What makes good preaching? Do you have any idea? I don’t know that I do. I was trained by some of the absolute best homileticians anywhere, who, in turn were trained be great homileticians, so I have a very specific — and, in some ways, theologically acedemic — view of the preaching event. I have [...]
Archive for the ‘preaching’ Category
A Question Of Preaching
Posted in Bible, church, preaching on October 14, 2009 | 2 Comments »
As A Witness
Posted in Bible, family, grace, leadership, life, ministry, preaching, speech acts on August 5, 2009 | 5 Comments »
On facebook, I’ve been chronicling my ups and downs – mostly downs – in dealing with my former landlady here in Redwood City. From our arrival six months ago, she has been – in our opinions – intrusive, abusive, and over-bearing, to say the least. At first she stopped by the house every day to [...]
Angry Preaching
Posted in Bible, Missional Church, advocacy, church, leadership, missional, preaching, speech acts on July 27, 2009 | 5 Comments »
I’m growing evermore concerned about the debased preaching in many American churches. Here’s how it goes, preachers are talking about how sin “pisses off” God or that some people think Jesus “dressed like a fairy,” or that Jesus “wasn’t a wuss.” I’ve even heard one well-known pastor tell a story about dismissing a young man’s [...]
Not Preaching
Posted in Bible, Missional Church, church, grace, missional, preaching on April 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
As the Senior Minister for a church, you might find it odd for me to say this: There are times when I HATE preaching. I don’t mean the craft or the art, but rather having to say anything at all.
What I mean is this: There are times when the words of scripture are so powerful [...]
The Cutting Room Floor
Posted in Bible, church, ministry, preaching on March 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
For every sermon there are lots of notes, thoughts, ideas, and stories that are left on the cutting room floor, so to speak. Stuff that there’s either not time for or doesn’t fall within the sermon focus or function. But every now and then there’s something that is omitted during delivery of the sermon. Yesterday [...]
Lord, Have Mercy
Posted in Bible, C.S. Lewis, books, church, grace, history, prayer, preaching, speaking, speech acts, spiritual formation, words on March 12, 2009 | 1 Comment »
As I’ve mentioned, I’m teaching a class on spiritual formation and spiritual disciplines. The class is going well, but as is the case whenever a group of people explore spiritual formation, there are points that stretch all of us. The stretching is always both painful and necessary. After all, theses practices are designed to aid [...]


