Welcome to The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better.  So, how did it go this Sunday?  This is the instinctive question preachers ask one another on the other side of Sunday. Answers may address church attendance, the offering, and service elements. But it eventually gets down to the sermon. How did the sermon go? We are prone to get this self-evaluation of our sermons wrong. We think it went better than it actually did. Or we think it went worse than it actually did. Here are five objective but spiritual principles for evaluating your...

Welcome to The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better. In this episode, I want to talk to you about marks of good sermon outlines. Some preachers disregard the structure of the sermon.  Others are more concerned with the outline than anything else. Both extremes are wrong. Sermon outlines should serve the preacher, the text, and the congregation. Here are practical tips to help develop effective sermon outlines... Remember who the sermon outline is for. Let the text shape the outline. The outline serves the text. Support the main idea of the sermon....

  Welcome to The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better. In this episode, we will talk about preaching on giving. Some preachers preach about giving every week, no matter the text. Others never preach about giving. Both are unhealthy extremes. To feed your congregation a healthy and well-balanced diet of the word, you must teach your people what scripture teaches about financial stewardship. Here are seven tips for preaching on giving... Do not apologize for preaching on giving. Preach stewardship as discipleship. Preach on giving at set times. Don’t just preach on giving....

  Welcome to The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better.  In this episode, I want to talk to you about how long it should take to prepare a sermon. Some pastors spend their entire week in sermon preparation. This cannot be a good thing. If you spend all week in sermon preparation, you are neglecting other important pastoral duties. Others spend virtually no time in preparation, cramming on Saturday night to find something to say on Sunday morning. How long should it take to prepare a sermon?  Time to pray. Time to...

  Welcome to The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better.  In this episode, I interview Brian Croft. Croft is Senior Pastor of Auburndale Baptist Church and Founder of Practical Shepherding. He is also the Senior Fellow of the Mathena Center for Church Revitalization at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and has written or contributed to over twenty books on pastoral ministry. He is married to Cara, and they have four children. I am most encouraged these days by men who have a high view of the church. I am especially encouraged by...

Welcome to The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better. In this episode, I want to talk to you about preaching narrative sermons. The vast majority of the Bible is narrative. The drama of redemption is told through the story of people whose lives were invaded by God. If we do not preach narrative texts, we rob our hearers of a key element of the whole counsel of God. How can you preach narrative sermons effectively?  Do your homework. Feel the tension of the text. Teach the story. Build the message around one...

  Welcome to The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better. This episode is a first. During this episode, I will draw from the "mailbag" to answer questions about sermon preparation and sermon delivery. Over the years, I have learned to preach by three means: (1) Study, (2) practice, (3) and conversation. You can learn a lot about preaching by talking to other preachers about preaching. I hope this episode will serve you in that way. I am not an expert or scholar. But whatever I know about preaching from my decades of...

  Welcome to The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better. Sometimes pastors struggle in preaching because they don’t take their pulpit work seriously. Others struggle in preaching because they struggle alone. But good preaching is a partnership between pastor and congregation, pulpit and pew, the one who preaches and the one who listens. The pastor preaches to help those in the pew. But the congregation can and should help the one in the pulpit, as well. Here are seven ways the pew can helpt the pulpit... Pray for your pastor. Give your...

  Welcome to The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better. During the 2019 Sing! Worship Music Conference, hosted by Keity and Kristyn Getty in Nashville, I gave a talk about preaching the incarnation. In this episode of the podcast, I want to share some of the principles I gave during that talk. What is the Incarnation of Christ all about? I can answer in four words from John 1:14: "The Word became flesh." The Incarnation of Christ is essential to Christian truth, Christian worship, and Christian living. Here are ten priciples for...

  Welcome to The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better. In his episode, I have the privilege of interviewing Alexander Strauch. Alexander Strauch was raised in New Jersey and converted to Christ at a Bible camp in New York State. He received his undergraduate degree from Colorado Christian University and went on to earn his Master’s in Divinity degree from Denver Seminary. Mr. Strauch has served in the leadership and teaching ministry of Littleton Bible Chapel for nearly 50 years. As a gifted Bible teacher and a church elder with extensive practical experience, Mr....

  Welcome to The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better. Preaching is a public act of spiritual devotion. We may pray that God would hide us behind the cross as we preach. But there is no place to hide in the pulpit. Let's face it. The pulpit is a dangerous place. It can fill the preacher with pride that leads to his downfall. It can fill the preacher with discouragement that causes him to give up. It can fill the preacher with fear that prostitutes his divne message for human approval. How...

  Welcome to The On Preaching Podcast, the podcast dedicated to helping you preach faithfully, clearly, and better. In this episode, I want to talk to you about preaching as the worship leader. Who is the worship leader in the local church? It is the pastor who regularly preaches in the worship services. It is one thing to preach as a guest at an event. It is another thing to be the main preaching pastor of a local church. As the worship leader of your congregation, you have more responsibility than the preaching and preparation of your sermon. What does...