Your Body Is A Communication Tool In the last post we began the consideration of the reality that your body is a communication tool in preaching. I made a list of things you should not do in using your body while you speak. Don’t slouch; avoid putting your hands on your hips; never cross your arms […]
How To Communicate Using Your Body In a previous post I shared with you the 7-38-55 rule for communication. This rule says that effective communication is 7 percent the words you say, 38 percent the tone of voice that you use, and 55 percent your body language. I was looking back at that post recently. […]
The Importance of Being Yourself When You Preach This post is about the importance of being yourself when you preach to a congregation. One of the most engaging preachers in my geographical area became a professor of preaching. He was an effective preacher, with some impressive approaches to commuication. For one, he memorized the passages […]
How The Preacher Can Grow In Compassion In the last post, we looked at the connection between compassion and effectiveness in preaching. Or, as someone once said, your people have to know how much you care before they care how much you know. In this post I want to give a few suggestions on how […]
How Compassion Makes the Preacher Effective I talked to a friend this past week about how compassion makes the preacher effective to his congregation. My friend left a church that he served in California to serve another in Michigan, so he was away from the CA church for well over 10 years. Yet, he got […]
The Process for Failing Forward As A Preacher In the last couple of posts we have been considering the need to fail forward as a leader and preacher. It is likely, as we have seen, that you will fail to live up to Paul’s description of leaders, that they be “above reproach” at all times. […]
Failing Forward As A Preacher In the last post we saw that failure is common among Christian leaders and preachers. In this post I want to continue those thoughts as we think about failing forward as a preacher of the Good News. What Failures Require Falling Forward As A Preacher? When we look at the […]
Effective Preachers Learn How To Fail Forward In the last few posts we’ve been looking at the essential characteristics of the effective sermon. We’ve seen that we need the Word (logos), passion (pathos), and character, or ethos. In this post, we’re going to consider a rather unpleasant truth. Here it is: You are a sinful […]
Character is an Essential Element of Preaching A couple of posts ago we considered the essential elements of preaching. The words we use are essential to effective preaching. Also, the passion we express is essential to effective preaching, as I indicated in the last post. In this post we are going to look at the […]
A Sermon Is More Than Words Strung Together In the last post, we considered the 7-38-55 rule about communication. I looked at the fact that words are vitally important as an element to an effective sermon. But a sermon is more than words strung together if it is going to be effective. When It’s […]