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Preaching and Core Human Needs

Every person you know is (for the most part) doing the best they can with their perspective, skills, and experience. How would your preaching change if you believed that?  We usually look at our own struggles with understanding, because we know our own lives. We don’t volunteer in the community because we’re too busy; we […]

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Sermons

Rivers instead of Resevoirs

Sermon Link: https://subsplash.com/sentchurch/watch/mi/+cw47gyh?autoplay=true  Sermon Title: “Rivers Instead of Reservoirs” Preacher: Pastor Kyle Ray is the Senior Pastor of Sent Church in Plano, Texas, before which he was senior pastor of Kentwood Community Church.  Address suspicions: “There’s nothing I want from you; there’s nothing I need from you—there are a lot of things I want for […]

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Sermons

Growing in Knowledge

Sermon Review: Amber Cook, Grace Fellowship Church (Princeton, IN) Link to Sermon Audio: https://gracefellowshipchurchsermons.sermon.net/main/main/21530321  Sermon Title: “Growing in Knowledge” Rev. Amber Cook is Senior Pastor of Grace Fellowship Church in Princeton, Indiana. Below are a few things we believe made Pastor Amber’s message a helpful example for preachers.  Continuity—“We’ve seen that a theme in this […]

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Sermons

Preaching with Emotion: “Confusion”

Confusion abounds in the world we inhabit; it also shows up in the Word we inhabit. The people of God since the Genesis of creation have experienced the human angst of confusion. Paul wrote, “God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (1 Cor. 14:33). Yet, so often we find ourselves feeling our […]

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Sermon Starters: “Start a Fight”

Scripture is full of conflict: between God’s ways and our ways; in interpersonal relationships, and between nations. Sometimes the best way to begin a sermon is to invite our hearers into that conflict… to “start a fight” at the beginning of the sermon that somehow resolves by the end. Here are 3 good uses of […]

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7 Gestures Preachers Should Avoid

Since I started coaching preachers nine years ago I have been finding ways to describe to preachers what we see in the seats. Over and over again a few patterns crop up in all kinds of preachers: young, old, big church, small church, women, men, gifted, and not quite as gifted preachers. Since I have […]

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Honest Preaching

Redundancy is, as defined by Dictionary.com, “superfluous repetition or overlapping, especially of words.” © 2009 Danielle Scott, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio Honest preaching, is, well, redundant. Aren’t we, as preachers, supposed to be honest? Isn’t truth-telling inherent within the very nature of Biblical proclamation? Can you stay in ministry and be effective long […]

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Plagiarism and Preaching (Panel Discussion)

We have received a wide variety of responses from Wesleyan ministers and people outside the Wesleyan church in response to our series on plagiarism. Ministers have said everything from “Why is this such a big deal right now? I for one have never struggled with this” to “I am so glad you are dealing with […]

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Quoting and Citing with Ease

Referencing sources verbally in sermons is actually easier than you might think. Often pastors slip into the plagiarism of preaching realm because they feel like referencing sources makes their sermon sound like a paper. You do not have to sound as though you are giving a presentation in a freshmen speech class to cover your […]

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Preaching and Plagiarism

How much copying is too much? When does inspiration by others turn into stealing other’s intellectual property? If a sermon is inspired by God, can a preacher own it? If we get a spark of an idea from another preacher, can we use it without mentioning them? Or does the barest mention of someone else’s […]