Live, Listen, Tell: The Art of Preaching will guide readers through the process of sermon preparation and hearing God through the Scriptures. By drawing on life and Scripture, especially the road to Emmaus narrative in Luke 24, the author illustrates that preachers are living a story, listening to a story and telling a story. This […]
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 […]
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:2 that when he came to Corinth, he preached Christ and Christ crucified. For a long time I read this as meaning that the central content of Paul’s preaching is Christ and particularly his death and its consequences. After spending a number of months working through Philippians 2:5–11 while simultaneously […]
Lord save us from boring sermons! Boring sermons tend to be dry or trite. Dry sermons assert ideas about God but don’t connect with real life (“So What?” sermons). Trite sermons address life’s struggles, but stay on the surface and offer easy answers (“Yeah Right!” sermons). A good sermon connects the head with the heart, […]
In August-September 2017 I am taking a group of about 35 students and friends from Carey to Israel and Palestine to walk over ancient sites, to read text in context, and to meet afresh the historical Jesus. Last year I went there on sabbatical and I became convinced (that wasn’t hard!) that I wanted to […]
I have been reading, lately, about educational theory. It’s fascinating! According to social learning theorists, people learn by observing and imitating those around them. What’s the easiest way to learn a second language? The way we learned out first, by immersion, by listening at great lengths to those who speak the language fluently. How do […]
As much as I love the research and reading (the conversations with other wrestlers of the Word) and discovering new revelation and bringing that before the congregation . . . I wonder if sometimes we make it too hard for ourselves. Part of the joy of preaching I’ve recently rediscovered is this: simply reminding people […]
I remember a comment from years ago by R.T. Kendal (former incumbent at the famous Westminster Chapel, UK) who admitted that he felt tremendous pressure to always have something original to say when preaching. He realised he needed to be careful with this, novelty is not a criteria of orthodoxy, and that preaching the Bible […]
We just did a series on the End of the World. I was afraid to touch this topic and there are some interesting ideas out there. I was also aware that I will never have read enough to feel ready to preach on this, but we decided to give it a go. Our Youth pastor […]
The first time it happened it sent shivers of terror down my spine. I was preaching in full flow, making what I thought was a deeply meaningful point. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a hand begin to rise. At first, I pushed on. I averted my gaze. I locked […]
