How to keep from being enslaved by the opinions of others (as well as your own!)

Julie Pennington-Russell, my former pastor and current pastor of FBC Decatur, GA was the keynote speaker for the Women in Ministry Conference at Truett Seminary back in March. I was saddened not to be able to attend, but Truett has posted her sermons. Her first session, "Who and Whose are You?," is a must listen for all who struggle through the highs and lows of ministry.  You can listen after the jump below. You can find her other two sessions here and here. The videos are slow to load on the Baylor site, but worth the wait.

Easter Sermons from Sam Wells and Adam Hamilton

Need some Easter inspiration? Here are two very different kinds of sermons that both communicate the Easter message. I, of course, don't advocating plagiarizing these sermons. Preach your own sermon, but sometimes a phrase or sentence from another sermon will help get the creative juices flowing. I was struck by Sam Well's phrase, "safely dead." That's an evocative image. What things might we assume are "safely dead" that we'd rather not see resurrected?

If you use something from these sermons in your own, be sure to give these guys credit.



Sam Wells, "Rolling Stones," Preached at Duke Chapter on Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011.  The sermon starts at 34:11 and runs for 18 minutes.




Adam Hamilton, "Easter: The Resurrection," preached at Church of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday, April 24,2011.

Thomas Long - The God We Get

The God We Get from First Presbyterian Church on Vimeo.

Dr. Long preached this sermon at First Presbyterian Church of Naples, FL on March 21, 2010. It's a different take on the Parable of the Talents. What do you think?

The Fred Craddock Story

CNN has a terrific article on preaching giant, Fred Craddock. Learned several things I did not know about the man. Not only has it increased my already high opinion of Dr. Craddock, it has also blessed my soul. Such a rich story of God's calling and equipping of a preacher.

"A preaching 'genius' faces his toughest convert" by John Blake 

 Here's an audio of Dr. Craddock's sermon, "Learning to Read" from Psalm 19.


Learning to Read from Faithkid Zhang on Vimeo.

Links of the week

Over at the Pangea Blog guest blogger Rachel Blom asks an important question for all preachers: Do you preach to your whole church? How do your sermons and illustrations within those sermons sound to singles, teenagers, etc.? Excellent post to get you thinking about who sits in your congregation.

On Leadershipjournal.net David Slagle shares three irrational beliefs that too many ministers buy into.  He identifies the reasons and provides healthier alternatives.  A good article that might serve as a good discussion for church staff.  One of the better lines, "Expecting messed up human beings to treat us nicely at all times is, well, messed up."

Mark Roberts, director and scholar in residence of Laity Lodge looks at how the web empowers gossipers. He concludes that while the web probably doesn't make us meaner - he thinks we're pretty mean already - the web does allow us to get away with more meanness. Read more.

Fred Craddock on Lazarus and the Rich Man

Though One Rise from the Dead from Hershael York on Vimeo.

Question of the week: What preachers do you like to listen to?

Last week we talked about listening to one's own sermons for the purpose of self-evaluation. Today, we're visiting about listening to other people's sermons for personal and professional edification. I've made it a practice to listen to other people's sermons for a while, now. It helps with my own creativity. It keeps me thinking of ways to improve my own sermons. Perhaps most importantly, it feeds my soul.

Here are three preachers I've listened to recently - who do you like to listen to?

Adam Hamilton - Dr. Hamilton is the founding pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas.

You can stream or download both audio and video at his church's website and on Itunes.

The sermon below is a sermon he preached a few weeks ago that combines a first person monologue (something we've discussed recently) with a normal sermon. I don't know what I think about combining the two, but it gives you an idea of what we were talking about previously.



Richard Kannwischer is the Senior Pastor at St.Andrews Presbyterian Church in New Port, Beach, CA. I visited with Dr. Kannwischer a few months ago for a D.Min. project. He was gracious and kind and had a wealth of wisdom for the task of preaching. I benefited greatly from that conversation and from listening to his sermons.

The video below is the only one I could find in a video format, but audio of his sermons can be streamed/downloaded from both his church's website and on Itunes.

Easter Sermon 04/04/10 St. Andrews Presbyterian Church from sapres on Vimeo.

Julie Pennington-Russell is the senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Decatur, GA. Julie was my pastor in Waco, TX when I was in seminary.

The sermon below is one she gave to the students and faculty of Logsdon Seminary in Abilene, TX. Audio of her weekly sermons can be streamed and downloaded at her church's website.

Seminary Chapel September 24, 2009 from Logsdon Seminary on Vimeo.

Horror in the Pulpit!

We all have those Sundays when things don't go as we please in the pulpit. I remember a time early in my preaching career when I could just tell, the people were not with me. I just didn't understand why they weren't. I was explaining a C. S. Lewis quote in which Lewis declares that no person should be considered a mere mortal. Every person we meet, he insisted, was either "an immortal splendor or an immortal horror." No matter how hard I tried, puzzled looks was all I was getting in return. So I started giving examples, the person in front of you in the buffet at Mr. Gattis, the coworker in the next cubicle, all of them are going to live forever as immortal splendors in the presence of Christ of immortal horrors separated from God forever. More puzzled looks. I gave up, finished the sermon, and went home. Later I asked my wife what was so confusing. She answered, "It sounded like you were calling everyone who refuses to believe in God a whore. I know what you were trying to say, hor-ror. But you don't say that well. It sounded like 'whore.' 'Everyone is an immortal splendor or an immortal whore.'"

Hor-ror. Ho-rror. Hor....ror. I still can't say it. Next time I used that quote I made an editorial decision, "Everyone you meet is either an immortal splendor or an immortal terror." Much better. Now if I could just take back the time I accidentally said in a Sunday morning sermon, "You know, sex is better in the church."

Do you listen to your own sermons?

Part of my Monday morning routine involves converting yesterday's sermon into an mp3 file in order to post it to our website. For the longest time I would only listen to the first and last bits of the sermon as I clipped the rest of the service off of the file. For the last month or so, I've started listening to the entire sermon. I do other things while I listen - like writing notes to church members or sorting through some mail - but simply hearing myself speak has helped me catch some things that I'd like to change about my speaking style that I would not have noticed otherwise.

Most recently, I've noticed some verbal tics that I'd fallen into without realizing it. My wife had pointed one of these out previously (that's an issue for another post - spousal critiques!), but hearing it for myself helped me realize how irritating it was. Fixing the problem hasn't been easy, but I have been working on it.

Admittedly, the process of listening to one's own sermon is somewhat excruciating, every verbal slip up or stumble causes me to cringe, but I do think the process is helping me to become a better speaker.

So, do you listen to your own sermons? How often? What is the experience like for you? When you notice something you'd like to change about your own speaking style, how do you go about it?

- The Short Preacher

Sermon of the week: Haddon Robinson

This isn't a first person narrative sermon. Haddon wrote the book on those, but I can't find an example online of him doing it. He is an excellent narrative preacher, though. He didn't start out that way, but through the years his preaching has shifted in that direction. This is a marvelous biographical sermon on the person of Philemon. I love how he is able to make the ancient world come alive. What would you say is the secret to making that happen?

The introduction is about 3 minutes if you want to skip past that.

CPC Special - "Put That on Master Charge" Philemon, by Haddon Robinson from Steve Toler on Vimeo.

Trying something new: Preaching a First-Person expository message

This past Sunday I did something I had never done before. I preached a first person narrative sermon. I came across the idea from a little book by Haddon Robinson entitled, It's All in How you Tell It: Preaching First-Person Expository Messages. Preaching in character (say as Zaccheus, or as a bystander during the feeding of the 5000) was not something I wanted to do. I don't have any experience with drama. Yet, when I began preparing my Lenten sermon series which would be focusing upon conversations different people had with Jesus throughout the course of John's gospel, I was struggling to figure out how to preach on Nicodemus' conversation with Jesus. I've preached on Nicodemus before, and I struggled to think of a way to preach it again. I pulled out Robinson's book and reread it (it's a quick read). And after testing the waters with some trusted people (basically by asking them, "Do you think this would be stupid?") I decided to give it a go.

My decision process involved evaluating the advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

• Variety - it would definitely be different. People's attention would be grabbed (at least until I fell on my face).


• A new hearing - Not only have I preached on Nicodemus several times, the people in my congregation had probably heard even more lessons/sermons on Nicodemus than I have preached. This might help us all hear the text anew.


• The power of a good story - By it's very nature this kind of sermon is a narrative. If done well it could be very powerful.

Disadvantages:

• I might look stupid. My youth minister and I both agree that we spend an ungodly amount of time in life just trying not to look stupid.


• No notes. This sermon would absolutely not work with notes. It would have to come from a combination of good memory (I do write manuscripts) and the ability to speak somewhat extemporanously (once I obviously forgot something and needed to course correct).


• Application. Being Nicodemus would limit my knowledge of modern life. How would I make any application in my sermon?

Result: Once I decided to do this, I went for it. I had the manuscript done by Tuesday and spent an extra amount of time learning it. Whereas I usually go over my sermon verbally 2-3 times before a Sunday morning, I lost count on how many times I went over this one. It's been a while since I was truly nervous about a sermon. I was incredibly nervous about this. All in all, it went well, I thought. The response from the congregation was positive. In general, I think people appreciated the attempt to bring some variety into the service. Several said they thought I should do that more often. At least a handful seemed to connect to the message, "We must be born again" in a renewed way. I don't think that this is a style of sermon I'll do often, but it is something I'll do again.

If you want to listen to my attempt at this style of sermon - check here - it's the sermon on 3/13/11, entitled The Teacher Gets Taught

Have any of you every preached as a biblical character? What was your experience?

Variety is the spice of preaching?

Every preacher has his or her go to style. There's a reason we can say, "That sounded like a Fred Craddock sermon" and have other preachers know what we are talking about (or, "That sounded like the guy from Princess Bride!). All of us have a style of sermons that fits our particular personality, theology, denominational setting, etc. There's nothing wrong with having a style. It helps keep things consistent, comfortable for both the congregation and the preacher. One's style can help create the feeling of being home for the congregation. They know what to expect.

That being said, departing from one's style on occasion can be beneficial, as well. Variety, after all, is the spice of life. Do you always preach inductive sermons? Try a deductive approach for just one Sunday and see how it goes? Always preach deductive sermons, give an inductive sermon a try? Growing up, most of the sermons I heard were deductive. They were good deductive sermons, not what gets derisively called three points and a poem sermons. Nevertheless, because this is what I heard most, when I started hearing inductive sermons at seminary they sounded very fresh. Guess what kind of sermons I started preaching? That's right, inductive sermons. Now, I preach inductively most of the time. It's my style, but occasionally, I'll preach a deductive sermon because I think the text or the purpose of the sermon leads me in that direction. Amazingly, what used to seem like a worn out style of sermon feels fresh again to both me and the congregation. Primarily because it's different.

I find variety especially helpful when I am preaching a text that is very familiar to the congregation. People see the sermon text and assume they know where you are going to go with it. Unconsciously, they tune out. How do you gain a new hearing for an old familiar text? I've found changing up the style of my sermon can help.

So, the question of the week is this: What is your basic sermon style? Do you ever deviate from that style? How? and What were the results? I'll provide my answer tomorrow.

Barbara Brown Taylor - Sacramental Sky

This is a Lenten Sermon that Barbara Brown Taylor preached at Duke Chapel last year. The sermon starts at 30:10 and lasts about seventeen minutes. I listen to a lot of sermons and this one is in my top three. The move she makes at the 38:50 mark, speaking of Abraham's eyes, and the way she returns to that image at the end of the sermon in a way that involves the listener is nothing short of brilliant. I'm blessed everytime listen. I pray you will be as well.

- The Short Preacher