The Key to Preaching in a "Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous" World
Perhaps many of us don't need Dr. Johansen to tell us a frightening and chaotic world is only going to get worse. What may be more surprising is to hear Dr. Johansen's outline for a counter-narrative: hope. He says this time of chaos is fertile ground for creativity, innovation, and a improvement.
How do preachers participate in this counter-narrative?
The Preacher’s Final Point: What Do You Hope the Listener Will Think, Feel or Do?
All parts of the sermon function like a call and response: each initial question answered, each named problem affirmed, each element finding its conclusion in the sermon’s intentionally crafted end. What are you inviting your listener to understand or believe more deeply? Why does it matter? Every word of the sermon lays the path to those answers.
When Preaching Meets Lament: A Word for a Wounded World (A GUEST POST)
“We live in a world trembling under the weight of sorrow—headlines filled with war, ecological collapse, racial violence, and mental health crises. Too often, sermons try to lift us out of suffering. We preach resurrection before we’ve sat with the tomb. But what if hope doesn’t begin with resolution? What if the call is to enter suffering? To name it. To stay with it. To tell the truth, before we promise hope?
"Really—How Hard Can Preaching Be?" Very. Here’s Why.
Why do so many parishioners find themselves in pews, week after week, listening to sermons that are vague, confusing, boring, discouraging—or that simply don’t connect? And what can preachers do to change the dynamic?
The Joy of Preaching: Lifting the Veil
We live without clarity of vision…about most everything. This veiled understanding is the human condition. As preachers, we struggle with the enormous task and great privilege of wrangling the words that might help others see beneath, behind, within, beyond that veil. But the joy of preaching is finding the word that lifts the veil to reveal Good News.
What I Wish I’d Known Before I Started Preaching
I trust you are as capable as I was at finding your way and learning the lessons about preaching that you need. But learning by trial and error takes a long time, and I wish I hadn’t lost so much of mine. Alas, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. So I’m sharing the main challenges I faced along with what I wish I’d known: suggestions to make this preaching life easier—no matter how many years you’ve been in the pulpit!
How to Fund Your Continuing Education—and Why it Matters
If the parish budget doesn’t cover the cost of the continuing education, and we feel we need to be the best leader and preacher we can be, why might we be reluctant to ask for it? After all, our continuing education is for them, the ones we serve.
Our parishioners are not only the recipients of what we learn, they are also investing in the future of the Church when we take what we learn wherever we serve. In short, asking for continuing education to be funded is not a transaction, but a sacred ministry partnership.
Science + Sermons (A Guest Post)
“Scientists not only make the Creator’s glory more vivid as they read the book of nature, but they illuminate themes—and therefore the related texts—that can enhance our preaching and teaching. Moreover…congregations that intentionally engage science actually attract science-minded individuals into the church.”
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I participated in the Lectio study today with a complicated and double-speak Gospel (John 17:6-19) and WOW! I received so much great insight and am headed in a direction I feel really good about. Thank you to all my colleagues! If you are wondering if this is worth it, wonder no more. It is.
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The Gospel People Don't Want to Hear: Preaching Challenging Messages was written to aid preacher’s in understanding what’s at stake for their listeners so they can craft sermons their audience can receive, even if they challenge cherished beliefs.
I just have to say WOW. I'm so grateful that I made the investment and joined The Collective. These Thursday [workshops] are a game-changer for me.
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