Merry (Early!) Christmas! After tending to everyone else's spiritual and celebratory needs, it will finally be your turn! Inside is your free, downloadable, at-home Christmas Retreat to rest, reflect, and renew your spirit.
2022 Annual Christmas Gift List for Preachers
Adaptive Leadership for Preachers (Part 4): 10 Steps to Lead Creatively, Effectively, and Pastorally (A Guest Post)
To preach is to lead. Preachers lead by proclaiming how, where, when, and why the gospel influences and guides our hearts, decisions, and actions, individually and corporately. The need for preachers to lead their congregations through change is always difficult, but perhaps it has never been more difficult than it is now. Today’s guest post by Backstory Preaching Mentor and Leadership Coach, the Rev’d Dale Matherly, offers ten steps we can apply to lead faithfully, authentically, and skillfully.
How do you avoid the pitfalls of assumptions in a new call? Good questions.
We've probably all stepped on a congregational preaching "no-no" without realizing it. We thought we were just doing our jobs and didn't realize we didn't know what we didn't know until we fielded angry reactions to our sermon. A little knowledge can go a long way, and today's blog offers questions every preacher can ask to unearth the unspoken expectations of a congregation, particularly when discerning a new call.
For the Love of Preaching: Make it playful work!
The vast majority of preachers I work with, including me!, would say their favorite part of sermon prep is exegesis. It’s likely the “new” aspect that’s actually at the root of why we enjoy exegesis. Every time we discover something new, our brains push out a little dopamine and we feel that rush of satisfaction. However, when we run out of “new” because we’ve read the same Scripture verses, footnotes and commentaries over and over, well, uh-oh. But we can infuse newness into every stage of sermon prep, and that’s the key to creating work that feels like play.
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 Advice Roundup: 16 Backstory Preaching mentors share strategies to make preaching easier, more effective, and more fun!
Sometimes, one small tip is powerful enough to unlock a new competency or significantly improve a skill or process. That’s why today's blog is all tips, tips, and nothing but preaching tips. As the 2021-2022 Mentorship class wraps up their program and celebrates graduation, I asked current Backstory Preaching mentors and apprentices (mentors-in-training) to offer some of their favorite preaching strategies to help you craft more effective sermons in less time—while loving the process!
5 Tools Making Preaching & Life Easier, More Inspired, and More Fulfilling (A Resource Round-Up)
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.
Stop and Smell the Ink: How Creative Play Makes You a Better Preacher
If you've only ever started your sermon prep with gritted teeth, we have an invitation for you. It's time to try a new way: begin with play.
How? We'll get to that.
But first, let's convince your logical left brain why letting your right brain have a turn at the wheel might get you to your destination more effectively.