How To Preach

As a preacher, you are the response of Heaven to the cry of your city! Clarify your calling, strengthen your character, and develop your craft as a preacher. In this book, Samuel Deuth, the author of the best-selling book, Following Jesus, shares his 20+ years of preaching and ministry leadership experience. Whether you're just beginning in ministry or you've been following the call for years, this book will stir and encourage you in three specific areas that are the building blocks of your ministry role. This book from Samuel Deuth is packed with powerful and practical training to help you clarify your calling, develop a character that will carry your calling, and give your step by step in writing messages and fine-tuning your craft as a preacher and communicator!

What would your church look like if it maximized the dormant gifts of the women God has brought there? Discover how to develop and leverage the leadership abilities of women within your congregation. Leadership and people development veteran Kadi Cole offers a practical strategy to help church and organizational leaders craft cultures that facilitate the development of women as volunteer and staff leaders. In Developing Female Leaders, Cole shares eight easy-to-implement “best practices” that help accelerate a woman’s organizational contribution, such as: Seek to understand Clearly define what you believe Mine the marketplace Integrate spiritual formation and leadership development Be an “other” Create an environment of safety Upgrade your people practices Take on your culture Combined with current research, thorough appendices and references add even more guidance for setting vision, milestones, and goals. Using interviews and surveys of more than one thousand women in key church and organizational roles, Developing Female Leaders is a one-of-a-kind resource for identifying what is missing today in your church to help it flourish in the future.

When You Talk, Are People Changed? Whether you speak from the pulpit, podium, or the front of a classroom, you don’t need much more than blank stares and faraway looks to tell you you’re not connecting. Take heart before your audience takes leave! You can convey your message in the powerful, life-changing way it deserves to be told. An insightful, entertaining parable that’s an excellent guide for any speaker, Communicating for a Change takes a simple approach to delivering effectively. Join Pastor Ray as he discovers that the secrets to successful speaking are parallel to the lessons a trucker learns on the road. By knowing your destination before you leave (identifying the one basic premise of your message), using your blinkers (making transitions obvious), and implementing five other practical points, you’ll drive your message home every time! “Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” “Once upon a time…” “In the beginning…” Great stories capture and hold an audience’s attention from start to finish. Why should it be any different when you stand up to speak? In Communicating for a Change, Andy Stanley and Lane Jones offer a unique strategy for communicators seeking to deliver captivating and practical messages. In this highly creative presentation, the authors unpack seven concepts that will empower you to engage and impact your audience in a way that leaves them wanting more. “Whether you are a senior pastor with weekly teaching responsibilities or a student pastor who has bern charged with engaging the hearts and minds of high school students, this book is a must-read.” -Bill Hybels, Senior pastor, Willow Creak Community Church “A very practical resource for every biblical communicator who wants to go from good to great.” -Ed Young, Senior pastor, Fellowship Church, Grapevine, Texas “To communicate effectively, you have to connect. Andy has been connecting with people for years, and now he’s sharing his insights with the rest of us.” -Jeff Foxworthy, Comedian Story Behind the Book Andy Stanley and Lane Jones are on staff at one of America ’s largest churches, North Point Community. Leaders of thousands of people, they regularly speak in front of large groups. They also listen to numerous speakers and know the disastrous effects of a poorly delivered message. This book is the result of their efforts to make public speaking—one of the most common fear-inducing activities known to mankind—simple, easy, and even enjoyable, so that God’s messages will readily produce the life-changing results they should.

Many sermons preached today lack the divine knowledge and spiritual understanding available only through dynamic expository preaching. In Preaching: How to Preach Biblically, John MacArthur’' well-known passion for the Bible combines with the expertise of faculty members at The Master's Seminary to inspire and equip preachers in effective biblical preaching. Preaching: How to Preach Biblically flows from biblical foundations for expository preaching through a detailed process of developing expositions and creating sermons to the actual delivery of expository messages, connecting what pastors learn in seminary with the sermons preached in a local church. This volume shows how to progress purposefully from one phase to the next in preparing to minister to God's people through preaching. This book answers these questions and more: What is expository, biblical preaching? What are the theological and historical foundations for insisting on expository preaching? What are the steps involved in preparation for and participation in biblical preaching? What models exist for expository preaching today? The Master's Seminary faculty, with over thirty years' experience in preaching and seminary training of preachers, contributes a treasury of expertise alongside insights from expositor John MacArthur. While united on their commitment to exposition, the variety of individual expressions and methodological preferences discussed offers beneficial assistance for any preacher seeking a higher level of expository excellence.

Considering the pervasive immorality and high divorce rate of our contemporary Christian culture, we evidently need a biblically based, theologically compelling, practical understanding of sex, dating, and relationships. Pastors Gerald Hiestand and Jay Thomas counteract this problem with their paradigm-shifting view of purity and relationships—a view that challenges even the basic assumptions of evangelical subculture. Unlike most books on dating, this one cuts straight to the heart of dating relationships, asserting with confidence that the line must be drawn at "no sexual activity" whatever. Few have dared to define and apply the Bible's understanding of purity in premarital relationships to this degree, but Heistand and Thomas have done it. Furthermore, both authors are vocational pastors who communicate regularly with the target audience and have a proven ability to express biblical truth in a winsome and compelling manner. Sex, Dating, and Relationships adds a new, almost provocative voice to the conversation that, with straightforward theological insight, pleads with Christians to get serious about honoring Christ with their sexuality.

"Lane provides practical tools to help pastors deliver engaging messages. Anyone who preaches or teaches will benefit from this book." -Mark Batterson, New York Times bestselling Author of The Circle Maker, Lead Pastor of National Community Church. Today's audiences are more distracted than ever, but sermons can only be effective if people are listening. You have to capture people's attention. But how? In Preaching Killer Sermons, author and pastor Lane Sebring reveals practical preparation and delivery techniques that will enable you to better connect with your listeners. Discover how to: -Capture and maintain the interest of your listeners -Structure each sermon for the greatest impact -Maximize your prep time on a tight schedule -Overcome distractions & communicate with clarity -Inspire people toward life-change If you want to discover practical methods to communicate clearly every time you preach, this book is for you. What church leaders are saying about Preaching Killer Sermons: Lane has written a very helpful, practical book for preachers and teach-ers. I think there are two great sins in preaching: misusing the text and boring your audience. In teaching pastors and seminary students, I find there are plenty of resources and attention given to avoid the first great sin. But there is a lack of resources on how not to bore people. And too many preachers feel that if they have rightly divided the Word of Truth, they have done everything God requires them to do. I think accuracy and effectiveness are equally important in preaching. Preaching Killer Sermons is a great resource to help pastors truly be effective in communicating the powerful truth of God's Word. I plan to start using this with the preaching students I teach. -David Whiting, Executive Search Consultant, Vanderbloemen, former Lead Pastor, Northridge Church, Rochester, NY The hardest thing I do each week is not leadership development or pastoral care - it's crafting a message which will communicate truth in an engaging and impactful way. I genuinely want to get better at what I believe is God's greatest call on my life. I'm thankful for Lane's heart to help us be better preachers. I'm thankful for this book. -Ron Edmondson, Senior Pastor, Immanuel Baptist Church, Lexington, KY, Church leadership blogger, RonEdmondson.com Pastor Lane Sebring has done an outstanding job of reverse engineering the "great sermon." His efforts will help all who preach to preach better prepared sermons, and become better prepared communicators. Preach-ing Killer Sermons should be included reading in homiletics courses around the world. -Brett Fuller, Senior Pastor, Grace Covenant Church, Chantilly, VA Chaplain, Washington Redskins If you are a communicator in the local church you need to pick up this book. Lane brings practical insights and helpful encouragement on every page. Pick it up ... and apply the lessons contained within. -Rich Birch, unSeminary, Executive Pastor, Liquid Church, Mountainside NJ The concepts Lane shares in this book have helped sharpen my effectiveness in communicating the content of God's inerrant Word! I would highly recommend this book to both the novice and the experienced preacher. -Dr. Billy Ross, Senior Pastor, Centreville Baptist Church, Centreville, VA Trustee, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary I serve on a Teaching Team with Lane, so I watch him live out Preaching Killer Sermons each week. Lane's heart is to communicate God's Word in culturally relevant and engaging ways. Now he's sharing his passion in a book full of practical tools to help preachers (and teachers/speakers). You'll hear his heart as he challenges you to examine and refine your own preaching habits. -Elaine Bonds, sought after speaker, Graduate, Proverbs 31 She Speaks and CLASSeminars

This is a classic that has stood the test of time. For forty-five years, seminary students and pastors have benefited from the principles found in this book. Two of Koller's popular texts, Expository Preaching without Notes and Sermons Preached without Notes, are combined in a single volume that allows preachers to prepare and deliver sermons without being tied to a manuscript or even outlines or notes. Among the eighteen topics discussed are the biblical conception of preaching, the advantages of preaching without notes, homiletical devices, the importance of structure, and the systematic filing of materials. Now repackaged for the next generation of preachers, with a foreword by current Northern Seminary preaching professor Michael J. Quicke, How to Preach without Notes is poised to continue its history of strong and steady sales.

Today, traditional forms of preaching are being scrutinized and challenged. The biblical sermon is not immune to the pressure to evolve or even fall by the wayside, leaving pastors and seminary students confused over how best to communicate to today’s listeners. In this forward-looking textbook, Kenton Anderson delivers a strong call to current and future ministers to indeed choose to preach biblical sermons, despite the obstacles to doing so. While preaching itself is non-negotiable, the exact form it takes can be much more flexible, allowing people to hear from God as they hear his Word preached. Rather than presenting one model or process for preparing a sermon, Anderson explains several available options. As you discern your message from the Bible, will you begin with the text (deductive) or with the listener (inductive)? Will you focus on the idea (cognitive) or the image (affective)? The choices you make lead to five possible sermon structures: • DECLARATIVE—make an argument • PRAGMATIC—solve a mystery • NARRATIVE—tell a story • VISIONARY—paint a picture • INTEGRATIVE—sing a song Each model is described in detail and related to well-known contemporary preachers, including John MacArthur, Rick Warren, Eugene Lowry, and Rob Bell. This book equips you with a variety of tools for your preaching tool kit. A CD-ROM with additional helpful resources is included, as well as discussion questions and practical exercises.