Sermons Should Direct

What a shame for people to leave church services unaware of what they are to do or to stop doing.

The Top 10 "Last Words in Your Church"

Pastoral lines you may not be around long enough to regret

Sometimes words have to be eaten. Other times, they turn out to have teeth that bite. From an ...

Fear of a Boring Sermon

I fear preaching in such a way that when people hear about God, they'll want only to yawn.

An Eclipse Is Not Unseen

Take heed to yourselves also because there are many eyes upon you. So there will be many who observe your fall. If you miscarry, the world will also echo ...

How to Recognize a True Preacher

I once heard a preacher who sorely tempted me to say I would go to church no more. ... A snow storm was falling around us. The snow storm was real, the ...

The Example of an Abbot

An abbot ... ought to rule his disciples with a twofold teaching: displaying all goodness and holiness by deeds and by words. To intelligent disciples ...

Whose Problem?

A minister took a guilt trip in a sermon: "I let the congregation really have it. Their stewardship was dismal, their participation was weak; and ...

Watch What You Eat

My father-in-law pastors a congregation in rural Pennsylvania. One day he found two containers on his desk with a note from a thoughtful church member, ...

Preaching with Fire

Audiences will listen to a very poor voice, as long as there's fire in it.

Information-Age Preaching

Not even from the pulpit can an audio-visual man be addressed as if he were a Gutenberg man. That doesn't mean he can only be spoken to audio-visually. ...