A Source for Fresh Ideas

September 29, 2015 by admin

Have you ever sat at your computer, or with a yellow legal pad in front of you, and wished you could come up with some fresh ideas. You could wish to have some good sermon ideas. You could also wish that some ideas would arise that would help energize the people in your congregation to take another step forward in their spiritual formation.

If so, I have one possible solution for you. I talk about this solution at some length in Podcast 229, which you can find by clicking the link on this page that will take you to my Sermon-Coach.com website. As you listen to this Podcast, I think you will agree that the solution I suggest does offer one of the richest possible sources for new ideas available to you.

I would also invite you to take time every once in a while to peruse some of the “Sermon Starters” I have posted on my website. The whole purpose of these Starters is to give ministers some fresh ideas for their sermons. These Starters all use the principles in my “Sermon-Coach Method of Sermon Development.”

Fresh ideas are out there just waiting for you to find a way to discover them. I sincerely think my suggestions will help. So, feel free to explore what I have to offer you.

I continue to receive many positive comments about my latest book entitled The Sermon Sucking Black Hole—Why You Can’t Remember on Monday What Your Minister Preached on Sunday. This book is now available at Amazon.com by clicking here.

This book gives some solid tips to the people sitting in the congregation to help them remember what you’ve said from the pulpit when they come to worship services in your church.

Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.

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Responding to Invitations

September 22, 2015 by admin

Some people report to me that invitations to respond to a sermon have become quite rare in our North American churches. I know in my own experience, I only encounter a pastor requesting people to make such a specific response to his or her sermon on the rarest of occasions. But, that doesn’t mean that invitations don’t have value.

I do feel impelled to issue a word of caution with regard to invitations. So, I have made my recommendations the subject of Podcast 228. If you wish to listen to my thoughts on this subject, I invite you to click the link on this page that will take you to my Sermon-Coach.com website. In the center of the homepage, you can then click to go to the Podcast page and then listen to this particular Podcast.

As you can tell from the number of this Podcast, I have had the privilege of recording very close to four and a half years of these ten to fifteen minute Podcasts. They put the “coach” in Sermon-Coach, because I try to use these Podcasts to help share some of the lessons God has shown me during my fifty-plus years of ministry.

The people in our congregations need to have us, as pastors, help them find the best pathway for them to move along to ever-increasing spiritual formation. I think you will find my concerns about the most effective use of invitations helpful in this regard.

This book gives some solid tips to the people sitting in the congregation to help them remember what you’ve said from the pulpit when they come to worship services in your church.

Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.

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Intentionally Connect

September 15, 2015 by admin

When you stand in the pulpit—or at the front of the church, if you happen to preach from that location—and look out over the people in your congregation, do you see the happy, smiling faces of people who do not have a care in the world? Or, do you see people who harbor deep pain in their hearts who have come to church to find encouragement and relief for their pain?

The very label of “pastor” speaks of one whom God has called to minister on behalf of Christ to the people God has placed under that one’s loving care. We ministers are “pastors” to people in our congregation who carry a heavy load of burdens in their lives. How do we fulfill our calling?

This subject has concerned me for some time. I try to address this conern in Podcast 227 and offer some practical suggestions that I hope will help the pastors who listen to find ways to intentionally connect with the people in their congregations.

If you would like to hear what I have to say, please click the link on this page that will take you to my Sermon-Coach.com website. Once you arrive at that website, you will be able to click on a link and listen to this Podcast.

I believe it is very important for pastors to find ways to intentionally connect with the members of their congregations. Only through the kind of dialogue that opens up through such connections will pastors learn of the struggles and problems that their congregants face. And, until pastors understand what their people are struggling with, they cannot hope to offer a word from God that will prove helpful.

Please take the very few minutes needed to listen to my comments and suggestions. I pray that you will find them helpful.

This book gives some solid tips to the people sitting in the congregation to help them remember what you’ve said from the pulpit when they come to worship services in your church.

Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.

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The Best Judges of Your Sermons

September 8, 2015 by admin

Most pastors don’t really like the idea that someone might actually be judging the quality of the content and the effectiveness of the delivery of their sermons. After all, they are the ones who have attended seminary and received training in how to best proclaim the truth of God’s Word.

But, every Sunday a whole congregation of sermon evaluators sit before them listening to what they have to say and evaluating whether or not the sermon actually applies to their lives. Now they may not consciously recognize that they’re evaluating the sermon. But the truth remains that’s exactly what they are doing. And, the effectiveness of the sermon in aiding them in their spiritual formation depends on how they believe it applies to them.

In Podcast 226, I am so bold as to make the assertion that the very best judges of a minister’s sermon sit right in front of them every Sunday. That’s because I believe that the best judges are, in fact, the members of the minister’s congregation.

If you would like to explore this topic with me, I invite you to click the link on this page that will take you to my Sermon-Coach.com website and listen to this Podcast. I truly believe you will find it helpful and maybe even a little challenging.

As pastors, we want to become effective instruments of God’s grace to those He has placed in our congregations. Those dear ones’ spiritual formation is one of our paramount considerations. I think what I have to say on this particular topic will help pastors improve the impact their sermons will have on the very people they serve.

This book gives some solid tips to the people sitting in the congregation to help them remember what you’ve said from the pulpit when they come to worship services in your church.

Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.

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