Seven Strategies to Keep Sermon Prep Out of Your Summer Plans
Don't want to do sermon prep on your vacation? You don't have to! Here are seven strategies to protect your time off.
A 4-Step Process to Connect Scripture to Your Listeners’ Lives
When the cultures and circumstances of Scripture seem irrelevant or unfamiliar, how do we help our listeners connect. How do we find the truth that transcends time and context? This 4-step process helps you look at the human condition beneath the circumstances to find the the ways God showed up then and continues to show up now.
One-Year Anniversary of Making Preaching Easier!
Discover a preaching community rooted in spirituality that makes sermon prep more efficient, more effective, and more fun!
How to Find The Perfect Sermon Illustration in Less Time (A Free Guide)
One of the most challenging and time-consuming aspects of sermon planning is finding a good sermon illustration—or latch—for your sermon. How do you find one that truly resonates without spending hours and hours searching? To that end, I’ve created a 5-step guide to finding your latch. You’ll learn an efficient and effective process you can use every week to find a sermon illustration that connects (steps 1-4 take only 4 minutes total!). Click through to learn more!
Lenten Sermons: Before You Preach, Mind the Gap
Preaching through lent requires significant theological knowledge. What do you know? What don’t you know? How do you know? Using this 4-step process, discover your gaps in knowledge so you can prep more efficiently and effectively for honest sermons that capture the true nature of God.
Find New Sermon Ideas by Thinking Like a Reporter
Preachers and reporters often face the same challenge: to tell the same story in a new way. By thinking like a reporter, we can find dozens of ways to share the Good News from a fresh angle.
Learning to Read the Untold Stories of Scripture (A Guest Post)
Scripture—lectio divina, the Daily Office, biblical scholarship, and community study—has been a passion of mine before I knew the words to call it. This part of my life has held a privileged place in my schedule for so long, that I came up surprised and saddened to begin to realize just how much of our scriptures I had been neglecting.
A New Year's Challenge for Preachers: Reset Your Calendar in 2019
When we keep piling on the responsibilities without consideration for the prep time involved, the investment of energy required to engage, or the precedent it might be setting—then our calendars rule us instead of us ruling our calendars. That’s when preaching gets stuffed into the cracks and margins of ministry, and we end up feeling overwhelmed and exhausted by our self-defeating Sisyphisian attempts to “get on top of” our responsibilities.
"There's a joy in delivering the good news better": A Case Study
Ever feel like you’re missing something in your preaching life? You’re not alone. And you’re not without options.
9 Ways to Ensure Your Last Sermon of the Weekend is as Strong as Your First
When you preach the same sermon across multiple services, there can be a drop in energy, enthusiasm, or presence as the morning wears on. How do you maintain focus and attention so that each event receives the fullness of your abilities?
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Live Lectio for Sermon Prep (Free!)
Get an early start on your sermon prep by joining us live on Facebook (Mondays at noon Central) as we prayerfully discuss the coming week's gospel passage (RCL & NL).
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.
—Donna G.
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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.
—Andrea M.