These questions come from an evaluation form used in Gordon-Conwell preaching classes (circa 2004). They provided a helpful grid for assessing student sermons, but they also act as a helpful checklist for sermon preparation. Take a look! If you are ever working on a sermon, these questions may serve you well. Introduction Does it get attention?Does it touch some need … [Read more...] about Questions to Assess a Sermon
Preaching
To Haddon Robinson
One of my favorite classes in seminary was also the one that intimidated me the most. It was "Preaching" with Haddon Robinson. The class was at 8:00AM. That was early for me. So I would sleepily shuffle in sipping coffee from a tumbler, my brain still yawning awake. Dr. Robinson would enter the room with pace and purpose. He would have been in his seventies then, spending … [Read more...] about To Haddon Robinson
The Key to Good Style
I have so enjoyed Steven Pinker's The Sense of Style. If you are writing books or sermons, blogs or lesson plans, you will greatly benefit from his thoughts on good communication. One particularly poignant section captures the secret to good style in a simple metaphor. Pinker writes: The guiding metaphor of classic style is seeing the world. The writer can see … [Read more...] about The Key to Good Style
Bryan Chapell on the Importance of Sermon Illustrations
A sermon of nothing but illustrations and stories feels thin and will leave the hearer hungry. But a sermon without any illustrations will fall short of deep impact. A healthy sermon needs truth illustrated. Bryan Chapell makes this point well in Using Illustrations to Preach with Power: "The mind yearns for, and needs, the concrete to anchor the … [Read more...] about Bryan Chapell on the Importance of Sermon Illustrations
Saving Eutychus
SAVING EUTYCHUSHow to preach God's word and keep people awakeBy Gary Millar and Phil Campbell Eutychus never knew that night would forever change his life. He never knew how close to death he sat. But he soon found out. What happened? Well, he fell asleep listening to Paul teach. Normally, we don't consider following asleep in a sermon to be the end of the world, but in … [Read more...] about Saving Eutychus