In my experience, eighty percent of the fuel for preaching comes from sources outside the study. I do not mean scouring the countryside or the urbanside for sermon illustrations.
Live the Stories: Jesus Gives Peter Instructions
April 3, 2018 by
Remind the children that many of the disciples who followed Jesus were fishermen before they left their jobs to learn from him. When Jesus died, they returned to their jobs of catching fish.
The Strains of Sermon Preparation
September 20, 2017 by
In my thirty-five years of preaching, I’ve notice a constant occurrence: Sunday comes every seven days. It’s relentless. The sermon, therefore, can’t be delayed to Monday or another day next week. Sunday comes whether I’ve had two funerals, a wedding, twelve hospital visits, a holiday, or a sick child.
Waiting for You – Addie Davis
June 27, 2017 by
Your achievements represent hard work and dedication—a milestone—but you will discover that there are no resting places, just breathers along the way, for you must get on with the tasks of missions, education, and employment. You must certainly get on with the business of living.
Formations 06.18.2017: Everybody Has a Sermon
June 11, 2017 by
From 1993 until 2004, CBS News ran a feature called “Everybody Has a Story.” Someone would throw a dart at a map of the US. Then correspondent Steve Hartman would go visit the place where it stuck, pick a name at random from the local phone book, and do a story on the person he found (assuming they were willing, of course).
The Walking Dead
April 11, 2017 by
Let me start off by just laying it out there. The title of this sermon is “The Walking Dead.” I do not like scary movies or TV shows. At all. “Well, Chris, that’s silly. Scary movies aren’t real.” I know that. I know that the odds of being chased by a chainsaw-wielding maniac are infinitesimally small.
Rejoicing in Heaven?
March 2, 2016 by
I had a really neat—and that’s not a term I use very often—experience a few Sundays ago. I’ve been the fill-in preacher at The Rock Baptist Church in The Rock, Georgia for a few months.
Reading through the Lens of Jesus
October 14, 2015 by
Jesus opens up the depth of meaning in the Scriptures so that we can find depth of meaning in our lives and in our discipleship. In relationship with Jesus we become participants in the kingdom of God.
Uniform 08.23.2015: God Demands Justice
August 16, 2015 by
For centuries they preached that worship rituals were invalid unless accompanied by proper concern for other people, and especially for the most vulnerable in the society.
Cry, Baby
June 16, 2015 by
They blamed it on me. And they were probably right. Apparently, I opened the floodgates just because I got a little emotional during my prayer for our graduates prior to their sermons.
A Meditation for Good Friday – Amy Butler
April 17, 2014 by
I had the strangest experience just a few weeks ago. I’d been asked to participate in the funeral of a woman I did not know well; she grew up at my church, Calvary, and I knew her family from a couple of chances we’d had to be together.