I was revisiting some Francis Schaeffer the other day, and it reminded me how sharp he was. I know there are those who would quibble about some aspects of his reading of philosophy – quibbling’s what philosophers do best. But in one regard he was absolutely stonkingly right. The history of Western thought, from Plato
There is a huge difference between answering a question hypothetically, and answering it in reality. Take Peter Drucker’s famous clarifying question: ‘What is my single greatest contribution to this organisation?’ I think most Pastors answer that in terms of broad, but good, generalities. I’ve done that too: since I believe that our concern is with
We’ve all done it. You may be drafting one for Sunday. I certainly am. But why do we preach three-point sermons? Sometimes it’s because the text drives us that way. I think that’s what’s happening for me this week – there really is no way to chunk the passage other than to divide it into
So you’ve done the sentence flow and worked over the passage, and come up with the theme of the passage, and its aim. You take a fresh page, and you’ve identified the theme and aim of the sermon. Yes? Let me ask you a question that troubles me about my sermons – given the wide
This morning we had a masterclass from Jesus in how to preach quite directly and without ambiguity about sexual sin, but without falling into the trap of being embarrassing, or cute, or ‘daringly’ explicit. We need how to do this, because our people need direct teaching. In a few weeks’ time, ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’
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