Author: Administrador

A preacher can do only three thing with an idea: explain it, prove it, and apply it… [in other words:] What does the text mean? Is it true? And so what? (Alice P. Mathews)1 Many Christian women today view the sermon-the proclamation of the gospel-as the centerpiece of the worship experience. They yearn for the … Continue reading “What Women Wish Their Preacher Knew”

So we’re not giving up. Since though on the outside it looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by, without his unfolding grace. (2 Cor. 4:16, The Message) It has been over 60 years since G. Campbell Morgan stood in the … Continue reading “G. Campbell Morgan: Preaching in the Shadow of Grace”

I tried to think of a more interesting title for this piece. Something catchy. I can’t. I fear that you have already lost interest in what I’ve got to say. I’ve only got a sentence or two to grab you by the throat, and here I’ve already expended four sentences, going on five, without catching … Continue reading “Dulling Down Pentecost”

I am an expository preacher, and I am also a Pentecostal. Admittedly, these two categories are not often used in the same sentence, much less to describe the same person. But why is that, when so many of the convictions that shape each view are similar—a high view of biblical authority, a reliance on the … Continue reading “Why Pentecostals Don’t Preach Expository Sermons”

“A fool and his money are soon parted.” But what if the fool happens to be a preacher, a person charged to declare the whole counsel of God? As we know, that counsel includes talking about money, i.e., financial stewardship. But what if the preacher’s budget is so out of whack, his personal debt so … Continue reading “Forgive Us Our Debts”

Look out! They’re watching! At the time our daughter Erin was about 9 years old, I had not been too long out of seminary and had accepted a call to First Presbyterian Church in Pascagoula, Mississippi. We truly were about as poor as the proverbial church mouse, and Erin had just gone through one of … Continue reading “Sermons in Shoe Leather!”

While we are confident that whatever God has said is relevant, the pastor’s ever-present danger is rendering null and void the gift of God’s relevant revelation through misguided application. When we speak of application, we are referring to any time in the sermon when we call for a response of faith-rooted obedience to the theological … Continue reading “Cross-Eyed Application: Equipping Preachers to Urge Faith-Based, Text-driven Obedience”

Stuart Briscoe began a career in banking in his native England, but at age 29 he and his wife Jill began working with a ministry to young people that took him around the globe. In 1970 he was called to serve as Senior Pastor of Elmbrook Church in suburban Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Over the next 30 … Continue reading “Preaching Across Cultures: An Interview with Stuart Briscoe”

Vol. 6, No. 23 June 19, 2007   Summer is a great time of year — picnics, vacations, a slower pace. But it’s also a time when many churches see a downward trend in attendance. You know it’s coming, but that doesn’t make it any easier to stand in the pulpit on Sunday morning and see … Continue reading “PreachingNOW – Vol. 6, No. 23”

Let’s start with a typical Sunday as a family returns home from church. The question posed to the children is the same every week: “So what did you learn today?” And the response is too often the same: (Silence.) “Ummm…” (More silence.) “Ummm…” (Still more silence.) “Ummm…” Parents have tried to think of different ways … Continue reading “The Power of the Big Idea”