Miami, I learned the benefit of planning sermons and teaching series months ahead. I don’t mean the entire sermon completely prepared, but a specific direction for a teaching series and a general direction for each sermon within the series. The advanced planning was not only helped me when I was teaching/preaching, but also helped other facets of the church.
12 Things TEDx Speakers Do That Preachers Don’t
Ever seen a TEDx talk? TEDx speakers are pretty great.... I’ve wondered for a long time, “How in the world do each of these talks end up consistently blowing me away?”
The Value of Adding Some ‘Cotton Candy’ to Your Sermons
After spending 15–20 hours per week preparing a sermon, how do we really know if it connected with the listener? Is the test of a good sermon simply that we delivered a deep, theological, sound talk? Is it all about good content? Is it up to the listener to get it and figure out how it applies to his or her life? Ois this the true test of a great sermon: that we truly connect to the listener’s heart and mind so that the Holy Spirit changes attitudes and behaviors? I think it’s the latter. That’s where cotton candy preaching comes in.
Leading Public Prayer Just Before the Sermon
In this post, I’d like to focus on the prayer we offer immediately after reading the biblical passage we intend to preach. Too often, this prayer can seem little more than a formality, even rushed in an effort to move on to the sermon. Here then are five reminders when leading a public prayer for the sermon....
5 Ways Collaborative Sermon Writing Can Help Pastors
Last summer, a few of us in the Bay Area set out to change our sermon preparation habits—not just for the goal of collaboration, but also to seek out diverse perspectives. Several pastors from different ethnic backgrounds prepared a sermon series together to preach in their individual churches to address the political division we were seeing in our communities.
4 Reasons Proper Pronunication in the Pulpit Matters
Thankfully, most listeners are forgiving when preachers mispronounce a word while sharing a spontaneous aside or making a sudden, impassioned plea. But, grace is no excuse for indolence! The call to preach is a call to speak and teach the very words of God. Here then are four reasons to strive for proper pronunciation in the pulpit.
7 Deadly Sins of Guest Preaching
So you’re invited to preach at someone else’s church. Or a conference. Or a chapel service. The venue doesn’t really matter. What does matter is not committing one of the seven deadly sins of guest preaching.
How to Prepare a Sermon When You Are a Bivocational Pastor
One of the biggest challenges in moving to bivocational ministry is in the area of sermon preparation. Having himself made the transition to bivocational ministry, Scott Slayton offers some advice to bivocational pastors.
9 Ways a Church Can Hospitably Host a Guest Speaker
I’ve learned that church leaders aren’t always sure what to do when hosting a guest preacher. Here are some suggestions from my experiences.
Preach with Kindness
Recently I was guest preaching at a church, and a woman came up to me after the sermon and said to me, “You preach with such kindness.” I have not been able to shake that remark ever since (and not just because it was a compliment!). It seemed significant to me for a couple of reasons.
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