I would urge every preacher to attempt an experimental sermon occasionally, especially if he or she is normally a very routine, conventional person.51 -- John Killinger Change attracts attention. Every preacher knows this after watching people's attention shift to a child walking up the aisle and out the door to the bathroom. I was in a church once where a bird was flying around the sanctuary. The...
I once visited a church in which the minister delivered what seemed at the time to be an interesting sermon, but I couldn't quite grasp the real thrust of the message, because it was delivered in a monotone, most of it read with little warmth or enthusiasm. [The church secretary] agreed to mail me a copy of the sermon I'd just heard. When the sermon arrived in the mail and I read it, I realized th...
I understand the stories the pastor told and thought they were interesting, but I couldn't see how the sermon fit together. -- A 15-year-old's comment during the writing of this book Many sermons with good material fall flat simply because the audience doesn't follow the flow of the message. With today's audience listening superficially with a short attention span, there are some basic principles ...
Our sermon consumers are used to VCRs and Super Nintendo Ÿ strong visual images Ÿ they watch and then rewind. For our preaching, that certainly means it is a different generation of people out there listening. It has definite implications for what we say and how we say it.11 -- Jerry L. Schmalenberger I talk with many laypeople about sermons, and the comment I hear most often is: "Sermons are bo-o...
As the dominant medium of social expression, television is pervasive in a profound way that we seldom recognize fully. Because most of us get most of our information about the society most of the time from television, it becomes the primary social fact of our lives.2 -- James Monaco Preaching Today While visiting many congregations I am constantly astonished to hear how much complaining there is...
... we are addressing a generation accustomed to acting primarily on visual stimuli ... In our modern age the preacher must therefore translate the biblical message into one that awakens all the senses, into words that cause a congregation also to see and feel and smell and taste. Otherwise the people listening may never hear the words in which the gospel is framed.15 -- Elizabeth Achtemeier The p...
