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Attention! Strategy…
If you haven’t got the attention of your listeners, then they aren’t really listeners, and you’re not really preaching to them. I know there are all sorts of factors influencing the preaching event,...
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Attention Seeking Behaviour
Without the attention of the listeners, our preaching is going into thin air. God may recognize faithfulness, but He can’t be delighted by ineffective preaching when He is so concerned to get the...
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Attention! Unseen Forces
To finish off this series on attention, there is one more thing we need to consider. We’ve looked at the importance of having the listener’s attention if you want them to hear your message. We’ve...
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Christmas Sundays
Apologies for the blog-silence . . . illness over, it is time to post again. The next couple of Sundays are prime “visitor” days in church world. It is easy to talk as if we just need to preach the...
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Biblical Girders 3
I have been writing about Biblical Girders: those superstructure passages that form the skeleton that holds the Bible together. As well as key passages, we could well add a list of key themes that...
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Biblical Girders 4
Where does each girder go? The Bible has a superstructure that holds it all together. So the thematic element of the promised seed in Genesis 3:15 will work its way through multiple books and become...
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Transitions
The bulk of preparation effort usually goes into the main content of a message. We wrestle with the text, we allow it to shape our theology, we think through how that content marks our lives, we...
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Transitions 2
Transitions are disproportionately significant. They don’t convey the content of the message, but their critical role can significantly support, or significantly undermine the message as a whole. Last...
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Ground-Zero Preaching (Easter in the Pulpit) 2
Four gospels do not automatically mean four accounts of everything. In fact, most of the ministry of Jesus is told in less than four gospels (except for the feeding of the 5000). But once you get...
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Ground-Zero Preaching (Easter in the Pulpit) 3
Crucifixion images tend to be sanitized. The reality was so much more shocking than we tend to realise. The frequency of reference, combined with serene artistic representations, has led many...
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Two Ways to Feed
There are essentially two ways to feed someone. I may decide to chase further possible analogies tomorrow, but for now, just two ways: 1. The pill shower. Next to our stove we have a funny shaped...
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Two Ways to Feed 2
Yesterday I suggested that offering a meal is more loving than throwing a shower of vitamin pills at someone. I’m not sure I want to overwork the analogy, but there is infinite variety even in the...
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Bibles Open
When you preach, how long do Bibles stay open? 1. Open until right after the reading. Perhaps your listeners know from experience that once the reading is over, the message will fly every which way...
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Preaching Myths #1 – Pew Trust
I may not debunk these myths fully, but I do hope to make us think. Here’s one: “Put effort into a one-off evangelistic preaching event in your church and people will bring people.” Many churches...
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Preaching Myths #2 – Cool Preaching
Here’s another idea that bounces around in various forms, but I think should be probed a bit: “Cool preaching attracts people.” This could be the thinking of church leaders who decide to go with a...
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Preaching Myths #4 – Non-Gospel Preaching
How about this one? “We should preach the gospel to unchurched folk, but give teaching to church people.” I grew up going to two church services on a Sunday. One was for the church people. One was...
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Preaching Myths #5 – Short Talk Required
People still like to wheel this one out: “The current generation cannot concentrate as long as in the past, so reaching this generation requires shorter talks.” Uh, no. There is no evidence to support...
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Preaching Myths #6 – Evaluation Verboten
Thankfully this is quite a rare one in my experience, but since it exists somewhere, let’s prod it towards its demise: “If a preacher has prayerfully prepared, then that must have been what God wanted...
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Preaching Myths #8 – Delivery Equals Circus
How about a pair of myths? “As long as the content of a sermon is true, that is good preaching.” “Delivery doesn’t matter, the church is not a circus.” According to the dictionary a circus is “a...
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50 Summer Preaching Tweaks: 1-5
As we are all about to head into a new (school) year of preaching, how about a big collection of little tweaks for effective preaching? In no particular order, here come the fifty summer tweaks to...
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