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The Sermon is a Symphony

The Sermon is a Symphony In Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, there is a scene in which the main character, Hamlet, is walking down the corridor of the palace reading.  Someone asked him, as he walked, what he was reading.  His response was,…

Walk The Talk

Walk the Talk In the past few posts we have been looking at organizing your sermon well, with the hearer in mind.  There is more to say in that regard, but an article I read recently sets me off on a different path.  Let's think for a few…
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Keep Your Face To The Sun

Keep Your Face To The Sun We've been looking at the five activities of the speech writer, or preacher.  They are: the invention of ideas, the organization of ideas; ways to communicate those ideas in relevant, appropriate language; forceful…

Set Out Some Sign Posts

Set Out Some Sign Posts In the last post we looked at where sermons come from.  I quoted from The Sermon Doctor about five things that a speech requires, according to ancient philosophers.  The first was the generation of an idea.  The…

Where Sermons Come From

Where Sermons Come From Where do sermons come from as you prepare to preach?  The easy answer is that they come from God through the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Right?  Or we could say that they come from the Bible.  But if…

When The Critics Attack

When the Critics Attack In the last a few posts we have explored some helpful tips to improve preaching.  You can look back at the ideas of keeping your radar on, keeping your bucket handy, and using a marinade for your messages.  In this…

Don't Forget the Marinade

Don't Forget the Marinade We have been looking at some key tips for more effective preaching.  We've looked at the idea of keeping your radar on,  And then we talked about having a bucket of some kind to store ideas for sermons.  In this…

Keep Your Bucket Handy

Keep Your Bucket Handy In the last post I gave one of the great tips for more effective preaching: keep your radar on.  In other words, be aware of those moments around you when God's movement in a life or in the community is obvious.  This…

Keep Your Radar On

Keep Your Radar On One of the secrets to effective preaching is simply this: keep your radar on at all times.  The definition of radar is this, according to the  Merriam-Webster Dictionary of the English Language: 1. A system for detecting…

Dealing With the Preaching Contract

Dealing With The Preaching Contract We've been talking in this blog about the agreements that exist between a congregation and the preacher.  You can check this out in the previous posts.  This is sometimes referred to as the preaching contract,…