In his 1877 lectures on preaching at Yale University, Phillips Brooks asks, “What sort of man may be a minister?” (35) He notes that “there is far too little discrimination in the selection of men who are to preach, and many men find their way into the preacher’s office who discover only too late that…
One of the things preachers must aim to do is move the hearts of their hearers. That is, the sermon is not a lecture that seeks to merely inform the mind, though that’s necessary. The sermon aims to engage both the mind and the heart. Tim Keller writes, “A sermon that just informs the mind…
Tim Keller offers insight into how preachers can effectively engage the modern mind in Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism. To do this, he offers five cultural narratives that mark our modern society. Understanding these narratives is the first step towards challenging the modern mind with biblical truth. What are these five narratives?…
Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law Psalm 119:18 Before preaching a sermon, I normally climb into the pulpit and pray at the beginning. My pre-sermon pray is pretty consistent, asking God for help as we come to his Word. Specifically, I’d pray like this: “Father, give us eyes to…
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash Confession: I do not read or study the art or craft of preaching as regularly as I should. Though I’m not entirely sure what “regularly” is, I am quite sure that it’s more often than what I’m currently doing. That being said, Meditations on Preaching by Francis James Grimké has been a…
Over the course of a few years, Nathan Millican and I worked on a book with several other friends. The book is aimed at pastors and releases in June. Below is an excerpt from the introduction I wrote to the book. Links to pre-order the book, if you’re inclined, are at the end of this…
**This post was written by Dave Zuleger** Shepherd the Flock of God Among You One of the things that keeps me praying and thinking is the call that pastors have to their people: Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give…
I cringed. Surrounded by a group of women of all ages—empty nesters, middle-aged and young moms—one young mom was expressing her struggles with her preschoolers. The constant discipline, the tantrums over “trivial” things, and the exhaustion from late nights with early mornings were wearing on her. Other young moms in the room quickly jumped in…
In this post I’m building on Part 1. I want to focus on this: when the church gathers for corporate worship, and both men and women are given opportunities to speak, what are appropriate acts of speech for men and women? More specifically, if we say it is appropriate for a woman to prophesy when the…
*This article has two parts: see Part 2. A generation ago, debates among egalitarians and complementarians were significant. Eventually, the camps settled into their own (two organizations emerged that generally represent the two sides: Council of Biblical Manhood & Womanhood and Christians for Biblical Equality). Today, however, within the settled camp of complementarianism, there are…
Theology Along the Way 