Adaptive Leadership (Part I): What preaching can teach us about how to solve congregational conflicts (a guest post)
In ministry, there are often conflicting ideas about where resources should be focused or what ministries should look like. In other words, there’s a gap between our values or beliefs and the reality before us. Dale Matherly, Backstory Preaching Mentor, suggests we can look to our preaching framework for help navigating the gap and casting a vision of the future that unifies our congregations around a shared destination.
Laughing Our Way to the Truth (A Guest Post)
Enjoy this guest post from Rolf Jacobson, Luther Seminary Professor of Old Testament and the Alvin N. Rogness Chair of Scripture, Theology, and Ministry: “Preachers can learn from comedians—especially from stand-up comics. Because like us, they stand up in front of a gathering of people with nothing other than a microphone for protection.”
What Your Parishioners Wish They Could Tell You (A Guest Post)
(A guest post). Ever wonder what your listeners are thinking week to week? Consider these three suggestions from a life-long parishioner to ensure your messages connect at a soul-level.
The Embodied Word (A guest post by Steve Thomason with an excerpt from The Visual Preacher)
“People learn in many different ways. Pure words are very difficult for many people. Pictures and visual cues help connect the dots for a vast majority of the people in our pews. Read on for practical ways to combine visual communication with the Word of Scripture and the words of your sermon, so that, when you are done preaching, your listeners will say, ‘We have seen Jesus.’”
Effects of the Pandemic on Preaching and Worship: Questions to Consider (A Guest Post)
Our guest blogger and Collective+ speaker, the Rev. Andrew Stoebig, suggests the events and traumas of our most recent cycle of memory calls for a deeper kind of reflection on the way we operate individually and within our community systems. Namely, now what? Whether your worship patterns since the pandemic are new or old or in between, does what you say match what you do? That is, does your pattern of and movement during worship support or challenge, confirm or deny, further or suppress your homiletical proclamation?
Pentecost Quotations for Preaching and Reflection
I don't think I'm alone in struggling to find words to preach about the elusive yet ever-present Holy Spirit. The Spirit receives a fraction of the mentions in Scripture that “God” and “Jesus/Christ” receive. With Christians' most revered day about the Spirit coming up on the Feast of Pentecost, I thought it would help to add a few more mentions about the Spirit to our personal preaching libraries. I collected quotes from theologians, poets, and preachers to give us more words to work from. Their wise and insightful ideas will spark your imagination, help you see the Spirit in a new light, and offer new directions for your sermons.
Preaching and the Enneagram: Understanding the gifts and shadows of your Enneagram type
The Enneagram is just one tool that helps us articulate what is helpful about who we are, and what is as yet unknown to us. Because our Enneagram perspectives are so deeply entrenched and devilishly clever in finding their way into the nooks and crannies of our preaching, we often can’t recognize their influence by ourselves. Read on for a brief introduction to the gifts and shadows of each Enneagram type in preaching.
5 Tools Making Preaching & Life Easier, More Inspired, and More Fulfilling (A Resource Round-Up)
I’ve noticed a number of improvements in my preaching and general life lately, so I’m sharing the tools that have been most influential in this shift. Perhaps one or more would be of use to you, too.
At-Home Easter Retreat for Preachers (2022, Free!)
With help from Joan Chittister, this year's (free!) Easter Retreat for Preachers is intended to help unpack your over-stuffed spirit by entering the Easter story through an event that affected you. Designed to be done at home over ninety minutes, three hours or six, by the end you'll not only have encountered the risen Christ in a new way, you'll be able to enter this retreat as many times as you need until you find your way back to yourself.
Easter Preaching: Desire, Mystery, and Belonging (A Guest Post)
Following my deepest desire, following the path to be my most authentic self as I am created, almost always leads to the mystery of unknown outcomes, of uncertainty, of lack of closure. Belonging, in community, to God, with myself, has supported me through the mystery and returned me to desire over and over again.
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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.
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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.
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