As those of us who are evangelical believe, the Bible is our primary resource for preaching. Our role is to stand in the tradition of the apostles and preach the living gospel which is found within the Scriptures. But there is another dimension to consider. The Bible is itself a training ground for preaching. The [...]
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nigel pollock – what about him?
I recently reread John 21 where Jesus is reinstating Peter by the lakeside. It is a terrific passage and I’m sure one that you are familiar with and have probably preached on a number of times. I’m always moved and challenged by the way Jesus deals with Peter, reminding him of his call, feeding him [...]
tim harris: re-claiming the main event
We should all be concerned at the surveys reflecting the diminishing place bible reading has in people’s lives—Bible-affirming evangelicals included. My reflection here is the extent to which we may be inadvertently contributing to this by our focus on preaching as the ‘main event’ in the church gathering. Let me jump into my main contention [...]
rod thompson: the humour of a tumour?
1 Samuel 5 is meant to be funny – at least some of the time. Quietly lying in the ark-box, Yahweh is seemingly sleeping (or dead). Israel is seriously questioning. And Philistine warriors and children are scratching, covered as they are in scabby “tumors” (the root word is “to swell”.) Perhaps these are anal [...]
nigel pollock: preaching christmas
A couple of years ago I was at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park in London shortly before Christmas. I stopped to listen to a guy beside a placard, which said, ‘Put Christ back in Christmas’. Walking on 50 metres I came across another individual wearing a sandwich board which proclaimed, ‘Take Christ out of Christmas, [...]
lynne baab: using the lectionary
Recently someone asked me if it is possible to use the lectionary and also preach expositionally. I have served in associate roles in two churches where the lectionary was used part, or all, of the time and where the preaching was largely expositional. I preached once every month or six weeks in both churches, so [...]
steve taylor: too blunt? the mirror held by early church preaching
Is the phrase “Biblical preaching” simply too blunt? I began to wonder this as I gazed into the preaching mirror held by the early church.With over forty years of missionary service in Africa, David Dunn-Wilson has made a study of the sermons of the early church. In his book, A Mirror for the Church (Eerdmans, [...]
paul davison: do hard things
Preaching is a ministry of the word of God that should teach, rebuke, correct and train in righteousness. Under the pressure to be “relevant” do we neglect parts of the Bible that seem hard or obscure for 21st C Westerners? How many times have our congregations heard sermons from the first five books of the [...]
