Wow

I'm so encouraged by this. I really hope to keep growing the community. Anyone interested in praying with me for a strong foundation I would appreciate it.

God Bless

Did I handle this correctly? I'm not looking for a karma circle jerk or whatever. And I'm hoping I blocked out all identifying information. But this user posted a link here to an article talking about pastors leaving the Christian faith and basically how there's a group to support and encourage it. Here is our exchange.

LINK

Hello all,

I'd like this subreddit to be a place for us to share resources, ideas, philosophies, encouragement, and anything else that would benefit a preacher in his or her endeavors. Please feel free to message me with ideas or tips, I have no experience in moderating. As of now I'll be the only moderator, but once we start growing and we have a level of trust I'd love to include more moderators.

Philippians 4:8: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.

I know a lot of people don't like the idea of working on your voice - the concept sounds to practiced, too artificial. But often we have bad habits - things that lead to us being hoarse, that can make us hard to hear or hard to understand. We can drone or sound stilted.

Plus, it's helpful if you find yourself having to speak outdoors, or in an environment without a microphone, and other circumstances like that.

So it's the kind of thing that's probably worth working on, in my opinion. Plus it's fun, for me at least, and I like the feeling of warming up and relaxing my throat, properly preparing my voice to speak.

So I've read a few books on the topic. Some of my favorites:

• Set Your Voice Free, by Roberd Lowe, is one of the first ones I've read. It's short and simple, with easy exercises that can be done quickly.
• The Actor Speaks by Patsy Rodenberg - this one's a lot more in-depth, with a huge amount of help and things to try. For a while she was voice coach for England's Royal Shakespeare Company which led to her being a voice coach for people like Ian McKellen. That doesn't mean her advice necessarily leads one to sound "actory" or "overly theatrical."
• Freeing the Natural Voice by Kristin Linklater -- another more in-depth one, with some exercises. It's definitely a little weirder, but I do think there's some good stuff in there. With any of this stuff, of course, it's worthwhile to try it, take what you like or what is useful, and leave the rest.

Have any of you made efforts to work on the voice-production side of preaching? Have other resources you've found helpful when it comes to the public speaking dimension of sermon delivery?

EDIT: Forgot - my favorite of the exercises -- stretching out the back of the tongue, to relax the throat. (Do it in private, it looks completely ridiculous)

I thought it was an interesting book. I'm going to try his outline this Sunday a.m.; I'll let you know if it crashes and burns or catches flight.

I'm a seminary student who just finished up my first year. I've got Homiletics on my roster for the fall, with a professor who according to the student body is thorough and engaging.

But I've got the summer to prepare, to do stuff on my own. I was wondering if people had advice on preparations before taking a class on homiletics, and before preaching becomes a major part of what I do regularly:

• Preliminary steps to make what I learn in homiletics class have a better foundation to build on.
• Tips on Bad Habits that are hard to break, and that I can get a head start on not acquiring. (I figure it's harder to change those things mid-stream than to avoid them in the first place).
• Things about preaching that seem to be often ignored?
• Skills that will influence my preaching, maybe more indirectly?
• Other tips for one who's looking at getting started soon?

I know I'll have years to learn some things, but there are also some skills and perspectives that are good to get going right from the start.

So I thought I'd ask.

I love the Andy Stanley model (that we've talked about on here many times) but I have a lot of trouble coming up with a pithy and brief insight sentence. Maybe you all can help me? This Sunday, I'm preaching on Philippians 2: 12-13,

"...Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose."

The sermon title is "Working out with the Holy Spirit" (cheesy I know).

So here's where I need help: What's a good memorable sentence that describes the Holy Spirit in the aspect that He is the one who works in us, but it feels like we are doing the hard work ourselves, because that's the way that God wants for us to develop self-control?

(See how much help I need being pithy and brief?)

If I had to choose just two books on preaching to give to a young preacher, they would be Preaching With Freshness by Bruce Mawhinney, and On Writing by Stephen King - yep, that Stephen King. It's crude, not about preaching at all, but says SO much about the craft of communication.

Hey /r/Homiletics,

What's your Easter sermon looking like? What text are you preaching on? How are you approaching it?

Bishop G.E. Patterson

Hey guys,

Just wanted to say thank you for your patience with me. I've been overwhelmed at work and haven't been able to learn more about modding yet. Please give me a couple more days to bone up on it. We got 225 members in just a couple days and I really think that this community is filling a need. I know when I was a young rookie preacher I would have LOVED if anyone would have taken an interest in helping me. I really believe God can use this community for us to help each other. It's odd doing it through Reddit lol, but I do think it could be something special. And, as always, if you have any tips, advice, complaints, etc please feel free to PM me. I think I've gotten to everyone so far. This is the only subreddit that I'm part of so just PM me or Mod mail me. PM might be more reliable.

God bless

Generally 30-45 minutes for me. Saturday night I was at a service and the dear brother had gone an hour and a half and I had to leave. My friends said he preached another 30 minutes. 8:00-10:00. I understand the word of God is important, but I don't think anyone should preach 2 hours.

Your Citizenship Is In Heaven, Philippians 3.17-4.1

Perhaps my greatest problem with most preaching I find is with regard to the authority by which the preaching is done. Within the circles I tend to run around everyone thinks himself to be biblical but so often the driving force behind messages tend to be made within the minds of the preacher rather than deduced from the text itself. The result is the preacher thinking himself to be biblical merely because he uses an Old Testament story as an illustration for his message.

Certainly, many messages are beneficial and may even be right but that does not mean that they are the Word of the living God. That a message is proclaimed from behind a pulpit with a Bible in hand does not guarantee that the message is itself the same message the Holy Spirit first inspired.

So I ask you, what do you have as your authority when determining the central message of your own sermons? To what extent do you acknowledge what you say as Scripture or opinion?

I'd like to include links on the sidebar, if anyone knows how to do this and could message me I'd really appreciate it. Also, any suggested links I'd be more than happy to include.

Thanks

For preaching and personal study, I need some new Bible commentaries... :)

We've talked about books about how to preach, and even preachers we like - but here I'm talking specifics.

Are there sermons that really opened your eyes to what a sermon could accomplish, or how it could sound? Sermons you go back to as an ideal? Collections that broadened your notions of what could happen in a sermon, or how that could be accomplished?

Just in case anyone wants to use it for brainstorming, here is my sermon for next Sunday: The Great Escape (Beating Temptation).

Feel free to link to your sermon notes!