One preacher asked me if he should accept last minute invitations to preach. As an associate minister in a church where other preaching associates received most of the preaching opportunities, this preacher wondered about accepting such invitations.

Some of us are guilty of using the text.  We have the idea we want, we find the text that appears to say what we want it to say.  And then we quote it as …

There are multitudes of sermon outline sites. Some of them require you to pay for the outline, others are membership sites that give you access to thousands of outlines, and still others are completely free.

Preaching multiple texts can derail your sermon. It should be very clear to everyone who is listening what your main point and your main text is. If you have too many competing points or too many texts, the people will get lost and will simply choose one of the points to focus on, or check out and wait until you start whooping (or whatever kind of celebration you do) to check back in…

Use Other Texts Strategically

John Claypool, in Best Advice for Preaching said that when we use preaching to get something for ourselves, rather than to give as an act of love, then the sermon will have great tension. And I agree…

Transforming Grace

This is a common question. How do I preach doctrine. We have some beliefs as Christians that we need to preach. Doctrines such as the deity of Christ, Salvation by Faith, and perhaps the Trinity.

Related to this are the questions from various tradtions. For example, a Pentecostal asked about preaching on the Gifts including speaking in tongues. An Adventist asked about preaching the Sabbath. A Holiness person wanted to know about preaching on Biblical Holiness.

Common Way of Preaching These Things

In the next seven posts we will take you step by step through a system of sermon preparation that is based in the African American Tradition. I have called it the “Supercharge Your Sermons” system. The first phase is to have preparatory planning.

Sometimes you will find a preacher who studies impeccably, the preacher brings together sermons that make the people shout and holla. The preacher gets invitations to preach in many locales, but there is no lasting change among the hearers. They come, shout at the entertaining presentation and leave. There can be many reasons for such an outcome. However, one of the primary ones is a lack of prayer.

Where Does Your Wisdom Come From?

James Harris, in Preaching Liberation, writes:

I am suggesting that style and substance are partners in preaching liberation. The way the sermon is preached–the style of delivery, the involvement of body and mind, the engagement of the audience, the rhythmic crescendos and decrescendos of the voice punctuated by staccato cadences and words uttered in musical style–all this is, to a degree, as important as the substance of what is being said.

James Harris, in Preaching Liberation writes:

Jesus didn’t come after John Inquiring about a consensus of beliefs or taking an opinion poll in order to tell folk what they wanted to hear or reinforce what they had already heard. No! Jesus didn’t come “shucking and jiving,” not even praying and singing…He came with a message–a message from God and the power of the Holy Spirit.