Preaching Tips

Great bands have known long ago that the best way to connect with people is to allow them to participate!  Hand them the mic!  It’s no different in preaching.  If you want people engaged in your message, you need to let them participate! One way to do that is to…

What better time to talk about the meaning of gift giving, offerings, and support of ministry and mission than Epiphany. The gifts given to the Christ child are an example of what it means to “gift” back to God what God has so abundantly blessed us with already! For the…

The metaphor of light is integral to understanding the gospel message. Looking at the metaphor of the “star” can help to connect people to the “Light coming into the world.” Use symbols of stars, visuals, light to make this experience totally awesome.

Sights, smells, visual treats, music –there’s no time like Christmas to practice making your services EPIC –experiential, participatory, image-rich, connective. Allow people to worship hands-on! This embodiment of the message will keep them thinking about Jesus all through the Christmas season!

Metaphors are like prisms, which are multi-faceted reflectors of meaning, and especially in the scriptures of the Light! Make sure every metaphor you investigate also reflects in some way the attributes of God. These root metaphor have the ability to transcend time and place, and yet can reveal God’s presence…

One of the hardest things for preachers each year is to make the holidays “fresh”. Sometimes this may involve looking for a new metaphor. For this, look to your context and culture. Often, you can find a fresh metaphor that can connect you to the scriptures, and connect people to…

Many metaphors in scripture portray God appearances, either of visage or voice. Mountains, deserts, fog, clouds, wilderness, burning bush…. looking at the descriptions of these metaphors can help people understand the attributes of God.

When you are wanting a fresh take on a metaphor, you need to follow its trails back to its backstories in various contexts. For example, if you are doing a Thanksgiving sermon using Psalm 126, you may want to choose to preach on the “streams.” In the psalm, the original…

Metaphors are powerful. They inform our identity and the way we see the world. If you change someone’s metaphor, you can change deeply held beliefs about themselves and others, about the world and its meaning. Metaphors can both heal and cause damage. A bad metaphor can plague someone for life…

Rather than thinking of dark as evil and light as good, expand your horizons with these magnificent scriptural metaphors! These have so many meanings that are awesome in scripture, especially when it comes to the “creative” energy of God, the Logos of Jesus, and metaphors such as the blinding light…