Leading With The Sermon is a new book on preaching by Will Willimon. This taste demonstrates why I’m looking forward to it. Preaching is at the center of pastoral work not only because in preaching a pastor is with more members of the congregation, in a more intentional and focused way, than in any other …

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The words ‘sermon’ and ‘preaching’ fall out of use in some churches for a variety of reasons, both social and theological. None of the replacement words or phrases really embrace the fulness of God imparting his grace to his people that is the act of a sermon being preached. Whatever it’s called, as long as …

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Teaching the Bible involves application – the response to what is being proclaimed. But application that halts on the benefit to the hearer undoes the centrality of the work of Jesus. Application must find its ultimate motivation in response to the glorious God who has saved us. Jared Wilson offers this as one of three …

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One of the more fascinating things I read this year was David Cook’s effort at auditing the preaching of the Presbyterian Churches of Victoria (Australia) in preparation for conducting a pastor’s conference in Melbourne. This report from the USA based Pew Research Center computer analysed more than 50,000 sermons from a variety of churches in …

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