I am always on the lookout for "hooks" on which I can then hang sermons or series.And the hooks are everywhere: billboards, television, radio, colloquial sayings, the internet, and popular music. In other words, the hooks are in the language of our culture.Because...
I probably spend 20-25 hours a week preparing messages. And 8-10 in pastoral counseling and visitation.Sometimes I wish I could counsel less so I could prepare more; other times I wish I could prepare less so I could visit more.But as I have thought about that dynamic...
I was speaking with a good friend recently about the difference between exhortational preaching and evocative preaching.Exhortational preaching challenges. Urges. Implores. It is filled with phrases like "you should" and "we ought" and "do this" and "consider that."...
So we finish The Treasure Principle on Sunday.I'm so pleased that a series that started out being about money has ended up being about God.A series that took of on generosity has landed at grace.That focus will continue in the final episode of the series -- Eyes On...
When you're 94, will you . . .Continue to submit books for publication?Serve on a Grand Jury?Play tennis?Give speeches?Take part in political rallies on the steps of the State Capitol?For most of us, the answers to those questions will probably be "no."For my mother,...
We're heading to Texas for a few days to spend Thanksgiving with family.There's something about growing up in Texas that you can't really understand . . . unless you grew up there as well.An irrational loyalty? Rose-colored memory? Misplaced feelings of geographic...
Most modern worship services have a fairly predictable arc:Opening Worship Set -- music moves from high energy celebration to more moderate reflectionCreative element -- solo, video, drama, or all of the aboveSermonResponse time -- congregational singing or another...
Week Three of the Treasure Principle will be interactive, unpredictable, and celebratory.I really like what we have planned.I pray these are the kinds of plans that God will then take over and do more with them than we even expect.So don't anticipate business as...
There's a dangerous spirituality out there.I see it on both the right and the left.I see it in myself.It is a spirituality that serves as a mask for anger.That's right. Some people use their spirituality as a thin veneer that barely hides their bubbling anger.It's why...
As some of you know, John Wesley included this instruction in his "Directions For Singing" that prefaces every Methodist hymnal:Sing [these hymns] exactly as they are printed here, without altering or mending them at all; and if you have learned to sing them...