Posted by Ray Pritchard on 8.28.07 in Church Trends, Preaching, Theology
The current issue of Vanity Fair carries a report by Christopher Hitchens on his book tour to promote his mega-bestseller God Is Not Great. As always, Hitchens has many provocative things to say, and those who are enjoy his sometimes acerbic comments on various religious leaders will not be disappointed. I found it fascinat …
Posted by Ray Pritchard on 8.8.07 in Preaching, Sermons
The following story comes from my friend Dave Burchett. It seems that a young pitcher for the Texas Rangers had just been called up from the minors. He got his big chance because he had shown a fearless ability to throw strikes no matter who was at the plate. Finally the night came when he was going to pitch in the major le …
Posted by Ray Pritchard on 8.6.07 in Preaching, Sermons
Let’s suppose you’re a pastor and you’re preaching this Sunday. That’s six days away. To the man or woman in the pew, that seems like a long time, but it’s not. Perhaps you’ve heard of the Preacher’s Calendar. It goes like this . . .MondayTuesdaySundayThat’s the way it feels t …
Posted by Ray Pritchard on 5.10.07 in Churches, Preaching
A few weeks ago I wrote an article called How to Spot a Healthy Church—Quickly. To my surprise, it has drawn the most comments of anything I’ve ever written on the weblog. At the moment there are 89 comments attached to that entry. They are all enlightening because they allow us a glimpse into how people evaluate loc …
Posted by Ray Pritchard on 3.18.07 in Preaching
In general, a sense of humor in the pulpit is not a bad thing. Sometimes humor by itself helps to release tension. And a funny story often helps us see a truth in a new way. We’ve all heard sermons where the preacher made us laugh and then came the “zinger” that flew in under the radar, sort of “a spoonful of sugar ma …
Posted by Ray Pritchard on 3.7.07 in Preaching
“Why don’t pastors preach from the Old Testament?”The question came from the chairman of the pulpit committee of a large and growing church. In their search for a new pastor, they had interviewed the top tier of candidates, only to discover a disconcerting fact. “None of them preach from the Old Testament,” the chairm …
Posted by Ray Pritchard on 2.13.07 in Preaching, Sermons
Years ago—about 15, to be exact—I decided to preach through Romans. At that point I was 14 years out of seminary and thought it was time I tackled Paul’s greatest epistle. Before then, I had taught through it in a Sunday School class on a chapter-by-chapter basis. I thought my congregation would benefit from a detai …
Posted by Ray Pritchard on 1.3.07 in Preaching
Next week I’m one of the speakers at a conference on Planning Your Preaching sponsored by the Olford Center for Biblical Preaching in Memphis. It occurred to me that this is a vital topic that pastors rarely talk about. So I thought I’d ask for some help from readers of this weblog. These questions are primarily …
Posted by Ray Pritchard on 12.18.06 in Books, Preaching
Yesterday I read Preparing Expository Sermons by Ramesh Richard, a professor at Dallas Seminary and the leader of Ramesh Richard Evangelism and Church Helps (RREACH). This book has many virtues, foremost among them brevity and a crystal-clear structure. Dr. Richard proposes a seven-step method he calls Sermon Sculpture. The …
Posted by Ray Pritchard on 11.27.06 in Preaching, Theology
Tim Keller explains how to preach hell in a tolerant age. If we are going to faithfully preach the gospel, we must preach about hell to people who don’t want to hear about it. The loss of the doctrine of hell and judgment and the holiness of God does irreparable damage to our deepest comforts—our understanding of God& …
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