Author: Administrador

Getting Started: (1) Who are you? How would you describe yourself? (2) How does your self-perception affect the way you live? More specifically, how does the way you see yourself affect the way you dress? How you talk? Who you date? With whom you make friends? (3) What informs your self-perception or your identity? In … Continue reading “Living Transformed Lesson: Identity Transformed”

In an article at his Preaching.org website, preaching professor Kent Anderson writes, “Complication must take a back seat to repetition. Visual imagery is a staple of oral presentation. What I am saying is that expository preaching does not need to be more shallow, but it does need to be less complex. My suggestion is that sermons … Continue reading “Effective Preaching Means Less Complexity”

In their excellent new book Communicating for a Change (Multnomah), Andy Stanley and Lane Jones make the case for one-point preaching in a contemporary setting. They offer an outlining method “built around the communicator’s relationship with the audience rather than content…The outline revolves around five words, each of which represents a section of the message. They … Continue reading “Developing a Relational Outline”

Storytelling expert Steven James says one of the keys to effective stories is to trust them to do their work without trying to explain or analyze them for the listeners. He writes: “In nearly every book on public speaking and preaching I’ve read I see the same advice: ‘Tell ’em what you’re gonna say. Say … Continue reading “Trust the Story”

Among a list of “Ten Cautions and Encouragements for Preachers,” pastor Mark Driscoll writes: 1. Beware of sermons for sale. Tragically, there is a growing trend for preachers to buy their sermons. The tragedy with this is that such sermons are often goofy. Furthermore, they do not require the preacher to get his time in … Continue reading “Cautions for Preachers”

In a recent interview in the PreachingToday newsletter, Don Sunukjian observes, “Relevance is when the listener realizes, ‘I see how this message applies to me.’ See is the operative word. The listener thinks, ‘I have a mental picture of where this fits in my life. I see the guy next to me at work. He comes … Continue reading “The Urgency of Relevance”

In a recent edition of his “Church and Culture” blog, pastor James Emery White suggested 20 possible reasons a church might be plateaued or in decline. He writes: “Healthy churches, their veins coursing with the power of the Holy Spirit, are meant to grow! Maybe not all at the same pace, amount or regimen; but … Continue reading “Why Is Your Church Not Growing?”

My grandfather loved to whittle. I remember on many hot, Tennessee summer days, watching him fidget with his brown pocketknife in one hand and a crooked tree branch in the other. He would slowly, but deliberately, slide the sharpened blade of his knife across the knotty side of the branch, creating a fresh pile of … Continue reading “Sermon Whittling: Learn to Edit Before You Preach”

As I am writing these words, I am about to participate in my first fantasy football draft. I have agreed—against my better judgment—to join with several colleagues and students to be involved with a fantasy football league. They said the draft party would have wings and cake. How can that be a bad thing? For … Continue reading “Back Page Pulpit: Do I Have to Draft Deacons, Too?”

It began with my grandmother. At the simple kitchen table she would keep the prayer reminders for upcoming crusades. When the broadcasts aired locally, she would call and remind my mother to watch. We would gather and watch the hour-long production. This was long before Christian networks. In 1988, I moved to the Twin Cities. … Continue reading “What Can Preachers Learn from Billy Graham?”