While at the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, yesterday, I watched a clip of Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech. Clinton referenced it several times in his library intro vid.

Watching MLK, Jr. made me think about preaching—about what makes a good message. 

Here are three simple essentials for good preaching:

1. The Preparation.
My preparation includes my personal daily Bible reading, study, research, plus group sermon series planning, and group discussion. I used to think that great sermons came directly from heaven to the private prayer closet. While heaven and prayer are important, I can’t prep sermons in private anymore. I need input from others.

My final prep time is Saturday morning at Gloria Jean’s Coffee Shop in FtB with the usual suspects—some really great communicators: Paolo, Ferdie, LA, Dennis, Carlos, Robert, and others. In this meeting, we talk about how we will make the point. Paolo and LA provide visual creativity and help me not be boring. Dennis and Robert provide the humor that helps people pay attention. Ferdie provides the focus and the passion. All these people help me have a bigger perspective. Since all are younger than me, they help me connect with the whole congregation, not just people in their 40’s with teens. That’s huge since I’m older than most of the people I preach to.   

2. The People. (Future post.)

3. The Point. (Future post.)


NOTICE TO BOTH MY RL READERS:

You may have noticed the cosmetic changes on this site—just trying to focus, simplify, and de-clutter.
Also, I made some changes to my blogrolls—I deleted all inactive blogs and decided to only feature blogs that fit in the following categories:
    -leadership/discipleship
    -church planting
    -campus ministry
So, if your fav blog got cut, while I’m sure it was a great blog, it was either inactive or did not fit one of these categories.