For many years I have obsessed over studying great preaching and preachers. They are all different. All have their own unique style and approach to delivering a message. However, there are 7 characteristics that they all have in common. 1. Preach with Borrowed Authority The best preachers do not preach from their own authority, but…
Preaching works! If you didn’t believe that, you probably wouldn’t be reading this article. It’s effective. The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to convict of sin, convince of truth and convert the heart. When I was growing up, people would make a “public profession of faith” before being baptized. While we don’t…
Hopefully, you’re already thinking through your preaching calendar for next year. Part of shepherding a congregation toward long term health is offering a balanced diet from the pulpit. Your preaching over a twelve-month period should be pre-planned with certain factors built in. Before a new year begins, I try to identify eight to twelve series’…
Eye contact. It’s the most uncomfortable aspect of public speaking. Why? Because when we make eye contact with people, two things happen… We know a little bit more about what someone is thinking about what we’re saying. Our listeners know a little bit more about how we’re feeling about what we’re saying. And both can…
When big news happens, pastors usually start an internal dialogue about the coming Sunday’s message. Do I preach the message I’d planned on preaching? The one I had announced and slotted perfectly into our current series? The one I’ve already spent a couple of early mornings and late nights working on? Or do I preach…
Jesus was definitely an iconoclast, continually challenging the conventional thinking of His day. Twenty different times Jesus said, “You’ve heard it said… but I say to you…” And even today, his thoughts on leadership go against the grain. Most modern books on leadership, whether Christian or secular, give the same advice – be confident, never admit fear,…
Laughter is good for the soul. Think back to a time when you and your friends or family burst into uncontrollable laughter. Aren’t these some of the best moments of your life? Laughter unites us. It reminds us that we are all imperfect. Plus it just feels good. There are some who argue that there…
Effective preaching is more than just about what you say. It’s also about how you say it. Too many sermons fail not because of bad content, but because of bad delivery. Nobody how experienced you are, you should never stop learning. You should always be a student of sermon delivery because there is always room…
We live in a skeptical age. Fifty years ago, preachers didn’t have to work very hard convincing church goers to believe their message. Today, many of our listeners, especially millennials, question everything they hear. We can’t assume all of our listeners will be on board with us. We must first persuade listeners to believe in…
A revolutionary tool for building sermons The last few years leading Ministry Pass, we have noticed an opportunity to change the way sermons were written. 84% of pastors use Microsoft Word to build their messages. Technology has advanced in so many areas like Bible research and Bible reading but the way pastors build their sermons has…
Summer is here and that means lower attendance and decreased giving is looming for many churches. Most preachers aren’t too wild about summer (unless they’re on vacation!). School is out, vacations are planned, and there is a general feeling among some parishioners that it’s acceptable to ease up on their commitment to the church. Can…
When I took my first public speaking class in college, I was excited. I wanted to be a preacher. Public speaking was going to be my thing. I thought, “This class will be cake! I get to work on my skills and get an easy A.” When it came time for me to give my…
There are certain elements that must be included in every single sermon you ever preach. They are non-negotiable. To put it another way, every sermon you preach has three key components. Understanding them and helping them to play well together is half the battle of preaching effectively. The God Component The “God component” is what…
When your church meets in a movie theater, you understand what it is to do ministry right in the middle of the marketplace. For four years, our church plant met in two different movie theaters, each surrounded by shopping districts and restaurants. And sometimes, it got a little weird. A few times, we had to…
How much is a half an hour of undivided attention worth? The most valuable half hour in our entire society is the half hour people spend on Sunday listening to a sermon. For those few moments, everyone in the room is (mostly) tuned in to hear a life-changing message. We live in a culture saturated with…
We who preach are called to preach everything. The “whole counsel of God.” And that means talking about human sinfulness and depravity even as we’re preaching about victory and triumph. Remember the passage in the Bible where Moses comes down off the mountain and the people have made a golden calf? God prepared him with the…
Not too long ago, I sent out a survey to my email list and asked pastors if they believe ministers should address pop culture related topics like movies, music, & TV in their messages. Over 1500 pastors responded to the survey. A whopping 74% of them said, “Yes”—ministers can and should talk about culture from…
All pastors have more work to do than time to do it. Until Jesus comes back, there will always be more ministry to do. You could always do more… sermon prep outreach phone calls emails hospital visits meetings Bible studies plus a hundred other things. You will always have more work to do than time…
Not too long ago, I was flying into Guatemala City. It was dark, late, and extremely bumpy because of a terrible storm. I had a window seat, and as I looked out, all I could see was lightning. Lots of it. I wondered, “How often does a plane gets struck by lightning?” At that instant,…
One of the great debates in preaching circles is whether to preach topical sermon series’ or expository series’ through books of the Bible. I am sure you have met some people who have passionate opinions regarding one or the other. One camp says that preaching verse-by-verse through a book is tedious and becomes unengaging after…
Preaching out to persuade people to move toward God and his purposes. The eternal destiny of the hearer literally hangs in the balance. W. A. Criswell, while speaking at Moody Bible Institute on The Romance of Expository Preaching, defined preaching as “seeking to move a man’s will God-ward.” He went on to say that teaching is instructing…
Recently, a Ministry Pass member, Pastor Rob Dickerson of LifeQuest Community Church in Hilton, New York, shared a story with us about a very special service at his church. After I got off of the phone with Pastor Rob, I immediately relayed what he told me to our team—who were simultaneously ecstatic and moved.
A church service is one of the few environments that’s expected to engage people of all ages. If you think about it, most places don’t have to consider quite as drastic of an age span…
If you’ve been in ministry for any length of time, you’ve probably had an embarrassing preaching moment or two. Or seven. I know I have. I was thinking about this the other day, and thought it might be fun to send out an email and ask our list of pastors about their most embarrassing preaching stories….
Welcome to video number five in our series with pastor and New York Times best selling author, Mark Batterson. Missed the previous videos? Check out the links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. In this video, Mark drops my favorite line from this entire video series… “If your sermons are boring, it’s probably because your life…
Welcome to video number three in our series with pastor and New York Times best selling author, Mark Batterson. In this video, Mark talks about some of the things we need to avoid as preachers in order to present the full Gospel. Missed the previous videos? Check out the links to Part 1 and Part 2. Mark Batterson…
Welcome to video number two in our series with pastor and New York Times best selling author, Mark Batterson. Missed the previous video? Check out the link to Part 1. In this video, Mark talks about some of his greatest preaching challenges and how he overcame them. Mark Batterson serves as lead pastor of National Community Church in…
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