Long ago, after searching for a way to energize my sermons at a new church I had started in the inner city of Chicago back in the late-1960s, I found that if I would answer four key questions I could improve my sermon development process and create sermons that the people in my congregation would remember and more easily put into action. I used this method during my tenure at Circle Church and continued to use it when I took over The Chapel of the Air radio broadcast from my ailing uncle, John D. Jess, in the mid-1970s.

I believe so strongly in the effectiveness of this method, that I have continued to share it with pastors through seminars, through preaching classes at a nearby college, through guest lectures and workshops, and through my Sermon-Coach.com website. If you’ve listened to our Podcast series—now numbering some 240 episodes—you have often heard me talk about these four critical questions.

But, maybe you’re one who hasn’t yet taken the time to listen to one or more of these free Podcasts. If so, and even if you’re a regular listener, I invite you to click the link on this page that will take you to my Sermon-Coach.com website and listen to Podcast No. 72.

During this Podcast, I talk at length about the Four Questions. I assure you they have long ago become the centerpiece of my own sermon development process. Hundreds, if not thousands, of other pastors have also adopted the use of these questions to make their own sermons more effective.

As pastors, nothing should please us more than to get feedback from those in our congregation who have heard the message from the Lord that we have shared with them and have taken steps to make what we share a part of their on-going spiritual formation.

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I continue to feel very grateful and am humbled by the 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 the church where you serve as pastor.

 

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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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As you know by now, unless you are completely new to the Sermon-Coach website, I began this site back in 2005 with the intent of providing as much help as I could to pastors who desire to improve the effectiveness of their sermons. Over the past ten years, I have considered it a great privilege to be able to offer many suggestions that I truly believe will help pastors consistently present the messages that God has laid on their hearts in a way that will engage the members of their congregations in a dynamic pathway toward spiritual formation.

I also realize that, from time to time, it is helpful to review some of the basics of what I’ve shared over the years. This week, I want to begin a bit of a review of the “Sermon-Coach Method of Sermon Development” by focusing on the first step in the process: “Choosing a Subject.”

I invite you to click the link on this page that will take you to my Sermon-Coach website. Once there, I invite you to listen to the “Featured Podcast of the Week.” It happens to be Podcast 71.

As you listen, I hope this refresher will help you focus on the importance of choosing a Subject based on the text you have at hand—either from the Lectionary, or from your own personal study, or from a text that God has specifically urged you to preach.

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I continue to feel very grateful and am humbled by the 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 the church where you serve as pastor.

 

---

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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Startling events happen around the world on a weekly basis. More and more these occurrences remind me of events I read about in the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation. I’m not trying to be a predictor of apocalyptic doom. Quite to the contrary, yet I do believe Christians need to remain aware of what’s going on around them and to be diligently prepared for what the future might hold.

Sadly, in the churches I visit, I rarely hear pastors make reference to current events in their sermons. I do not hear any advice from the pulpit concerning how the members of the congregation should process what’s happening in light of the Scriptures. Therefore, I wonder if we pastors are doing our parishioners a grave disservice by not including some references to current events as we preach each week.

My concern has prompted me to make this subject the focus of Podcast 240. If you would like to listen to what I have to say about this matter and also hear some suggestions that I offer my fellow pastors, 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 the appropriate link and listen to this Podcast.

We pastors must not ignore what’s going on around us in the world today. We need to offer Scriptural guidance to our congregants to help them give context to what’s happening around them.

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I continue to feel very grateful and am humbled by the 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 the church where you serve as pastor.

 

---

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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Have you ever left church after your weekly worship service and wondered whether or not you were the main course at the dinner tables of your parishioners? If so, you’re in good company. Most pastors know that at least on occasion they end up being “roasted” by the people in their congregations.

It’s difficult to know what to do when you suspect that more often than not you are on the menu at the homes of your people. You try to develop sermons based on the message that you believe God wants you to share. You check your resources, polish your words carefully, practice your delivery, and hope for the best.

I have a somewhat different suggestion that I believe will put an end to most of the roasting of the preacher in your church. I discuss this suggestion in some detail in Podcast 239. You may listen to this Podcast by clicking the link on this page that will take you to my Sermon-Coach.com website. Once there, you can listen to see if my suggestion resonates with you.

None of us wants those who listen to our sermons to focus on us. Instead, we want those listening to be drawn to God’s Word and to His blessed Son, Jesus. We need to do whatever we can to make certain our sermons connect in a life-transforming way with the people in our congregations. Don’t you agree?

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I continue to feel very grateful and am humbled by the 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 the church where you serve as pastor.

 

---

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.

 

(374)

 

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