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?
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.
5 Tools Making Preaching & Life Easier, More Inspired, and More Fulfilling (A Resource Round-Up)
I’ve noticed a number of improvements in my preaching and general life lately, so I’m sharing the tools that have been most influential in this shift. Perhaps one or more would be of use to you, too.
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.
Five Steps to Exponential Sermon Messages—Including Holy Week!
Preaching multiple sermons in a short period (like Holy Week) is tough. We have to read multiple texts, research multiple texts, ponder multiple texts, pray over those texts, discern the messages, and then craft the sermons! Ack! But it doesn’t have to be that hard. Here are five simple steps to create an almost endless number of sermons messages, perfect for Holy Week or any sermon series.
Quotations for Preaching and Reflection: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter (2022)
I love gathering quotations for preachers’ reflections and preaching. So many of them call me up short, take my breath away, and offer new insights. This collection of quotes for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday does just that, opening my imagination and heart to help me grow as a follower of Jesus and as a preacher, in addition to providing loads of ideas for sermons that touch our listeners. I hope these do the same for you.
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.”
Two Powerful Words + Three Easy Strategies To Write Sermons in a Busy Season
Because sermon crafting by its very nature is a creative endeavor, and because ministry by nature is unpredictable, sermon prep won’t always go according to plan. There is much we can’t control about the process. But there is much more we can! We increase the odds dramatically that sermon prep will go according to plan when we do this one thing: show up. And we can increase our odds of showing up by making it as easy, hospitable, and worthwhile as possible.