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The following 39 entries are posted in the "Excerpts and Examples" category.
April 01, 2010 08:24
A favorite piece, for Resurrection Sunday, by Walter Wangerin, Jr. Ragman and Other Cries of Faith (HarperOne 2004):
I saw a strange sight. I stumbled upon a story most strange, like nothing my life, my street sense, my sly tongue had ever prepared...
August 27, 2009 17:22
from Choosing to Preach page 111-12…
“Some months ago I attended a performance of the Cirque du Soleil. The experience was emotionally overwhelming. On one level, I was impressed by the acrobatics and sheer physical prowess of the perfo...
October 15, 2008 13:57
Preaching is as much art as it is science. However, most of the books I have read on the subject of preaching are much heavier on the science than they are upon the art. A new book by Darius Salter seeks to address this imbalance. Preaching as Art: Biblical St...
September 01, 2008 17:12
As our featured article this month, I am pleased to offer the thoughts of my friend, Stephen Wright of Spurgeon’s College in London. I spent several months at Spurgeon’s a few years ago and came to appreciate Stephen’s passion for the parables. I...
July 24, 2008 12:58
I recently read a copy of The Word in this World: Two Sermons by Karl Barth, a new publication edited by Kurt Johanson. This slim volume reprints two of Barth’s seminal sermons, “On the Sinking of the Titanic (Psalm 103:15-17)” preached ...
July 02, 2008 12:42
Don’t take this as an endorsement, but if you’re interested in some “outside-of-the-box” thinking about preaching, you might want to check out the sermons you won’t hear in church contest. My quick take is, the contest was aptly titl...
June 11, 2008 15:59
While in England this past week I read Ian McEwan’s gripping novel, Atonement. I have enjoyed reading about the English settings even as I have experienced them personally in recent days. Perhaps you have seen the excellent movie of the same name starring Keira Kn...
April 11, 2008 11:27
More from Chesterton…
“The idea was that which I had outlined touching the optimist and the pessimist; that we want not an amalgam or compromise, but both things at the top of their energy; love and wrath both burning. Here I shall only trace it...
April 09, 2008 10:35
I was re-reading sections of one of my favorite books this past week, G. K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy. I thought I might share some of my favorite passages with you, including this one…
“A child kicks his legs rhythmically through ex...
March 07, 2008 14:10
I was asked to submit a piece to Insight for Living’s monthly magazine. Here is what I sent them…
I’m having a hard time knowing whether to cheer when my team scores a goal in a hockey game these days. It might be disal...
February 22, 2008 17:17
Those of you who have read my book, Choosing to Preach will recall my comments about Rob Bell’s sermon, “The Goat Has Left the Building.” Unlike the other model sermons mentioned in the book, I was not able to offer an audio version of t...
January 18, 2008 11:57
I heard a pretty good sermon by John Piper on this month’s Preaching Today audio CD. He was preaching from Romans 8:12-13 under the title, “How to Kill Sin.” I find that often we have a limited imagination when it comes to describing the nature o...
January 07, 2008 12:17
On Friday I told you about the sermon that I was to preach on Sunday. To listen to that sermon as it was preached yesterday, go to parkland.org and click under the “media” heading.
As the worship team was leading and I was preparing to step up t...
January 04, 2008 20:47
I’ve chosen to do something unusual this Sunday. I’m going to preach a sermon that I’ve preached before in the same church. Exactly ten years ago this month, I preached from Matthew 14:22-33 a sermon about faith (Peter walking on the water). It w...
November 07, 2007 13:58
I heard a great sermon by Tim Keller on the most recent Preaching Today audio cd (#291) titled, “A Christian’s Happiness.” This sermon, taken from Romans 8:28 and 29 was well constructed around three main ideas…
1. Your bad ...
November 05, 2007 17:17
I came across a helpful quote recently. William Temple (1881-1944), the former archbishop of Canterbury said, “The sermons for which we are most grateful are those which help us to believe vitally what we knew quite well before the sermon started (Readin...
September 26, 2007 12:08
I heard Jeff Arthurs read this little parable at an EHS gathering many years ago. Afterwards I asked him for a copy so that I could share it with my classes. It was published in 1919 by William Eleazar Barton, otherwise known as ̶...
July 10, 2007 11:58
I always read a pile of novels while on vacation. Currently, I’m reading Alan Paton’s Too Late the Phalarope (1953), the acclaimed follow-up novel to Cry the Beloved Country, which is one of my all-time favorites. There is a wonderful...
June 22, 2007 13:57
I just finished preaching a series of sermons from the Sermon on the Mount. It is a relevant, though provocative section of Scripture that pushes the preacher to challenge the listener with its unsettling truths. For that reason, I was particularly pleased to rece...
May 04, 2007 11:52
Thomas Long has written a tremendous piece on pulpit plagiarism that you can find here in it’s entirety: Stolen Goods. The article traces the arguments for and against using materials developed by others in the pulpit. Long comes down on the issue of honesty...
April 23, 2007 11:46
It’s good to be back from my journeys, though things are going to be very intense for a few days yet as it is regional convention time for my denomination.
I thought I would share some hi-lights from Calvin Miller’s theme address as the Internat...
April 03, 2007 11:34
The following is a guest blogpiece by my friend and colleague, Lyle Schrag.
While I love Christmas and Easter, over the years as a pastor I found it an annual challenge to find something fresh to add to my preaching. I would thrill at any new insig...
March 20, 2007 11:59
The following story was told by Mac Brunson of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida in his sermon, The Purpose of the Passion which you can hear on the most recent Preaching Today Audio CD (#283). For more information on this audio series and for...
March 07, 2007 11:37
From time to time, students and preaching.org readers want to know where they can hear a sermon that I have preached. I have chosen not to make preaching.org a place to listen to sermons partly because there are so many other places like this but also because I wa...
February 02, 2007 11:40
The following is an excerpt from Phillips Brooks’ classic, The Joy of Preaching. Brooks’famous definition of preaching still holds up, perhaps better today than when he first spoke it. I might argue that preaching is not communication by man to me...
January 12, 2007 14:23
It seems that I have developed a pattern, offering useful or interesting excerpts every Friday for the weekend. In my latest installment, note this quotation from Eugene Lowry’s Doing Time in the Pulpit. I read this book for the first time as a youn...
December 15, 2006 10:46
I happened across a very useful quote from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol that proved useful in my sermon last Sunday. Scrooge complains to the Ghost of Christmas Present that many of the things done in the name of these ‘Christmas SpiritsR...
December 08, 2006 11:23
I recently re-read Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon Days, one of my all-time favorite books. I thought you might enjoy his description of the fictional revivalist, Rev. Osterhuis, who visits Keillor’s small-town Minnesota.
To se...
December 07, 2006 17:38
The following is an excerpt from page 29 of Choosing to Preach.
The world needs preachers. Preaching itself is ready for a renaissance. The church is emerging from a period in which preaching has not been the primary focus of a pastor’s minis...
October 25, 2006 14:32
Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, was one of the original conversation partners that led to the development of the so-called “Emerging Church.” I recently discovered this piece he wrote for the Criswell Theological Review: “A ...
September 12, 2006 11:28
Written for the next issue of Insight for Living – Canadian Edition
Eschatology is embarrassing, at least as it’s practiced by many evangelicals. Maintaining Christian testimony is hard enough without h...
September 11, 2006 12:18
I’ve been asked for a report on last week’s funeral sermon. First, let me say, thanks for praying. I woke up Thursday morning with my health significantly improved. The service itself was remarkable. I can honestly say that I have seldom received such ...
September 01, 2006 11:56
As a preacher, I’ve had my share of dealing with difficult people in the church. Preachers, if they really love Jesus, are supposed to show everlasting patience with the most uncharitable and insistent of people. People who live to criticize the preacher, st...
August 28, 2006 14:18
Yesterday I preached about one of my favorite Bible characters, the father of the demon-possessed son in Mark 9. His statement in verse 24 is one of the greatest affirmations of faith I know.
You may recall that Jesus seems a little exasperated. “Unbe...
August 24, 2006 11:12
David Fitch has been writing and blogging about expository preaching in his new book and blog titled The Great Giveaway (www.thegreatgiveaway.blogspot.com). In sum, Fitch offers a number of interesting suggestions:
1. “Quit explaining and st...
August 21, 2006 11:14
Yesterday I preached from Mark 4 – the narrative of Jesus calming the storm. This text is, without doubt, the most preached passage by my students. I always offer students their choice as to which texts they will preach. Most semesters, someone chooses this ...
August 11, 2006 15:45
Minutes ago I heard Bill Hybels interview Bono at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit, currently being simulcast to almost 80,000 leaders worldwide. Something has happened to the church at large if all of its leaders are now into U2. I’ve got all those sermon...
August 10, 2006 15:18
I noticed the following quote in a novel I was reading recently and I just had to share it. Yes it was written in 1857, but I imagine most 21st century postmodern types would affirm the sentiment. The only difference is that unlike the good citizens of Barchester ...
August 10, 2006 15:08
If you are new to the task of preaching you can take encouragement from the following story. No matter how badly it goes, you never know. God might be preparing you to bring a generation from across the world to obedience to Christ!
In the early spring of 1...