Revitalizing Your Ministry: How the Wheel of Life Can Help Preachers Thrive in Their Work (A Guest Post)
If you were thriving in your preaching life, how would you know? I define thriving as feeling a sense of vitality, confidence and peace despite whatever might be swirling around me. And that means bringing life into balance so that ministry does not swallow up the other meaningful and necessary elements of a vibrant existence. The Wheel of Life helps us quickly diagnose where life may be out of balance so we can make conscious choices to shift our attention and energy for a thriving ministry AND preacher.
Every Second Counts: The Power of the Pause in Preaching & Life (A Guest Post)
12-step recovery communities value the practice of pausing because they acknowledge sometimes our first thoughts aren’t necessarily our healthiest thoughts. That’s true for anyone, including preachers. Read on to see how the power of the pause can help preachers in sermon preparation and life.
Grounded Confidence, Meaningful Connections, and Preachers
The practice of grounded confidence helps us face our insecurities and develop meaningful connections to build the body of Christ. And we preachers need a sacred space to practice grounded confidence so we can proclaim the good news we’ve been called to preach as only we can preach it.
The Preacher's Ears (A Guest Post)
“Since Jesus spent his ministry with those on the margins, it seems to me we preachers have nothing much to say until we’ve spent some time in those margins and with the people who dwell there. The closer to the center of power and privilege you are positioned, the more deeply you are in need of the miracle of ears.”
Pentecost Quotations for Preaching and Reflection
I don't think I'm alone in struggling to find words to preach about the elusive yet ever-present Holy Spirit. The Spirit receives a fraction of the mentions in Scripture that “God” and “Jesus/Christ” receive. With Christians' most revered day about the Spirit coming up on the Feast of Pentecost, I thought it would help to add a few more mentions about the Spirit to our personal preaching libraries. I collected quotes from theologians, poets, and preachers to give us more words to work from. Their wise and insightful ideas will spark your imagination, help you see the Spirit in a new light, and offer new directions for your sermons.
Preaching and the Enneagram: Understanding the gifts and shadows of your Enneagram type
The Enneagram is just one tool that helps us articulate what is helpful about who we are, and what is as yet unknown to us. Because our Enneagram perspectives are so deeply entrenched and devilishly clever in finding their way into the nooks and crannies of our preaching, we often can’t recognize their influence by ourselves. Read on for a brief introduction to the gifts and shadows of each Enneagram type in preaching.
At-Home Easter Retreat for Preachers (2022, Free!)
With help from Joan Chittister, this year's (free!) Easter Retreat for Preachers is intended to help unpack your over-stuffed spirit by entering the Easter story through an event that affected you. Designed to be done at home over ninety minutes, three hours or six, by the end you'll not only have encountered the risen Christ in a new way, you'll be able to enter this retreat as many times as you need until you find your way back to yourself.
Easter Preaching: Desire, Mystery, and Belonging (A Guest Post)
Following my deepest desire, following the path to be my most authentic self as I am created, almost always leads to the mystery of unknown outcomes, of uncertainty, of lack of closure. Belonging, in community, to God, with myself, has supported me through the mystery and returned me to desire over and over again.
BsP's Christmas Gift Guide for Preachers (2021 edition)
This year’s gift guide is intended to nudge the preacher’s creativity back to life—because creativity heals heart, mind, and soul.
Preach about Real Saints: Human and Holy
Why do we ignore the saints’ flaws or apologize for them as something shameful, faults to be hidden and tucked away? Preaching the truth of their humanity frees us from examining the messenger to embrace their message: love God, and forgive and love self and neighbor. Saints are the embodiment of that invitation to transformation. They show us what is possible when we accept and dwell in the love of God—in the fullness of our messy humanity. I am persuaded that by allowing saints to be holy and perfectly human, we can be transformed to be more like Christ.