We are considering how to “hook” people with good introductions to our messages. We’ve seen so far that a story will accomplish that. So will a shocking statement. Today we are exploring the fact that an intriguing question makes a good introduction to a message. Example of Phillip Yancey Below is an interview with Phillip […]
The in the last post, we began to look at the subject of the introduction to a sermon. We saw that a good story captures peoples’ attention, and then serves as the gateway into the message itself. Today we are going to consider that a shocking truth makes a good introduction to a sermon. Purpose […]
In the next series of posts we are going to look at how you go about developing a sermon. I will assume that you have done the basic work referred to earlier in this blog, things like defining the main point of a passage, what your goal is in preaching, and doing the study on […]
The title of this post is a famous quote by Phillips Brooks, a well-known preacher from the middle 19th century in the United States. It was in a series of lectures at Yale University that he gave this definition of preaching: Preaching is, “communication of truth through personality.” In other words, the person of the […]
Speak in Pictures My grocery store has them. So does the gas station that I use. So does the restaurant where I occasionally lunch. What am I referring to? Screens–lots of screens. Pictures saturate our world. Apparently, someone came to the conclusion that I can’t stand a few moments in line with […]
Questions Before Preaching Another way to prepare to preach is to ask specific questions as you go through the preparation process. In this post today I want to look at questions to ask when you are preparing to preach. The purpose of asking questions like these is to help you think through […]
Topical Preaching We have been looking at the subject of styles of preaching. In the last post, we looked at an example pf preaching exegetically. This week I want to turn our attention to topical preaching as a tool to prepare your message. One thing you will find, if you read a lot of books […]
An Example of Exegesis In the last post we looked at the subject of how you prepare to preach a sermon. We considered the difference between Exegesis and Eisegesis, and considered a suggested pattern to be used. In this post I want to look at preaching using exegesis in your preparation of a sermon. […]
Prepare to Preach One of the secrets to turning the act of preaching into an art is to learn to prepare to preach powerful sermons. In this post we begin a series on how to go about putting together a sermon. There are many styles of good preparation. I remember hearing a nationally-known […]
Make Sure You Preach With PASSION We’ve come to the end of our consideration of TULIP, the acrostic that describes the top tips for preaching. We’ve seen that a good sermon addresses the needs of the hearers, or is Therapeutic. Another top tip is to include something Unconventional occasionally. Make sure […]