Preaching is about exegesis and communication,pastoral care, leadership and discipleship, but it should be preeminently about prayer.

Many of us still live under the spell that says we get saved by faith, but then will grow by self-stirred effort. 

Whatever may be going on around us, Psalm 107 suggests what should be happening inside us.

We must have a more God-given, global and eternal perspective so that what we preach stretches and challenges the small, me-focused world of our listeners.

You may love preaching and want to preach every week, but I think it would be wise to schedule a break here and there. 

We worship by giving our everything to God, because he first gave his everything for us. Worship is so costly. It cost God everything.

If you are asked to preach, prepare. Prepare humbly. Prepare prayerfully. Prepare as if “apart from me, you can do nothing”.

There are various ways in which we can start to lean on a powerful crescendo too much, and thereby weaken our preaching.

God is a good communicator. That conviction is critical for effective preaching, but so many build a preaching ministry without this conviction in place.

Perhaps we would do better to be astonished by the profound crop of the good soil instead of trying to count every sprout as part of the harvest.

Whether you have been preaching for a couple of years or half a century, there are hidden explosives that can do untold damage to your ministry.

It is not about me but Him. It is not about my responsible effort but my response to Him. Spending time with the lover of our souls is no chore but a privilege..

We can so easily think it is enough to hear, to read, to know, to understand, even to believe … but Jesus said that we need to actually do what He says.

The last time I preached the whole Bible in a single message, what text proved pivotal?  It came from Leviticus.  

Every Psalm points to God’s character, which is an excellent focus for your heart.

Whichever approach you take, be sure to keep diving in, looking to know Jesus more and growing in your appreciation of God’s heart towards you.

Deuteronomy never lets us settle for an outward conformity. In relationship with God the core issue must be the heart.

Being around Christians and using Christian language is not enough. Without a vital personal relationship with Christ, they are merely running on the fumes of Christianity.

You have to think through the situation: who is preaching, to whom, what are they used to, what is the preacher capable of doing, what is the subject matter, etc. 

The book of Philemon reminds us that the Gospel speaks of how we can be saved and how we can navigate the messy complexity of human relationships.

The preacher will have a lot more material after the exegesis than they are able to present in the sermon.

In the sermon, remember that some details need no more than a passing comment, while others are critical and central to the passage.

The ongoing impact of Jesus’ explosion of life continues to reverberate in this world of death. 

We have to fight against the flatness in our preaching to be as engaging as possible.

We would be continually more marked, shaped, stirred, and matured, as we fix the gaze of our hearts on the wonder that is Christ himself.