How did I miss this? The DVD isn’t out yet, but it will be worth checking out when it becomes available.
Summer Preaching Schedule
What do you preach during the summer months when people are busy traveling and church attendance and momentum just doesn’t feel the same? C.J. Mahaney offers some thoughts on summer preaching in this recent post.
These weeks can be used to benefit the church, your soul, and your pastoral team. These months provide senior pastors with a good opportunity to delegate preaching duties (whether to your pastoral team or with guest preachers). And this delegation, in turn, provides the senior pastor with the flexibility and freedom to vacation with his family, and to enjoy a personal retreat in order to care for his own soul and prepare for the fall preaching series.
And these weeks of summer provide the pastor with the opportunity to plan messages that did not fit in a particular expositional series. Here are just a few ideas for summer preaching series, ideas that may lead you to think of other series options:
All by God’s Grace, All for God’s Glory
Mark Batterson wrote a great post about 1 Samuel 14 and 15 which tell the story of Saul choosing to build a monument for himself rather than God. Batterson concludes with a wonderful reminder for preachers and teachers:
We are who we are by the grace of God. We do what we do for the glory of God.
Preaching with Passion
Tope Koleoso writes about why he shouts when he preaches. Here’s an excerpt.
This means that during the sermon, any one of the mentioned emotions, (Anger, Joy or Love), spill out without warning or apology…
Therefore, I shout, I laugh, I cry, and I dance. Therefore, I use my voice, my hands, my legs and my eyes. Therefore, I will do it with utter conviction and passion for if I will not do it from the heart, I will not do it at all…
(HT: Adrian Warnock via Desiring God)
Study More. Pray Even More.
All I know is this: I preach with more conviction and more energy when I “rehearse it with God.” In fact, I think it’s the difference between a pastoral voice and a prophetic voice. It’s the difference between timeless truth and timely truth. It’s the difference between a convicting message and the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
Read the rest of Mark Batterson’s post on the importance of spending time in prayer before we preach.
Sermon Planning with Steven Furtick
Listen in with Steven Furtick, pastor of Elevation Church, talk about how they plan there sermon series.
The microphones were rollin’ as we told all about how we imagine and implement the sermon series here at Elevation. You’ll probably enjoy the inside scoop on this whether you’re a leader in another church or a part of Elevation.
Here’s the series briefing questionnaire I mention in the audio blog. Hope it’s a helpful enhancement to these Leadership Interviews…our gift to you.
Pastors as Story Tellers
Stories move people. They transform facts into fascination and data into delight. Jesus was a story teller. And preachers should be story tellers. A recent Forbes article addressed this…
…storytelling can be the most powerful way for a chief executive to sketch a vision and align people behind it.
Explanatory talk and statistics appeal to the intellect, but people aren’t inspired by reason alone. Compelling stories convey loads of information while also appealing to our emotions, ensuring that we not only listen, but get engaged and inspired.
Storytelling can be extremely effective at simplifying complexities. It can help us reveal and assess the assumptions, values and beliefs behind new ideas and connect them to our world. So a company’s mission is not just to sell more and better coffee; it is to share the passion that fills that cup.
Stories are easy to tell and easy to remember. Therefore they’re easy to spread. A leader can start a good story on its way and watch it take on a life of its own. As it does so, it creates a community.
You can improve your own story telling by joining me at STORY in Chicago, on October 28. Register now to enjoy the greatest discounts.
Some Great Preachers to Check Out
Learnings at Leadership Network was asked, “What are the blogs of young megachurch pastors who preach with substantial content?“ Here you go:
- Mark Driscoll http://theresurgence.com/md_blog
- Matt Chandler http://theresurgence.com/mc_blog
- Mark Batterson http://www.evotional.com/
- Dave Ferguson http://daveferguson.org/
- Mac Lake http://www.maclakeonline.com
- Troy Gramling http://www.troygramling.com/
- Perry Noble http://www.perrynoble.com/
- Craig Groeschel http://swerve.lifechurch.tv/
- Steven Furtick http://www.stevenfurtick.com
- Josh Harris http://joshharris.com
- Bob Roberts www.glocal.net
- Dino Rizzo http://www.dinorizzo.com/
You got a couple options for debate: “do they really preach with substantial content” OR “are these guys really young?” Enjoy!
HT: Dave Ferguson
Cover Band with a Pulpit
Great tweet from Chris Elrod,
When you rip off a sermon word-for-word you’re not being a preacher…you’re being a cover band with a pulpit.
Fire in Our Bones
John Wesley once described his preaching this way: “I set myself on fire and people come watch me burn.” If we really knew what we knew and believed what we believe, I think we’d preach with a lot more passion. We preach like their was fire shut up in our bones.
Read more from Mark Batterson
