Whenever I’m involved in a teaching series, I find it helpful to get a sense of the whole shape of the book so I can be clear about its purpose, message to the church and where the bits I will preach fit in. Our church are just starting a preaching series on Ephesians. So, I… Continue reading Ephesians in 5 short statements
Tag: preaching
You don’t have to look too hard for the application!
This is part two of a mini-series of articles on preaching application. In part one, I talked about the twin dangers of not applying a passage at all and over applying with a scatter gun approach, shooting off lots and lots of things for people to know, believer, repent of, start doing, stop doing etc. … Continue reading You don’t have to look too hard for the application!
Preachers – don’t over apply
Preachers tend to fall for one of two dangers. Either we can focus so heavily on the exegesis and exposition of a Bible passage, we make very clear what it means but we forget the application. It’s all very interesting but it doesn’t really land in a way that is practical and relevant to the… Continue reading Preachers – don’t over apply
Preaching around
I mentioned the other day the debate about whether or not you should reuse sermons. The assumption there is that you will get a lot of your preaching experience from going to various different churches, perhaps a different church each month for six months and then visit the same churches again the following six months.… Continue reading Preaching around
A last word on note taking – what do I really care about?
Some of you will be following a little debate I’ve been involved in on whether or not we should be encouraging people to take notes during sermons. Alistair Chalmers wrote positively in favour of note taking here, I responded with the case against note taking here and finally, Steve Kneale offered this conclusive response, taking… Continue reading A last word on note taking – what do I really care about?
Why you should do long preaching series in the Old Testament
I am planning to do some teaching through 1 and 2 Chronicles soon. It will be appearing on the Faithroots Podcast and there may also be a few accompanying articles. My main aim is to provide an additional training resource for those using Faithroots to help equip them for urban mission and planting. However, I… Continue reading Why you should do long preaching series in the Old Testament
Death and resurrection – applying Jonah through Jesus
We want to apply the Old Testament to our lives today but how do we best do that. There’s a risk that if we just use an Old Testament character as an example that we end up with legalism. The message of Jonah gives us a helpful case study. Jonah runs away from God and… Continue reading Death and resurrection – applying Jonah through Jesus
Food from around the worldwide web
What are theologians for? The case of Karl Barth’s adultery. An illuminating and challenging read. Though it raises questions about what we do with the sins of other big names in church history. What do we do for example with those who kept slaves? 5 signs a pastor is over committed: learn to accept your… Continue reading Food from around the worldwide web
Preaching at the carol service
So, it’s Sunday evening in the week before Christmas and the church building is packed. This is probably the largest gathering you are likely to see all year, even if you pastor a large congregation. There are lots of visitors. You recognise some friends and family of church members who have come with them. Then,… Continue reading Preaching at the carol service
Preaching on difficult passages
When I wrote about the preacher’s job not being to “explain the Bible passage”, I commented that although we can trust Scripture to be clear, this doesn’t mean that all Bible passages are uniformly easy. So, what should the you do when asked to preach on what looks like a difficult Bible passage? Here are… Continue reading Preaching on difficult passages
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