My beloved Vancouver Canucks were knocked out of the NHL playoffs this past week. Most fans were not overly surprised. In fact, disappointment has been ingrained among the fan-base in this part of the world, to such a degree that pessimis...

Back in 1954, W.E. Sangster cited a comedian’s parody of what had come to be known as expository preaching…

“Mother Hubbard, you see, was old; there being no mention of others, we may presume she was alone: a widow – a friendless, ol...

Scot McKnight offers a helpful third way perspective on preaching. Most of us believe that our sermons have impact and that God’s Spirit is at work when we preach.

However, McKnight says, “I also believe that most preachers do not shape their pr...

I had the privilege of presenting a workshop discussion at EHS a week or so ago. Speaking to a sub-group of homiletics teachers, I was interested to discuss whether or not our understanding of our task out to be expanded to consider those...

I’m not sure how long your sermon’s take, but it seems that most Sunday sermons in my experience last somewhere around 30 minutes. Some of you will think that sounds a little light, but I’ve got to say that thirty minutes is a long time to hold a...

While I’m not a card-carrying John Piper disciple, I have a lot of appreciation for his concern that we be true to the whole of the Bible. In that light, I was particularly pleased to read this recent blog statement (found via twitter) wherein he counsels us...

Many of our listeners are looking for “meaty” sermons that they can sink their teeth into, but sermons ought to be more than just the meat. A student in one of my classes this semester preached a doctrinal sermon that was almost entirely comprised of e...

One of the elements that makes for better preaching is the way in which the preacher manages time. Every time we preach, we work within a window of time. If we take too much, we lose attention. If we take too little, we don’t meet expectations. The preacher ...

Great preachers understand the importance of using a simple declarative sentence to serve as the sermon’s theme. It is important to be able to encapsulate the message of your sermon in a strong, single sentence. If you are having trouble describing your serm...

It used to be so much simpler. In years gone by, teachers of preaching could teach students the deductive, propositional form of the sermon in the understanding that this “foundational” form would stand young preachers in good stead throughout their mi...

For more than forty years now, anyone interested in thinking creatively about homiletics has had to think about narrative as a primary option for both sermon form and content.