Communicating for a Change


Book Description

When You Talk, Are People Changed? Whether you speak from the pulpit, podium, or the front of a classroom, you don’t need much more than blank stares and faraway looks to tell you you’re not connecting. Take heart before your audience takes leave! You can convey your message in the powerful, life-changing way it deserves to be told. An insightful, entertaining parable that’s an excellent guide for any speaker, Communicating for a Change takes a simple approach to delivering effectively. Join Pastor Ray as he discovers that the secrets to successful speaking are parallel to the lessons a trucker learns on the road. By knowing your destination before you leave (identifying the one basic premise of your message), using your blinkers (making transitions obvious), and implementing five other practical points, you’ll drive your message home every time! “Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” “Once upon a time…” “In the beginning…” Great stories capture and hold an audience’s attention from start to finish. Why should it be any different when you stand up to speak? In Communicating for a Change, Andy Stanley and Lane Jones offer a unique strategy for communicators seeking to deliver captivating and practical messages. In this highly creative presentation, the authors unpack seven concepts that will empower you to engage and impact your audience in a way that leaves them wanting more. “Whether you are a senior pastor with weekly teaching responsibilities or a student pastor who has bern charged with engaging the hearts and minds of high school students, this book is a must-read.” -Bill Hybels, Senior pastor, Willow Creak Community Church “A very practical resource for every biblical communicator who wants to go from good to great.” -Ed Young, Senior pastor, Fellowship Church, Grapevine, Texas “To communicate effectively, you have to connect. Andy has been connecting with people for years, and now he’s sharing his insights with the rest of us.” -Jeff Foxworthy, Comedian Story Behind the Book Andy Stanley and Lane Jones are on staff at one of America ’s largest churches, North Point Community. Leaders of thousands of people, they regularly speak in front of large groups. They also listen to numerous speakers and know the disastrous effects of a poorly delivered message. This book is the result of their efforts to make public speaking—one of the most common fear-inducing activities known to mankind—simple, easy, and even enjoyable, so that God’s messages will readily produce the life-changing results they should.







Preaching Killer Sermons


Book Description

"Lane provides practical tools to help pastors deliver engaging messages. Anyone who preaches or teaches will benefit from this book." -Mark Batterson, New York Times bestselling Author of The Circle Maker, Lead Pastor of National Community Church. Today's audiences are more distracted than ever, but sermons can only be effective if people are listening. You have to capture people's attention. But how? In Preaching Killer Sermons, author and pastor Lane Sebring reveals practical preparation and delivery techniques that will enable you to better connect with your listeners. Discover how to: -Capture and maintain the interest of your listeners -Structure each sermon for the greatest impact -Maximize your prep time on a tight schedule -Overcome distractions & communicate with clarity -Inspire people toward life-change If you want to discover practical methods to communicate clearly every time you preach, this book is for you. What church leaders are saying about Preaching Killer Sermons: Lane has written a very helpful, practical book for preachers and teach-ers. I think there are two great sins in preaching: misusing the text and boring your audience. In teaching pastors and seminary students, I find there are plenty of resources and attention given to avoid the first great sin. But there is a lack of resources on how not to bore people. And too many preachers feel that if they have rightly divided the Word of Truth, they have done everything God requires them to do. I think accuracy and effectiveness are equally important in preaching. Preaching Killer Sermons is a great resource to help pastors truly be effective in communicating the powerful truth of God's Word. I plan to start using this with the preaching students I teach. -David Whiting, Executive Search Consultant, Vanderbloemen, former Lead Pastor, Northridge Church, Rochester, NY The hardest thing I do each week is not leadership development or pastoral care - it's crafting a message which will communicate truth in an engaging and impactful way. I genuinely want to get better at what I believe is God's greatest call on my life. I'm thankful for Lane's heart to help us be better preachers. I'm thankful for this book. -Ron Edmondson, Senior Pastor, Immanuel Baptist Church, Lexington, KY, Church leadership blogger, RonEdmondson.com Pastor Lane Sebring has done an outstanding job of reverse engineering the "great sermon." His efforts will help all who preach to preach better prepared sermons, and become better prepared communicators. Preach-ing Killer Sermons should be included reading in homiletics courses around the world. -Brett Fuller, Senior Pastor, Grace Covenant Church, Chantilly, VA Chaplain, Washington Redskins If you are a communicator in the local church you need to pick up this book. Lane brings practical insights and helpful encouragement on every page. Pick it up ... and apply the lessons contained within. -Rich Birch, unSeminary, Executive Pastor, Liquid Church, Mountainside NJ The concepts Lane shares in this book have helped sharpen my effectiveness in communicating the content of God's inerrant Word! I would highly recommend this book to both the novice and the experienced preacher. -Dr. Billy Ross, Senior Pastor, Centreville Baptist Church, Centreville, VA Trustee, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary I serve on a Teaching Team with Lane, so I watch him live out Preaching Killer Sermons each week. Lane's heart is to communicate God's Word in culturally relevant and engaging ways. Now he's sharing his passion in a book full of practical tools to help preachers (and teachers/speakers). You'll hear his heart as he challenges you to examine and refine your own preaching habits. -Elaine Bonds, sought after speaker, Graduate, Proverbs 31 She Speaks and CLASSeminars




Expository Exultation


Book Description

“God has appointed preaching in worship as one great means of accomplishing his ultimate goal in the world.” —John Piper John Piper makes a compelling claim in these pages about the purpose of preaching: it is intended not merely as an explanation of the text but also as a means of awakening worship by being worship in and of itself. Christian preaching is a God-appointed miracle aiming to awaken the supernatural seeing, savoring, and showing of the glory of Christ. Distilling over forty years of experience in preaching and teaching, Piper shows preachers how and what to communicate from God’s Word, so that God’s purpose on earth will advance through Biblesaturated, Christ-exalting, God-centered preaching—in other words, expository exultation.




One Year to Better Preaching


Book Description

One Year to Better Preaching provides preachers with fifty-two hands-on exercises that sharpen their homiletical skills. The book is designed particularly for those who preach each week—and have been, perhaps, for some time—to help them get out of the rut of the routine and infuse their preaching with new sparks of creativity, fresh approaches to sermon preparation and design, and sharpened verbal and nonverbal communication skills. Novice preachers, also, will find the exercises useful in developing their preaching abilities. Each chapter includes instructions for an exercise, tools and suggestions needed for the exercise, comments from preachers who completed it, and recommended resources for further study The exercises address eight categories of homiletics: • Prayer and Preaching • Bible Interpretation • Understanding Listeners • Sermon Construction • Illustrations and Applications • Word Crafting • The Preaching Event • Sermon Evaluation Readers can complete the exercises in the order presented, which address different categories week to week, or they can sharpen their skills in a particular category over a period of weeks by using the chart provided. They might also work through the exercises in collaboration with other preachers. One Year to Better Preaching will leave a preacher reinvigorated and better equipped to proclaim the Word of God skillfully, passionately, and effectively.




The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching


Book Description

A Comprehensive Resource for Today’s Christian Communicators. This extensive encyclopedia is the most complete and practical work ever published on the art and craft of biblical preaching. Its 11 major sections contain nearly 200 articles, comprehensively covering topics on preaching and methodology, including: Sermon structure and “the big idea.” The art of introductions, transitions, and conclusions. Methods for sermon prep, from outlining to exercising. Approaches to different types of preaching: topical, expository, evangelistic, and more. Best practices for sermon delivery, speaking with authority, and using humor. Leveraging effective illustrations and stories. Understanding audience. and much more. Entries are characterized by intensely practical and vivid writing designed to help preachers deepen their understanding and sharpen their communication skills. The contributors include a virtual Who’s Who of preaching from a cross section of denominations and traditions, such as Dallas Willard, John Ortberg, Rick Warren, Warren Wiersbe, Alice Mathews, John Piper, Andy Stanley, and many others. Haddon Robinson and Craig Brian Larson—two of today’s most respected voices in preaching—provide editorial oversight. Includes audio CD with preaching technique examples from the book.




Backstory Preaching


Book Description

Instead of being a dour task on the checklist, what if the process of homily prep renewed you? Instead of feeling insecure about your message, what if your skills made you confident to preach a consistently clear message of Good News, authentic to you, relevant to your listeners, holding their attention and inviting transformation? Backstory Preaching: Integrating Life, Spirituality, and Craft shows you how. By integrating your life and spirituality with the practical skills necessary for effective preaching, you can move beyond the boredom, stress, or insecurity of preaching so it is no longer you who preach but Christ who preaches in you. By connecting with God in the midst of your sermon prep, the Gospel will be spread deeper and further. God’s joy—and yours—will be made complete.




The Gospel Plan of Salvation


Book Description

Reprint of the original, first published in 1874.




Inductive Preaching


Book Description

"I spend hours in my study and on my knees preparing sermons, but when I preach them no one listens. What's wrong? Why aren't I getting through? Why do I see blank stares, daydream reveries, nodding heads as soon as I open my mouth to preach? I know my messages are biblically sound. I'm sure I'm preaching what God has laid on my heart. But it's not being received. What's wrong? What can I do?" Sound familiar? If you're a preacher, you probably know the feeling. But it doesn't have to be that way. You can learn to preach in a way that will be readily, even eagerly, received by your congregation. It's all here: what inductive preaching is, how it works, why it's effective, who's used it—including Jesus, Peter, Paul, Augustine, St. Francis, Wesley, Edwards, and Moody, to name only a few. Also included are: * Step-by-step guidelines for constructing an inductive sermon * Two sample inductive sermons * A list of 96 inductive preachers from 20 centuries * A strategy for making traditional sermon structures inductive * A checklist of inductive characteristics. The principles in this book can dramatically increase your sermon effectiveness—turn apathy into involvement, make listeners out of the listless. Inductive preaching is preaching that works!




Preaching


Book Description

Many sermons preached today lack the divine knowledge and spiritual understanding available only through dynamic expository preaching. In Preaching: How to Preach Biblically, John MacArthur’' well-known passion for the Bible combines with the expertise of faculty members at The Master's Seminary to inspire and equip preachers in effective biblical preaching. Preaching: How to Preach Biblically flows from biblical foundations for expository preaching through a detailed process of developing expositions and creating sermons to the actual delivery of expository messages, connecting what pastors learn in seminary with the sermons preached in a local church. This volume shows how to progress purposefully from one phase to the next in preparing to minister to God's people through preaching. This book answers these questions and more: What is expository, biblical preaching? What are the theological and historical foundations for insisting on expository preaching? What are the steps involved in preparation for and participation in biblical preaching? What models exist for expository preaching today? The Master's Seminary faculty, with over thirty years' experience in preaching and seminary training of preachers, contributes a treasury of expertise alongside insights from expositor John MacArthur. While united on their commitment to exposition, the variety of individual expressions and methodological preferences discussed offers beneficial assistance for any preacher seeking a higher level of expository excellence.