There are many things that distract you while you preach. Distractions can easily interrupt your flow, make you lose your train of thought and potentially derail your message. It’s important to prepare for potential distractions ahead of time. All preaching distractions fall into one of two categories: internal or external. Internal Distractions. These exist inside […]
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Today I’m honored to have Scott Savage providing a guest post. Scott lives in Phoenix, where he writes and pastors. He is currently writing a book about his journey from idealism to cynicism to hope. Scott is married to Danalyn (a lawyer) and the father of 3 children under the age of 3, including a […]
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It’s more important than ever before to work on gaining and keeping the attention of your listeners while you preach. Capturing and maintaining attention is one of the most difficult things a communicator must do. But I don’t think this difficulty has much to do with attention span. Some will say that it’s just because people have […]
The post 4 Things Competing for Your People’s Attention During Your Sermon appeared first on Preaching Donkey.
Today I’m honored to have Tim Coressel providing a guest post. Tim is the Youth & Community Life Pastor at Cross Current Church in Northern Virginia, and has been working with students and families for nearly a decade. He is passionate about sharing life with his community and pointing people to Jesus Christ. You might think that […]
The post Scheduled to Preach: Have Backup Plan? Here’s 3 Steps to Creating One appeared first on Preaching Donkey.
A mist in the pulpit is a fog in the pew.“~C.H. Spurgeon With each sermon you preach, you should be absolutely crystal clear what you want your people to take away from it. If you are murky about how they’ll be able to use your message, then you can be sure they’ll be clueless. Not to […]
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“What do you do for a living?” This seems like a simple question. When normal people are asked this at a party or in some other social setting by a person they’ve just met it is an invitation to more conversation. There’s any number of acceptable answers: “I’m a consultant.” or “I work for a defense […]
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This was originally posted on Preaching Donkey as a 3-part series. I’m re-posting it today because the practice of team preparation has been so instrumental in my own preaching experience. If you are not yet using a team to prepare I hope to convince you to get started. It changes everything! I would love to hear […]
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Nothing is more exhilarating than preaching! It’s like nothing else to get in front of a group of people, open the Word of God and point people to Jesus. I absolutely love it. But I still get nervous sometimes before I preach. Maybe you do too. A few months ago I was standing next to my […]
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This week I want to hear from you. I am writing a book on preaching, and before I go any further with it I want to make sure it is the best it can be. The way I know it’s the best it can be is if YOU would read it. I want to share my […]
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My church has three Sunday morning services. As I reflect on what it takes to preach three times in a day, I have put some things into practice that help me preach at my best at every service. The biggest challenge for me is maintaining and sustaining energy for all three services. I arrive at […]
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This Sunday is one of the biggest days of the year for churches. More people will attend church this weekend than any other time except maybe Christmas. Those of us preparing sermons for this Sunday know the pressure that Easter brings. Lots of people will be there who usually do not come. It will be […]
The post If Christ Didn’t Rise, Preaching is a Waste of Time appeared first on Preaching Donkey.
Recently I received a question from a reader regarding how I outline my sermons and what I use for notes while I preach. I want to share his question and my answer with you. He wrote: Good morning Lane, First off want to thank you for all of the work put into the blog and podcasts. I’ve […]
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In my last post I responded to a question from a reader regarding how I outline my sermons. This week I want to answer the second part of his question about and what I use for notes while I preach. Here is the original question: Good morning Lane, First off want to thank you for all […]
The post The Notes I Have With Me While I Preach appeared first on Preaching Donkey.
Recently my church hosted the Sacred Marriage Conference with Gary Thomas, bestselling author of Sacred Marriage, Sacred Search and others. My wife and I gleaned some helpful insights from Gary’s teaching over the weekend, and it was nice to meet him personally. During the conference I listened to about five hours of his speaking. It struck me […]
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As a preacher you want to make your ideas come alive. When you labor preparing a message and perfectly craft your points you’re not thinking, I’m sure this will be altogether unremarkable, but I’ll give it a try. No, you’re thinking, How can I make them see this and feel it and be changed by it? […]
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Do you ever get stuck in a sermon prep rut? I do. Sometimes the sermon comes together like a beautifully crafted work of art. But other times I struggle to make progress in my study. It’s hard to break out of sermon prep stuck-ness. I’ve learned a few things that help me overcome these stuck […]
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One year ago today I published the first post ever on PreachingDonkey.com! Happy Birthday, Preaching Donkey! When I started this blog I had finally found a niche I was interested enough to stick with. There were plenty of resources on preaching available, but none that I could tell that focused entirely on communicating as preachers. […]
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Anyone who preaches typically has a lot to say. You have more to say than you have time to communicate on Sunday morning. This is why so many preachers preach too long. But what you have to say is important. And, believe it or not, there’s a lot of people, beginning with those in your local […]
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I recently met with a pastor who leads a thriving church in my area. He planted the church in 2003 and it has grown from three families to 2,500 people in attendance today. He spent an hour sharing a lot of fantastic insights about casting vision, setting direction, and bringing people along on mission to […]
The post Tell Your Church What They Are appeared first on Preaching Donkey.
How you begin your sermon is vital. It can mean the difference between your listeners checking out or deciding to pay close attention. The things you say at the beginning of a sermon are what your listeners subconsciously use to build a framework for your whole message. If your thoughts are murky and unclear, you’re […]
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