A few weeks ago, I published an article here on Preaching & Preachers introducing what I’ve come to call High-Altitude Spiral Preaching, a philosophy and methodology for...
Practice of Preaching
High-Altitude Spiral Preaching
Every preacher knows the tension: we want our people to grasp the message of an entire biblical book, but week-by-week exposition can make it hard for them to see the big...
Stop Thief! (Should I Have Put That in Quotes?)
Students regularly ask me when and how to cite sources in their sermons. There is, of course, no easy, one-size-fits-all, black-and-white answer to their question. As J. D....
Leaf Looking or Tree Shaking? Text, Context, and Sermon Preparation
Okay, so you have your preaching text selected for this Sunday and you're ready to dig in and start studying. Question--where should you start? Should you begin by studying...
Preacher, Doodle. Doo.
David Prince is one of my favorite contemporary authors in the field of homiletics. His blog posts, book Church with Jesus as Hero, and dissertation on "The Necessity...
The Power of Example: Paul’s Rhetorical Strategy in Philippians 2
What is the best way to develop the idea of a text in a sermon? Often the idea itself becomes clear to us after we follow the standard exegetical process and consult the...
How to Select a Preaching Text, Part 2
(This post is the second in a two-part series. You can read Part 1 here.) Sunday is over and another sermon is in the books. Now it’s Monday and you can take a break, right?...
How to Select a Preaching Text, Part 1
(This is the first a two-part series on selecting a preaching text within an expository book series.) There are a number of factors involved in selecting a text (or topic or...
Frag-men-tar-y Ex-po-si-tion
In a sincere effort to emphasize the text of Scripture and to keep their messages biblical, some preachers engage in what we could call "fragmentary exposition." Here is the...
How to Make Sure Your Sermon Applications Don’t Eclipse God’s Wisdom
Knowing how to apply an ancient text of Scripture to a contemporary audience can be a risky enterprise. There are many "dangers, toils, and snares" along the pathway. There...