Sweet Spots
Ideas and messages from Len Sweet.
Here, you can comment on any post to participate in the discussion.
Giving Blood
Giving Blood
A Fresh Paradigm for Preaching
by Leonard Sweet
“There’s no blood on the pulpit this morning.” This is what Mabel Boggs Sweet, mother of Leonard Sweet — the author of Giving Blood: A Fresh Paradigm for Preaching (Zondervan,2014)– would say if she were listening to a poorly preached sermon. Mabel Boggs Sweet was a preacher herself and therefore had earned the right to make such an assessment. But don’t all of us who listen to a Sunday message make a judgment every time we hear a sermon? What makes a sermon bad or good? Why is it some preachers can make us levitate with joy as we listen to them, and some make us want to leave the building through the closest exit? And especially in this visual age, how can a preacher deliver a dazzling, image rich message? Is there a way to preach to and reach this generation of sermon participants?
Giving Blood (2014 Zondervan), was written to offer a fresh transfusion of life to those who have been called to write and deliver sermons. Leonard Sweet, one of the most creative and engaging preachers today, has written over 1500 sermons and understands the process, pain and passion of this vocation. He also knows that the time is far overdue for preachers to be equipped with skills to interact in the TGIF – Twitter, Google, Instagram, Facebook – world. Drawing on his background in semiotics, preaching and teaching, and the use of narraphor (narrative + metaphor), Sweet invites preachers to review, rethink and renew their approach to telling the story of Jesus. “Semiotic preaching differs from traditional sermon building in its insistence on seeing the sermon itself as an incarnational medium…In semiotic preaching we return to the roots of our faith, and to a form of conveying truth favored by Jesus himself.” read more…
Pastor’s Prayer –29 May 2016
Lord, I don’t want to be blinded by my ideas, my vision. My life is yours . . .I submit my will and my desires to you, because my soul knows that you alone can satisfy my every longing. Success and failure within my work means nothing outside of you. I don’t even want to be successful according to this world’s definition if I am not first delighting myself in you! Father? Your will be done—as it pleases you.” Mara Measor, Naked Prayers: Honest Confessions to a Loving Creator (2016).
The Mind of a Futurist
The Mind of a Futurist
“Putting out fires” is our default setting. There is always an email to send, a phone call to make, a buzzing, vibrating or beeping cell phone to distract and captivate us. The future is delivered to us second by second and it is easy to be the frog in the kettle of cultural change. The only way to get the big picture is by getting away, meditating, spending time looking up more, and escaping the daily noise; in short, living in the moment. But being in step enough with the timeless Spirit to be prepared for the approaching changes that will reshape our lives, ministries and relationships. read more…
Behold –Something New
The wonder and mystery of Pentecost signals something big – something new. But, unlike Advent or Easter, Pentecost is not a season of the liturgical year. That is because, although Pentecost is both big, and new, it is actually the culmination of the entirety of the Lent/Easter journey. The birthday of the church is the epic conclusion to the Way, Truth and Life of Christ. The pouring out of the Spirit on all people, this manifest, visible presence of the tongues of fire and the energy of the new-ancient person of the Trinity, brings full circle the in-breaking of God with Creation. From the Spirit’s hovering over the deeps in the Genesis stories, to the Spirit coming upon Mary, to the creation of the Church, the fullness and presence of the third person of the Trinity is completed. read more…
Until that Day by Jesse Caldwell
When I was in high school, my friend David Huffstetler told me about “Solider in the Rain.” It was a movie he had seen starring Jackie Gleason and Steve McQueen, two sergeants in the Army. During the film, whenever they would look forward to some happy event in the future, Jackie…
Labeled by Love by D. Brent Simpson
How many of you had a nickname as a child? Maybe you have a nickname right now. If it’s a nickname between you and your spouse, we don’t want to know that one! Look at your neighbor and share your nicknames. Who’s got a nickname you’ll share with me? When…
Semiotics Sermon: Labeled By Love by D. Brent Simpson
How many of you had a nickname as a child? Maybe you have a nickname right now. If it’s a nickname between you and your spouse, we don’t want to know that one! Look at your neighbor and share your nicknames. Who’s got a nickname you’ll share with me? …
“Sub specie aeternitatis”: From An Eternal Perspective
“Sub specie aeternitatis”: From An Eternal Perspective Lectionary 22 May 2016 Trinity Sunday Proverbs 8:1-4; 22-31 Psalm 8 Romans 5:1-5 John 16:12-15 Text to Life The world’s oldest profession is not what you think it is. May is the month when we all feel that tug of the soil to…
1 + 1 + 1 = One
Trinity Sunday follows Pentecost. Unlike other festivals in the church’s liturgical calendar, Trinity Sunday centers on a doctrine of the church, rather than an event. It celebrates the unfathomable mystery of God’s being as Holy Trinity. It is a day of adoration and praise of the one, eternal, incomprehensible God.
One of the ways we begin to speak of this part of the mystery of God is through metaphor. And, perhaps, one of the best metaphors of the three-in-oneness, is musical. read more…
The Prophet of Locusts and Honey
The Prophet of Locusts and Honey Story Lectionary Those Who Walked with God in the First Covenant (Genesis 5) God’s Plague of Locusts Upon the Egyptians (Exodus 10) God’s Abundance for Those Who Turn to Him (Deuteronomy 28) Psalm 19: The Lord’s Words Are Sweeter Than Honey Psalm 78: Israel’s…