A Preacher's Meditation for Maundy Thursday
"Not by annihilating the wicked, not by forcibly eliminating evil from among humankind is righteousness to be realized; the Lord wills to rehabilitate the world by turning sinners from evil ways that they may live. And we must admit that this is more difficult than the use of force."
A Preacher's Meditation for Wednesday of Holy Week
"One only has explored
’The deepmost; but he did not die of it."
A Preacher's Meditation for Tuesday of Holy Week
"The women gather round the cross, fall to their knees in the wet sand and pray. Then they dance round the cross, the symbol of this folly. These women have lost everything—their homes, their families, their jobs and their possessions. They have nothing more to lose—only their chains, but everything to win."
A Preacher's Meditation for Monday of Holy Week
"God of goodness give me yourself for you are sufficient for me. I cannot properly ask anything less, to be worthy of you. If I were to ask less, I should always be in want. In you alone do I have all."
Four Ways a Preaching Community Improves Your Sermons
One of the most effective ways for preachers to grow and improve is to participate in a collaborative community. Discover how one church builds collaboration and feedback into their staff's weekly rhythm, and see what this kind of support can do for you.
A Ninth Grader's Open Letter to Preachers after the Florida Shootings
How will we address Abram and others like him in our sermons? How will we preach in and out of the pulpit so that our actions are congruent with our words? How will we build Shalom in a way that young people see and trust in God's resurrecting work?
Overcoming Sermon Procrastination: How to Get to Work When You Don't Know Where to Start
Sometimes, what looks like procrastination is actually failure to make a decision. After all the decisions we have to make, What am I going to preach? can feel like the Everest of decisions. As a result, we put our sermon prep off. But we can anticipate this difficulty and plan for success.
How do we overcome the fatigue that causes us to put off our sermon prep? How do we just get started?
A Christmas Message of Hope for a Cynical World
In the midst of disaster, crisis, and discord, how do we preach hope to a world that desperately needs it? More importantly, how do we find hope when our own outlook is jaded by the challenges around us?
Four Preaching Lessons from Hurricane Harvey
Whether we're in the middle of our own crisis and feel overwhelmed about what to do next, or we want to do something, anything!, to help someone else who is, here are four responses we can offer in our sermons at the intersection of the Gospel and experience.