preaching
A pastor's study
Many of us love the busyness and energy of a robust church. And yet all of us pastors must summon an uncommon discipline if we are to reflect the priority of preaching.
Reading for Preaching, by Cornelius Plantinga Jr.
Cornelius Plantinga Jr. contends that to be fully prepared to share a word from God with a congregation, a preacher should attend to storytellers, biographers, poets and journalists.
reviewed by Robert Cornwall
Don't put down the camera
As church leaders, we have our ears, hearts, and words. We pray that God will use them. But we also have limitations--time, energy, and ability. And even though we feel helpless, like we can never do enough, sometimes being the person who takes the picture, who tells the story is our most important job.
Alternatives to becoming an armadillo
“You have to grow tougher skin, Carol,” my colleague told me when I invited him to lunch and asked for his advice on a church matter. I inhaled deeply. That was the same response I heard repeatedly for the first ten years of my pastorate. Whenever I got frustrated, well-meaning friends and colleagues would tell me that I needed to miraculously grow some sort of Teflon epidermis.
Homiletics and humor
I was at a youth retreat and a senior in high school asked me, “Who are your inspirations when it comes to public speaking?"
Discovering the saints: A church meets a cloud of witnesses
When my senior colleague proposed a ten-week sermon series on the saints, I was hesitant. Would anyone find this interesting?
Easter’s coming
The years I spent preaching Easter brought me closer to the heart of resurrection news. They drove me deeper into the gospel.
Preaching lessons at a fundamentalist Bible school
There is a particular authority that comes from privilege. When a white man steps into the place where he belongs, he has an internal power with which he was born. He is entitled. Like royalty, he sits on the throne naturally, because that place is caught in his blood. But an entirely different power emerges from women who have been told that they are not allowed to speak in church—and suddenly rise behind the pulpit. Something flares up from deep inside of them, and when they have a safe space, the words can come out of them with force and fury.
Bad sermons?
At a reception to launch a new collection of Lucille Clifton’s poems (The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton 1965-2010), the editor of the volume, Kevin Young, described coming across a folder in Clifton’s archives at Emory University. The folder had been labeled “Unpublished Poems.” That label had been scratched out and replaced by something like, “Poems that really aren’t that good and should probably just be thrown away someday.” That label too had been scratched out and replaced with “Bad poems.”
Good news in brief
Whenever I preached a dense sermon or used too many references, a missionary friend would gently remind me to proclaim the gospel simply.
Protecting people with words
Excellent Christian preaching names and explores the shadows in order to declare that the light shines in the darkness.
Knowing your readers
Ten years ago, I studied readers of the then popular Left Behind series of Christian apocalyptic novels. If I conducted that study today, I would potentially have access to far more objective data about readers than I did. How quickly do they read? Where do they stop reading? What passages do they mark? Do they write notes in the margins?
E-books are providing companies with the opportunity for all of this information and more about people who use e-readers like the Nook and Kindle.
Bad words in the pulpit
A few months ago I preached a sermon that a lot of people loved and a few people hated. I heard from both groups but spent more time, as is perennially the case in ministry, with the few.
I didn’t set off to be controversial. I looked at the texts, read some commentaries. (Get behind me, Satan.) And then, in the middle of the week, a United Methodist preacher's kid made the news.
On not preaching (as often)
I’ve been an associate minister for two years. I love associate ministry. While I understand that it is a stepping stone for a lot of people, I feel deeply called to this role--both in general and in the specific context of the church I serve.
I used to be in solo ministry. When I made the transition, there were surprisingly few bumps--in large part due to my wonderful colleagues. And one of the big differences between solo and staff ministry is the increase in opportunities to work collaboratively.
Another is that I no longer preach every Sunday.
Ministry in the midst of wounds
As important as it is to minister from those wounded places, to preach about real emotional issues, and to write from a place of spiritual depth, there is also danger in it—for us and for our communities.
Inspired preachers
I knew my worst sermon was going to be terrible
before I preached it. I want to hold myself to a higher standard, and
James Howell's book offers the inspiration to get me there.
Speaking to mourners: The evolution of funeral sermons
In 1983, Kenneth Mitchell and Herbert Anderson wrote that "death is only one form of loss." This would have been unthinkable for Christians half a century earlier.
by Lucy Bregman
Preaching for a decision
Proclaiming good news ought to in some way lead to a response. Otherwise it can be an exercise in cheap grace.
Checkpoint
Why, the customs officer wanted to know, was I traveling to Canada just to preach? It was a question to ponder.