You may place your comments for week 1 anytime after 12:01 a.m. Wednesday in the comments area below.
Remember that this is an introduction week. Tell us about yourself again, or give us some new information about yourself. The week is also a practice week for posting. Any comments that are at least 3 sentences long will count toward your total. In the weeks that follow, you will have to have certain types of comments to gain points.
Look at the section that describes the weekly requirements to learn how to get points.
Have a great time!
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24 comments:
Hello everyone! My name is Tyler Owens. I am a minister. I live in Southern Illinois with my wife, Audra, and my nine year old daughter, Chloe. We attend Grange Hall Freewill Baptist Church. This is a wonderful blog that we are on. If you are new, feel free to ask me any questions about anything. I will be glad to help. In the meantime, Praise the Lord!!!
The title of my book is THE ART AND CRAFT OF BIBLICAL PREACHING. There are many different authors in this book. The editors are Haddon Robinson and Craig Brian Larson. I will be reading twenty chapters this week.
22. Preaching Through Personal Pain
23. A Prophet among You
24. Burning Clean Fuel
25. Backdraft Preaching
26. Why I Pace Before I Preach
27. Preaching to Convulse the Demons
28. Holy Expectations
29. Preaching to Everyone in Particular
30. The Power of Simplicity
31. View from the Pew
32. Preaching to Ordinary People
33. Why Serious Preachers Use Humor
34. Connect Hearers Through Dialogue
35. Self-Disclosure That Glorifies Christ
36. How to be Heard
37. Opening the Closed American Mind
38. Turning an Audience into the Church
39. Preaching to Change the Heart
40. Preaching Truth, Justice, and the American Way
41. Preaching Morality in an Amoral Age
42. Cross-Cultural Preaching
Chapter 26 is about pacing the night before a sermon. It is alright to be nervous. The author is always nervous. It is not like he is talking about something silly. He is preaching about life and death. A little nervousness is a good thing. It causes us to preach to the best of our ability.
Hello again, My name is Roger Dutton, I live near Freeman Spur, Il. but always tell people that I am from West Frankfort, I went to school there and my children have attended there as well. I am married to a wonderful woman, Janet and we have two children, Adam is nineteen and currently in his sixth week of Marine Corps bootcamp in San Deigo Ca., my daughter Shelby is fifteen years of age and attends West Frankfort High School where she is a cheerleader, our home church is Unity FWB Church, where we have attended since it was founded there.
This course term I will be reading the book:" Jesus and the Gospels", which is written by Craig L. Blomberg and I will be reading three chapters a week:
1. Political Background-An overview of the Intertestamental Period.
2. Religious Background- Hellenistic and Jewish Religion
3. Socioeconomic Background-Everyday Life in New Testament Times
Chapter twenty-five is called Backdraft Preaching. We are like a backdraft in the church. We start to burn and can sometimes almost burn out. Then fresh wind comes in and reignites us. Ministers have to do this every Sunday not only for the church but also for themselves.
Chapter twenty-nine is about preaching to everyone in the church. We have to sacrifice to reach everyone in our congregations. We all tend to lean toward a certain group of people. This takes work and broad illustrations. We still have to never compromise the truth.
Chapter thirty-three is very good. It is about when and where to use humor. The author feels that humor is a must in sermons. It does not help when we try too hard to be funny. Most humorous things are very subtle and never demeaning to anyone. Humor is a good way to break down barriers that people put up.
Chapter one is about the Political Background which involved Israel and the Jewish people. It talked about different rules and rulers that would govern the Jewish nation as well as other kingdoms that would interact with Israel for whatever reason. The political system was even corrupt then no wonder we are in the condition we are finding our own system in.
I think humor in a sermon can be useful in what some people call " breaking the ice". Some preachers come off as the big theologians and set us back in our seats and preach over our heads, while a young preacher might not have the experience of or all that knowledge, may show the listeners his humerous side and gain a great deal of attention to the message.
Tyler, Did the author give any hints as to how to remember the age groups in sermon prep, and how to use "broad" illustrations--or how to make them broader? What is some practical help that he gave in this area?
Roger, I heard one prson say that we should "put the cookies on the bottom shelf" in order for everyone to be able to reach them.
I always tried to do that (maybe not always successfully because of getting used to such specialized terminology that was used in seminary, but I tried.)
When I left one church that I had filled in for for several months, one lady in her thirties said (about my preaching), "when he got through, I always knew what he said!" I took that as a compliment.
Abraham Lincoln always preferred the simple word to a more complicated one. When you speak where children can understand, the adults will get it too.
In Craig Blomberg's book "Jesus and the Gospels", he take the time and effort to set the scene for the intro to Jesus coming onto the scene. He talks about the Religious Background at that time. Of course there was the Pharisees' and the Saducees'the Essenes, and the Zealots. The Essenes group are unfamiliar to me but could not be overlooked by Jesus, according to Mr. Blomberg the Disciples and Jesus had dealings with them. They were founded by an anonymous leader only known as " Teacher of Righteousness. Interesting stuff!!!
God Bless
Bro. Randy that is where I like the cookies because I am a simple man, but God has a use for the simple,right?
Hey Tyler, is it difficult to preach to everyone in the church if your a visiting preacher, or I guess a better word is an evangelist, how do you dirrect a message to everyone?
The author did discuss using broad illustrations. We have to always be taking steps to read our congregations better. One way to do this is to hand out surveys. A person who does this has to be ready to get some strange responses.
I really enjoy preaching to churches that I don't know. I like preaching to my church, also. There is something about meeting knew people and preaching to them that gets my heart racing. I feel it can be tougher to preach to friends and family than to complete strangers. That is just me, though.
Chapter thirty-seven is called Opening the Closed American Mind. It is about preaching to skeptics. There are several ways to help us preach to them. We can explain why we beleive the way we do. We can appeal to thier curiosity. We have to know what we are talking about and cannot skip the tough topics. We also have to establish biblical authority and explode what poeple perceive about Christianity.
Tyler, in your post about preaching to the skeptics, I believe this is needed more and more. I wonder how many people who even come regularly and who are not "official" skeptics have been so influenced by our culture that they listen skeptically, even to biblical truth.
Roger, concerning those cookies on the lower shelf, (and I know I am so unsuccesful with this at times) I was encouraged by a written endorsement of my speaking ministry I got from an individual this morning:
He said, "Brother Carney preaches a down-to-earth message that the common man can understand. He is a very intelligent man that doesn't let his education inflate his sgo."
While I blush at the "intelligent" statement, it's good to know that at least part of the time I am successful with this type of communication.
Well, I guess, misspelling the word "ego" in that post I just made will help keep me humble :) !
Thats right Bro. Randy,was'nt it Paul who said he would rather speak five words that could be understood than ten thousand that ccould'nt be, not taking the scripture out of context but the principle is the same, speak to be understood. If your message can't be understood then it is spoken in vain, for God is not the author of confusion. AMEN!!!
So, Bro. Roger, the sun is shining bright today. Did you get a lot of work done (I mean on your job)?
Roger, and Tyler, you both earned two bonus points for the week. (As always, if I have overlooked something, or possible overlooked it, please let me know.)
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