TiranaFest is a major effort “to bring the love of Jesus to Tirana” in June, a partnership of the Albanian Evangelical Alliance and the Palau Association in Europe.

Authentic expository preaching is not only faithful to the biblical text, but it also requires effective communication from the preacher that emphasizes relevance to the listener. 

The emphasis on reconciliation, faith in the workplace, and the next generation offers a model for how the Ukrainian church can address its own context.

I hope it highlighted the challenges, but also the joys, of our story, and echoed the stories of families like ours across the country.

You want to be the most prepared preacher possible, but you must preach with a profound sense of your dependence on God.

Let’s talk about a couple of unplanned moments that tend to show up quite often in the sermon preparation.

Let’s think about two defining moments in sermon preparation that tie into the transition between passage study and message formation.

Every little detail of your preparation will build the character of the message, but the defining moments will fundamentally change the outcome of your process. 

Not all topical sermons are created equal. What is the difference? Whether or not it is expository topical.

The preparation of a sermon will be a privilege, an opportunity for God to mark your life profoundly.

Last minute preparation is not ideal, but it is possible and it is still better to prepare as much as you can, rather than not prepare at all.

When we preach the Bible, let’s not settle for a tips-for-life kind of relevance.

Whatever gifting one has, it is important to be a good steward of that gifting.  We should “fan into flame” what God has put in us. 

We seek to make that main idea so clear, transformative, evident from the text and applicationally earthed, that we will genuinely have preached the text before we sit down.

It is true that life change is God’s business and I can’t force it; but let us never grow comfortable with people drifting away from Christ.

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

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

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 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.

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

The spiritual gravitas and countless other personal and ministry benefits only come from diligent exegetical labour.

By reinforcing and reviewing a Bible book, the series allows for the teaching to sink in and be applied more effectively.

Let us preach the Gospel clearly as we carefully handle God’s inspired Scriptures with precision and integrity. 

Let’s keep prayerfully pondering how we can explain the meaning of the text in a way that is clear, helpful, instructive and not distracting.