I Hate to Tell You: We Can Still Get It Right
Humanity continues to get so much wrong. And until we can admit we’re getting things wrong, we can’t get them right. We will continue to dig deeper and deeper holes that are harder to get out of. So why don’t we just admit it? And how do we preach into this resistance?
How to Preach Holy Resilience Under Stress
Resilience is the ability to endure pressure or hardship and retain (or regain) your original form. As Christians, this means the ability to endure stress and continue exhibiting the fruits of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—no matter the circumstances.
How do we create fertile soil for the Spirit’s mysterious work? The Scripture offers a wealth of resources for preaching into our present struggles to foster holy resilience.
"The Earth Shall Yield its Increase": The Cost of Severing Work from Worship (A Guest Post)
Scripture offers us a vision of human life grounded in three deeply intertwined covenantal relationships: God, humanity, and the earth. But these three vital relationships have been broken by sin, leading to a distorted theology of worship, work, and rest.
Preaching Discipleship in a Climate Emergency (A Guest Post)
“Humanity has an extremely short window of time in which we can make a course correction regarding the climate emergency. Preaching discipleship in this time is one of the most critical and effective things that pastors can do to support, encourage, and challenge their people to respond.”
Effects of the Pandemic on Preaching and Worship: Questions to Consider (A Guest Post)
Our guest blogger and Collective+ speaker, the Rev. Andrew Stoebig, suggests the events and traumas of our most recent cycle of memory calls for a deeper kind of reflection on the way we operate individually and within our community systems. Namely, now what? Whether your worship patterns since the pandemic are new or old or in between, does what you say match what you do? That is, does your pattern of and movement during worship support or challenge, confirm or deny, further or suppress your homiletical proclamation?
Preaching the Renunciation of Evil and the Way of Love
“As I write this I am sick to my stomach from the horror of what is happening to the people of Ukraine. The images and stories of the violence being wrought against her citizens reveal a blatant, outrageous defiance of God’s commandment to love our neighbors. The situation is so astoundingly, stunningly horrific that it is difficult to find words to preach or pray. Whenever I am at a loss for how to respond as a follower of Jesus Christ and the Way of Love, I go back to the beginning: baptism.”
Christianity: It’s not Personal?
Fires. Hurricanes. Famine. Flooding. There ought to be no such thing as acceptable collateral damage in the Christian’s world. Because if the Body of Christ is one thing, it’s personal. Fortunately, we preachers have a new resource to help us preach the gospel into the personal effects of climate change on those we are called to love.
3 Strategies to Keep Sermon Prep on Track When the Rest of Life Isn't
We know stuff happens to other people all the time, which means they might call on us all the time when they need help. And yet, we’re still surprised when our carefully constructed expectation for how the day or week is going to go evaporates in an instant because of an emergency someone else is having.
Other people’s surprises can have big impacts on our sermon prep. Rather than get paralyzed (and often resentful) in the face of the unexpected, here are three strategies to stay on track.
Redefining "Normal": A Preacher's Ongoing Re-Entry Plan
As many congregations are finding their way back to in-person worship, the temptation is strong to regain a sense of normalcy. But getting back to normal is only worthwhile if the “normal” we knew before is relevant to our present realities. In other words, does what you used to do make sense now? Here are five considerations for “re-entry” after COVID.
Preaching One Year Into the Pandemic
As the U.S. comes to the end of its first year managing the pandemic, I hear frustration among preachers with each other. The source of tension? A disagreement about the best ratio between preaching lament and joy. To all preachers everywhere, I say: Yes. There is the need for lament, and there is the need for joy. And if we’re not sure about the best ratio, and if we’re feeling a little suspicious of our colleagues who tip a bit more toward one side than the other, then our parishioners are probably feeling the same way about each other—and us.