Preaching Is God’s Tool In the last couple of posts we considered whether preaching is worth the effort in a world that is so deeply impacted by media. God reminded me many times that preaching is God’s tool to change lives. Let me tell you about one of those times. First Church The first church […]
Does Preaching Make A Difference? In the last post I asked the question, “Is preaching worth the time and effort I put into it?” In today’s post I am continuing that theme, with a slightly different question: “Does preaching make a difference in the lives of people?” Spurgeon, as I reported in the last post, […]
Is Preaching Worth The Time And Effort? That’s a good question, isn’t it? I read a long time ago the results of a study that someone had done on how long people remember a sermon. By Sunday evening, as I recall, the normal listener remembered 25%. By Wednesday it was 10%. That kind of makes […]
The Power Of The Pregnant Pause I learned the power of the pregnant pause by accident. It happened when I was a seminary student, assigned to preach in a pretty conservative church near our school. I was nervous, because at that time I had long hair and a full beard, and I feared that I […]
Pace Is Important For the Preacher In the last post we looked at the need to vary the pace of your sermon. Pace is important for the preacher who wants to keep the attention of the people. Here are some more suggestions about pace of your sermon. Keep It Short, Stupid When I was in […]
The Preacher’s Voice is a Great Tool In the last post we considered some of the ways a preacher’s voice can be a disadvantage in communicating the Word of God. In this post we turn to the fact that the preacher’s voice is a great tool for effective communication. Pace of Preaching As we saw […]
The Preacher’s Voice Can Be A Big Drawback In the last several posts we have been considering Albert Mehrabian’s 7-38-55 theory of communication. Recall that the conclusion of his research led him to propose that 7 percent of communication is the words we use; 38% is the tone of our voice; and 55% is body […]
Eye Contact Enhances Preaching I closed the last post with a very short reference to using the eyes as a means of communication. In this post we will focus on how eye contact enhances preaching as you connect with your audience. Why Making Eye Contact Enhances Preaching I was listening to a recording of a […]
Your Facial Expression Communicates We’ve been looking at Mehrabian’s 7-38-55 rule over the last several posts. Remember that this rule says that 7% of communication is our words, 38% is our tone of voice, and 55% is our body language. So we’ve been thinking through how our posture speaks, and how our hands communicate. […]
Movement Adds A Message To The Sermon We have been considering how important body language is to the preacher. In the last post we considered some of the ways to use your hands in gesturing in a way that will enhance your message. In this post we turn to the subject of movement. Movement adds […]