Author: Administrador

Most pastors and Bible teachers immediately recognize the power of a well-told illustration. It engages the heart of those listening and allows the mind’s eye to see truth through the application of something familiar. Ignoring the use of skillfully chosen illustrations in your sermons will lessen their effectiveness and cause people to think your preaching … Continue reading “How to Make Sermon Illustrations Memorable”

The Bible does not begin at Genesis 3; it begins at Genesis 1. This may seem a relatively bland statement, but the implications are as extensive as the universe. When we understand the scope of the Bible’s narrative, our individualistic and reductionistic approach to reading the text will be challenged. The Bible opens with a … Continue reading “Creation: The Beginning of God’s Restoration”

Myth #1: Life is a picnic. Even though all the evidence is to the contrary, we often seem to believe that life here on earth is—or at least ought to be—easy. In reality, however, life is hard—often very, very hard. That is, of course, exactly what the Bible leads us to expect. According to the … Continue reading “5 Myths about the Armor of God”

It looked like just another Friday morning at a coffee shop. The familiar whirr of the espresso machine. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee. A long line of patrons in a hurry to grab their favorite drink and face one more day at the office before the weekend. I was casually sitting at our usual … Continue reading “Start with Your People”

(Adapted from Chapter 1, How Happiness Happens by Max Lucado) How long has it been since you felt a level of contagious, infectious, unflappable, unstoppable happiness? Maybe your answer is “I feel that way all the time.” If so, God bless you. (And consider passing on this article to someone who needs it.) For many, … Continue reading “Are You Happy and You Know It?”

How do we understand the narrative, the real-life story of God in the New Testament? How should we view the story which reached its ultimate climax in Jesus of Nazareth and which then flows out, in the power of the Spirit, to transform the world with his love and justice? How do we let the … Continue reading “How to Study the New Testament for All Its Worth”

If reporters interviewed pastors after worship as they do NFL athletes after Sunday games, I imagine I would step up to the podium and say: ”We gave it our best effort out there today but we came up short. Yes, I spoke about the second person plural of the Greek pronoun during the second point … Continue reading “Good Preachers Are Always Students”

Today in the Church we have a generation of sons with father wounds preaching a Son-centered theology, leading churches as brothers rather than fathers, lacking spiritual moms and dads, and attracting people who bring their own family wounds and who want the church to be family minus the presence of any kind of older fatherly … Continue reading “How Today’s Church Can Be a Healthy Family”

There’s a reason New Year’s resolutions like ”pray more” tend to fail. ”More” is vague-when will you feel like you’ve reached your resolution? And if you’re talking about a church giving campaign goals, ”more” means practically nothing to your donors. That’s why it’s important to make your goals as visible as you can. There are … Continue reading “3 Steps to Make Your Church Giving Campaign Compelling”

“The task of hermeneutics is to clarify this miracle of understanding, which is not a mysterious communion of souls, but sharing in a common meaning.” –Hans-Georg Gadamer [1] The New Testament, we suggest, must be read so as to be understood. It isn’t the kind of “magic” book that simply bypasses the mind. This means that … Continue reading “Hermeneutics in Action: Interpreting John’s Gospel, by N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird”