Much of ministry can feel like the agony of labour. But let’s remember the good times too. There is nothing as rewarding as seeing lives changed.

When trouble comes, the preacher gets to point people to God’s Word to find the comfort and to stir the response of faith that is needed.

Dig in the text you have, honour the author by doing so, and give your listeners the best you can from this passage.

Let’s resolve, prayerfully and passionately, to always seek to really preach the passage we claim to be preaching.

No matter how well you can communicate or how clever you are, you cannot make the Bible say something better than God made it say.

There are lots of things to be aware of between the beginning of the service and the sermon itself.

Understanding new generations is an essential part of a true mission mind in this rapidly changing world. An article by Steve Sang-Cheol Moon.

So much of our time is spent with entertainment and social media these days; we need to reengage with God’s Great Story not only on Sundays.

There may be some elements of a good movie that might teach us a thing or two about good preaching.

Sermon preparation may be a struggle, even a battle at times, but every moment is a privilege.

A campaign calls to sponsor one translated verse of Scripture to “eradicate ‘Bible poverty’”. They hope 95% of the world’s population will have access to a full Bible.

It is not possible to avoid every negative motive all the time, but we must beware lest any of these start to fester within and then characterise our ministry.

Does our preaching feel stilted? Do we sound slightly wooden, hesitant?

Our strength to endure obviously comes not from within us, but from someone who is at work in and through us.

Here are some concerning features of that strange authority that may be helpful to ponder.

When we preach, we should aim to use appropriate force for each goal we are trying to achieve.

The Bible has to be in charge of the message, its main idea, its flow of thought, its relevance, its goals.

Too many of us who know God and the truth of His Word are too distracted by the communications of this world to really soak in God’s Word.

Good preparation should lead to more genuine, from the heart, textually solid and sensitively targeted preaching.

We can become paranoid and give Satan credit for every little difficulty, or we can easily become complacent and act as if the enemy is impotent.

We help people with our preaching more effectively if we discern the implicit question being answered by the text we are preaching.

Be aware that in the midst of our congregants, viewers, and readers there are folks who are facing mental health issues, on a spectrum from moderate to chronic. An article by Hebert Palomino O.

As we start a new year that we know won’t be simple, what should we pray about, specifically related to preaching?

This New Year we need to remember what is unchanging, so it can anchor us for the year ahead.

He is forever with us, for He still carries the lowliest of labels. It was all part of God’s plan.