Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Preaching Guides

I have a few mantras that guide my preaching. I'm still relatively new at preaching so they don't really qualify as "rules." There aren't 10 of them so I won't call them "10 Commandments." They are just the things I say to myself often enough to be guides.

1. Preach the text in front of you.
2. Preach to the people in front of you.
3. In the absence of any really inspiration, use the sermon to give a lecture on the biblical text in front of you (it's the most faithful alternative to preaching). NOTE: I've been preaching a lot of #3 sermons lately.
4. If you can't be profound, be short.