Last year I was asked to write a book on pastoral care. What an honour! I’ve written many books, but I had never before been asked to write one. That book has recently been published by Fortress Press, with the title Nurturing Hope: Christian Pastoral Care in the Twenty-First Century. As I thought about what […]
I’m having a conversation with a friend who I will call Ben. I’m telling him about my heritage of hearing and giving sermons. The church where I worked as an associate minister for seven years, and where I preached a total of about 50 sermons, has a strong tradition of expositional preaching. Sermons there were […]
I read an interesting book recently called Preaching With Cultural Intelligence: Understanding the People Who Hear Our Sermons. Written by Matthew Kim, it’s a helpful guide to reflecting on how well our preaching is connecting with those who don’t share our cultural context—not only in terms of ethnicity but also gender, socio-economic context, religious background, […]
I have now done 9 months “cold turkey” without preaching. I didn’t expect it to be this long. It is officially the longest I have gone without preaching since I began as a pastor in 2000. Anyway, it has been good for me to be a listener instead. On top of sermons at my local […]
I recently heard Dr Ian Paul speak on the subject “Has Preaching Had its Day?”. It’s a really interesting listen, and I recommend you take a bit of time to listen and consider it. In his presentation, Ian presents seven objections to the preaching as we know it. He then responded to them. The first […]
Everyone’s got an opinion. Whether it’s climate change, Trump, Israel, or just about any hot potato of an issue, our social interactions are coloured by the positions we take. Social media has only made us more adept at publishing our opinions for the world to see, and I’m certainly not immune to that. All of […]
Earlier this year I officiated the funeral service of a young woman in our church who had committed suicide. She was in her 20s and had a young family—a husband, a 7-month old daughter and a 2-yr old son. After the birth of both her children she had severe post-natal depression, with the second time […]
The very first recorded sermon that was preached convicted the heart of the hearers. Luke tells us that “…when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers what should we do?’” (Acts 2:37). Any talk of “preaching to the heart” will give […]
(This post first appeared on Candour) Lam 3:19-23 19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. 20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. 21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions […]
They say there are two kinds of preaching… comforting the afflicted, and afflicting the comfortable. Most preachers will admit that they tend to specialise in one or the other. I like to afflict the comfortable. If I didn’t discipline myself otherwise, I would probably preach this way 90% of the time. I seem to have […]
