It has long been my contention that those who push ONE style of preaching (exegetical, expositional, dialogic,  need-driven, etc.) are wrong in the very nature of their argument.   The sermons we find in scripture do not follow one model.  It was with delight, then, that I found ...

I was just prompted by a question to re-read John Piper’s first chapter in Brothers, We Are Not Professionals. Here’s a taste of Piper’s prayer at the end of the chapter: Banish professionalism from our midst, Oh God, and in its place put passionate prayer, poverty of spirit, hunge...

Some people have goals for every five-minute segment of the day, while others balk at that approach to life and deliberately claim to have no goals at all.  While goal-setting can be taken to a manic extreme, it is healthy to have goals in the important areas of life in order to avoid aimlessness.Â...

Haslam’s book, Preach the Word, has a chapter entitled “Learning from Jesus.”  To some it is obvious that we should look to Jesus, who was, after all, the finest of preachers.  But I suppose some would overlook Jesus as a model of preaching since, well, we’re not Jesus.  I...

Continuing Greg Haslam’s list of reasons why preaching is ailing (first chapter of Preach the Word): 5. Some are too polite and too politically correct. It is easy for the message to be so diluted that it fails to rattle or challenge listeners.  Preaching is not for cowards, but political correct...

You’ve probably heard it said that good preaching comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable (or something similar).  While this may be true, it is also possible to make listeners uncomfortable in the wrong way.  Here are a couple of examples: 1. Pushing naturally unresponsive peopl...

As a congregation we are memorizing the 5th Chapter of Revelation and then reciting it together on Sunday mornings.  This has been a great blessing.  In effort to aid that discipline I preached through the passage this past week. The main thrust of the sermon is trying to convince us that Christ i...

The recent flack over the decision of 21st Century Christian to exclude some churches because they have instrumental accompaniment in some services (My response to Mr. Royster’s defense) has caused me to consider the deeper and more alarming problem which should be a concern to all of our peo...

This is good news.  I read this today from the Crossway blog: The Gospel Coalition has uploaded and organized 443 audio sermons and lectures by D. A. Carson. Andy Naselli expresses the value of this goldmine: I’d highly recommend that you redeem the time and systematically and thoughtfully listen...

When we come to interpreting the narratives in the Gospels, we are faced with a couple of potential difficulties.  I’ll call it the double challenge of more than one: 1. More than one “author� of the parables. Our goal in interpretation is to grasp the author’s intended meaning.  But which...