The Conclusion of a Great Sermon Brings It Home We are considering what makes a great sermon. In the last couple of posts we’ve looked the body of the great sermon, and the fact that the body of a great sermon holds attention and creates pictures for people. In this post we turn our […]
The Body of a Great Sermon Creates Pictures In the last post we looked at the fact that the attention span is shorter now than it was a generation ago. Media has impacted our ability to listen, and so, as we saw, a great sermon holds attention by keeping focused. This post is an ongoing […]
The Body of a Great Sermon Holds Attention The last two posts have focused on some general truths about introductions to great sermons. Now we turn to the main body of the sermon. The general truth here is this: the body of a great sermon holds attention of distracted people. The Problem to Hold Attention […]
Sermon Introductions For Great Sermons In the last post I made several generalizations about introductions to sermons. In this post we will look at a few sermon introductions for great sermons of the type described earlier. An Example of a Sermon Introduction for a Great Sermon Jeff Strite is a pastor/preacher in the Church of […]
Putting A Great Sermon Together In the last few posts we’ve looked at the impact that sermons can have. Now we’re going to turn to the challenge of putting a great sermon together for your preaching event. I love this quote by Haddon Robinson, prolific author and teacher on preaching: There are three types of […]
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 […]