Part III: Listening to Imagination The Spirit’s work in preaching is always rooted in Scripture; and yet every sermon is an imaginative act. At their best, sermons help the congregation experience God’s presence through a fresh encounter with Christ who is the Word of God. That requires engaging the Scripture as a treasure trove of […]
Preacher: Rev. Andrea Summers Context: ALIVE Wesleyan Church Title: “Broken Halos: Week 1” External link: https://youtu.be/XwnJ965mkng The best preachers utilize their sermons to help the congregation engage their life with God in fresh ways. Part of this involves identifying, deconstructing, and reimagining familiar practices in a way that helps our churches and communities find root […]
Interpretation–of our newspapers, our friends’ words, and our Bible–is (by its essence) a cultural act. We read any text through the lenses of our upbringing, life experiences, and the tradition we’ve been taught. When we sit down to write a sermon, we bring all of these lenses into our view of Scripture, along with the […]
Part I: Listening for our Congregation Preachers often think of preparation in terms of preparing what to say. Yet what we say every Sunday emerges from how we listen to the Scripture, to our people, and to the Holy Spirit’s voice. Most sermons are exercises in attentiveness: helping a congregation stop, look, and listen to […]
David B. Ward. Practicing the Preaching Life. Nashville: Abingdon Press, March 19 2019. 212 pages ISBN-10: 1501854941 At some point over the week of preparation a frantic breath of prayer springs forth, “God, let this be a good sermon.” The sun goes down, Sunday comes, the sermon is spoken, and the preacher quickly finds that […]
SERMON: Loving the Broken | Dan Walker
Preacher: Dan Walker Title: “Loving the Broken” – https://vimeo.com/101135542 Dan Walker worked at Love, INC in Brevard County, Florida for years, before moving to Marion, Indiana. Dan is now a Community Pastor in Marion, and a D.Min student at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, IL. Below are several practices Dan exhibits in this sermon that […]
Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale by Frederick Buechner Books on preaching can often focus on the mechanics of delivering an excellent sermon; and while learning the mechanics of delivery is a crucial task for preaching proficiency, part of what makes a sermon truly good is the perspective with which […]
Which Question Matter? One pastor I have recently come to know and love has been trying to strengthen his biblical study process for preaching. In preparing sermons, he has most often simply followed his hunches and intuitions. Often these instincts include bringing a dozen other small passages into the sermon to support what he says […]