EPIC worship is Experiential, Participatory, Image Rich, and Connective (relational). When your sermon is experiential, people not only understand something “about” Jesus intellectually, but they engage in experiencing the presence of the living Jesus around them,...
In order for people to relate to the scriptures, you have to relate the scriptures to their lives, their culture, what’s happening around them. For example, this week, we celebrate a rare Solar Eclipse. How can you use this phenomenon in your sermon? Or in your...
Some metaphors lend themselves only to visual experience. Others can be multi-sensory. If you have a metaphor like water or sand, use water or sand in your service or sermon in some way. Allow people to touch, smell, hear, see, feel the metaphor. The more they...
When you’re preparing your sermon, it doesn’t matter how good your metaphors are if you aren’t tuned into the Holy Spirit’s power. When preparing, don’t forget deep prayer, and to allow the Holy Spirit to direct your sermon. It’s the ultimate “app”! To access this...
Whenever Jesus spoke, acted, or told a story, he drew heavily upon the metaphors of the Hebrew scriptures. In fact, everything Jesus said was in some way a “re-framing” of the Hebrew scriptures for new understanding of God and the shema. To understand Jesus, we need...
One of the most prominent metaphors in scripture is water. From the “deep” in Genesis to the invitation to “Drink freely” in revelation, water is everywhere in scripture. How do you exegete this metaphor? You might start simply by making a list of all of the...
