I have been reading the New Testament for a long time, but I realize that I am only now learning how to read its epistles correctly. And to read the New Testament well, you need to read the epistles (Romans, I & II Corinthians, Galatians, et al) accurately. Here’s...
Way back in the spring of 1984, as I was winding up my English degree in college, I took a class on theories of literary interpretation. It sounds kind of high falutin’, and I suppose it was. The teacher was Louis Menand, who has gone on to a measure of fame as...
Over the past six months or so, I have heard two different one point sermons that caught my attention. The preachers in question delivered well developed, biblically faithful, and rhetorically compelling messages. The one point, once revealed, served as both the...
In speaking with a preacher friend recently, I mentioned that the early part of every sermon needs to surface a problem that needs to be solved or expose an itch that needs to be scratched. Really, then, sermon openings invariably involve predicaments. I want the...
We preachers value the responses that people have to our preaching. After all, most of us didn’t go into this so that our words could vanish into thin air, never to be heard, much less considered, again. Yet even the best preachers (so I’m told) get all kinds of...
I have noticed in the communication field that it is all too easy to succumb to the “Captain Obvious Trap.” One of the commentators on the Tennis Channel, for example, is notorious for telling viewers that “Wow, Novak Djokovic is really flexible,” or “Man, can John...
As you can see in the Books I Like section, I am currently reading White House Ghosts, a detailed history of presidential speechwriters from 1932 to 2008 . . . or, to use initials, from FDR to W. When I first saw the title at a used book store, I realized, “I give...
As thrilling as it is to ensure that at least a moment in every sermon points to Christ and him crucified, it is even more so when sermons issue an urgent yet loving appeal to surrender to his Lordship. Doing this well involves doing it with variety. It includes...
While most Methodist churches refrain from all kinds of clapping — either the rhythmic kind during a praise song or the appreciative kind during a sermon — Good Shepherd has always been one of the exceptions. We clap during most songs on most Sundays. We even clapped...
Preaching is an intensely solitary activity. Preaching is a thoroughly social exercise. Which is it? Solitary or social? Yes. My own process of preparation is wholly wrapped in solitude. I study, I jot, I brainstorm, I fret, I pray, I get excited, I become...