Preaching Advice Roundup: 16 Backstory Preaching mentors share strategies to make preaching easier, more effective, and more fun!
Craft, Process, Spirituality Lisa Cressman Craft, Process, Spirituality Lisa Cressman

Preaching Advice Roundup: 16 Backstory Preaching mentors share strategies to make preaching easier, more effective, and more fun!

Sometimes, one small tip is powerful enough to unlock a new competency or significantly improve a skill or process. That’s why today's blog is all tips, tips, and nothing but preaching tips. As the 2023-2024 Mentorship class wraps up their program and celebrates graduation, I asked current Backstory Preaching mentors to offer some of their favorite preaching strategies to help you craft more effective sermons in less time—while loving the process!

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Advent (&dvent) Devotional (A Guest Post)
Spirituality Doris Chandler & JJ Simpson-Keelan Spirituality Doris Chandler & JJ Simpson-Keelan

Advent (&dvent) Devotional (A Guest Post)

Like all deliciously wonderful things in life, Advent takes time to simmer and to develop flavor, texture, and richness. We have created a multi-media devotional based on the assigned texts from the Revised Common Lectionary, Yr B. Inside you’ll find corresponding word clouds, photographs, and resources, as well as questions for reflection. May this devotion offer you a sense of ease and comfort, a place for the Spirit to simmer inside you and inspire you to pull up a chair alongside nature—to see and hear her Advent beauty.  

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"I will offer the sermon I am capable of offering. I will forgive myself."
Spirituality Lisa Cressman Spirituality Lisa Cressman

"I will offer the sermon I am capable of offering. I will forgive myself."

It is good to offer the sermon we are capable of crafting—loaves and fishes style—within the limits of our skills, available time, competing demands, and lack of feedback. We can trust God to multiply our efforts so that listeners receive the nourishment they need.

Your call is to offer the sermon you are able to offer. And forgive yourself for not meeting your expectations.

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10 Rules for Preachers to Stay Healthy, Wealthy in Spirit, and Wise
Spirituality, Process Lisa Cressman Spirituality, Process Lisa Cressman

10 Rules for Preachers to Stay Healthy, Wealthy in Spirit, and Wise

Whether we preach weekly or less often, there’s always another Sunday, another funeral, another wedding, another Holy Week circling back around that needs a sermon.

If we’re not careful, the things that bring us joy—our loved ones, our fascination with Scripture, and our connection to God—are in constant danger of being taken for granted.

Left untended, they wither.

How do we want to feel when we look back on our preaching careers? How do we want our loved ones to feel looking back on them?

Here are ten rules to keep us healthy, wealthy in spirit, and wise—for the long haul.

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