The Preacher’s Progress
It is when a preacher sees more plainly the implications of the gospel for his own life as a redeemed sinner that he will preach the gospel more urgently, attractively, and probably also more clearly.
Preachers: Make Your Sermon Both Accurate and Impactful
As preachers, we want our sermons to be both accurate and impactful—true to the text and helpful to our hearers. By God’s grace, we want to see biblical information produce spiritual transformation. But we’ve learned, this doesn’t happen easily or automatically. We’ve all preached sermons that were theologically correct but still never seemed to connect. Truth was explained, but hearts weren’t engaged. The question is: how do we prepare sermons that are doctrinally solid and spiritually life-shaping? One way is to have the main points in our message do double duty. We craft them to both explain biblical truth and...
Home Run Sermon Introductions
A home run sermon introduction earns the interest of those listening. I realize the word “earns” is not one of our favourite words as preachers. After all, we preach a gospel of grace. When it comes to salvation, the word “earn” doesn’t belong in our vocabulary. But when it comes to sermons, there is a sense in which it does. I’m convinced preachers need to earn something from their congregations as they start their sermons. We need to earn their attention. Let me explain. In a perfect world, all a preacher should need to do at the start of a...
The Universal Experiences of Preachers
If C.S. Lewis is right, all preachers should share a connection as servants of the Word. For it was Lewis who expressed the nature of friendship when he said something like this, “Friendship is born at the moment when one person says to another ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.’” This is the heartening moment of discovering that you’re not on your own. And preachers have more than a few shared experiences. As someone privileged to serve in pulpit ministry for twenty years now, I’ve had countless conversations with colleagues at church meetings, conferences, and social...
The Role of Editing in the Sermon Writing Process
I can’t remember the last time I preached my first draft of a sermon. I’m sure that I’ve done it, but I’m also sure that it isn’t my ordinary practice. This past Sunday I preached D4 of a sermon on Genesis 3. The Sunday before that I preached D4b of a sermon on Genesis 2:24-25. “D4” indicates that it was “Draft 4”, and “b” indicates that it was a light re-write or update of Draft 4. In general, I use new numbers whenever I significantly alter the structure of a sermon and letters for lighter revisions and updates within the...
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