One of my priorities is to train people for preaching and teaching. This also means that I get involved in assessing and offering feedback. Here’s what I’m looking out for. A. What the preacher knows Notes B. What the preacher communicates I’m focusing specifically on expository preaching. We need to remember that many people may… Continue reading What am I looking out for when assessing preachers
Category: Preaching and Teaching
Make it visual
How do you engage visual learners and help them to remember what you have said in a sermon. Well, one obvious way is to use visual aids. That might be as simple as including some powerpoint slides with images. Generally speaking, I’m not a fan of PowerPoint in preaching. It risks asking people to dual… Continue reading Make it visual
Cash for questions: Tax, God and Caesar
Here in the UK, it was the Budget this week and there is much talk about tax and benefits. That also coincided with our Life Group looking at Luke 20:20-26 where Jesus is asked a question about paying taxes Early readers of Luke’s Gospel, perhaps in the late 60s/early 70s of the first century will… Continue reading Cash for questions: Tax, God and Caesar
Preachers: Don’t make things that are about Jesus about yourself
Have a listen to this sermon. It was delivered by Bishop Cei Dewar at Christopher Wickland’s church. These are two key men in the current Christian Nationalism movement. Both spoke on the platform at the Unite the Kingdom rally. I was therefore interested in the talk partly because of that but also partly because we… Continue reading Preachers: Don’t make things that are about Jesus about yourself
Is your satnav set right? Why we need faith
This is the text of a sermon I recently preached from Luke 17. Introduction A few years ago, we went on holiday with some friends to a place called West Bay which is down in Dorset and famous as the place where Broadchurch was filmed. Our friends’ parents had a holiday home there but they… Continue reading Is your satnav set right? Why we need faith
The deficient shepherd culture
Back the other week, I was talking to some Evangelical Anglicans about the state of the CofE. I explained to them the problem. With their “stay in” strategy that it leads to people thinking they have to stay when their evangelical vicar is inevitably replaced with a liberal. One response was to the effect that… Continue reading The deficient shepherd culture
Responding to a sermon on “why Christians should go on a Tommy Robinson march”
In amongst the responses to the Tommy Robinson march, I came across this one from a pastor who had been part of the march. It’s not an easy listen but worth persevering with. You get an insight into the arguments and methods used by those seeking to justify Christians marching under the banner of the… Continue reading Responding to a sermon on “why Christians should go on a Tommy Robinson march”
Two of the best things that your preaching should do
Let me share two stories from personal experience with you. In the first case, I was the preacher. Imagine the scene. I’ve completed my second year of theological training and my home church pastor has arranged for me to do a summer internship at a little village church (Halling Baptist) without a pastor at that… Continue reading Two of the best things that your preaching should do
You might need to step back to get the point
There’s an old saying about not being able to see the wood for the trees. I wrote the other day about the problems with equating verse by verse with expositional preaching. In fact, a sermon may be expositional when taking a short phrase, a verse, passage, chapter or even whole book of the Bible. I… Continue reading You might need to step back to get the point
Why verse by verse preaching may not always equal good exposition
John MacArthur’s Grace To You ministry describes its purpose as “unleashing God’s Truth, One verse at a time.” It is often assumed that Expository preaching is about working verse by verse through a text. Certainly, good expository preaching does require that we dig into the detail of the text. However, verse by verse may not… Continue reading Why verse by verse preaching may not always equal good exposition
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