Author: Administrador

Karoline Lewis Dear Working Preachers, I am preaching on this text in Luther Seminary’s chapel on April 15, 2015, so I thought that for my column this week I would share with you some of my initial sermon thoughts. It may very well be that much of what follows ends up being in my sermon … Continue reading “The Courage to Ask”

Robert Hoch “A professor once told a student that he had preached a wonderful sermon, except for what he said and how he said it.”1 Susan Bell, writer and editor, observes this about the writing class critique in her book, The Artful Edit: On the Practice of Editing Yourself: “Classroom critiques, while helpful, are limited. … Continue reading “Editing Your Sermon: Getting in Touch with Your Inner Homiletician, Part 1”

Nathan Aaseng My dad once told me a story about preaching instruction during his time in seminary that would be impossible to imagine happening today. After one student delivered his sermon to the class, the professor pronounced his judgment on it: “That sermon was weaker than a broth brewed from the strained shadow of a … Continue reading “Sermon Review”

John Hulden How do you help a 4-year-old better understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ? One clear way a 4-year-old experiences the love of Jesus is “through the mutual conversation and consolation”1 of sisters and brothers in Christ. A 4-year-old encounters this conversation and consolation from blood-relatives (parents, siblings, and extended family), and also from … Continue reading “Five Questions for your Kids’ Sermon”

Karoline Lewis “You are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:48; Acts 3:15). We certainly are. Thanks for the reminder, Jesus. Because we need reminders of the resurrection — and often. Left to our own devices, left to the way in which life returns to normal after Easter, left to planning the last big worship push … Continue reading “Resurrection Witnesses”

Patricia Tull The book of Acts narrates how, in the years following the church’s birth, a small band of disciples turned the Roman world upside down (Acts 17:6) or, more precisely, right side up. Even threats and setbacks melted into opportunities as the disciples demonstrated, long before Margaret Mead’s famous saying, that a small group … Continue reading “Turning the World Right Side Up”

Karoline Lewis “Good sermon, Pastor!” Don’t you then want to respond, “What does that actually mean? What was good about it?” Isn’t that the anticipated adjective to describe your sermon as you shake hands at the back of the church at the end of worship? It is a rather vague and unsatisfactory adjective and yet … Continue reading “What’s So Good About A Shepherd?”

Robert Hoch This is the second article in a series. See Part 1. “It is fair to say all writers — seasoned or not, steady or panicked — lose perspective.”1 According to Susan Bell, getting distance from our work involves both a metaphysical and a physical challenge. The metaphysical and the physical are more closely … Continue reading “Gaining Perspective: Getting in Touch with Your Inner Homiletician, Part 2”

Karoline Lewis “Christians still read the Bible strangely. We read the Bible as if we were the point, as though we are not, or never were, the Gentiles” (Willie Jennings). Is that ever the truth. The more-often-than-not meaning of 15:6 is one of those strange readings, “Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away … Continue reading “The Risky Business of Bearing Fruit”

Karoline Lewis “Nepal, Baltimore, school shootings, cancer, suicide, poverty, discrimination, apathy, violence, ignorance, spite, abuse, injustice. Some days it’s just too much for my little heart.” This was a Facebook post this week by a working preacher I know. I would add to the list sexism, anxiety, broken relationships, and sorrow. I would add disillusionment, … Continue reading “Choose Joy”