In Preaching Articles: "Love Your Neighbor"

Change Your Sermon By Changing Your Spices

By Erik Raymond on May 19, 2023

Are you constantly mining the same sources for your sermon illustrations?

Scripture: Psalm 38:1-10, Colossians 4:1-5

Tags: Spices, Classic, preaching, Read, Preaching, Devotional  (view more)  (view less)

Church Discipline, Short Skirts, And Angry Deacons

By Ray Hollenbach on Mar 11, 2025

Loving someone enough to help them find freedom from their fears and appetites is the heart of church discipline.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 5:1

Tags: Discipleship, Preaching, Church General, preaching

8 Ways To Hook Your Congregation Into Your Message

By SermonCentral .com on May 12, 2020

Whether you’re looking back at Plato or Jesus, virtually every culture has had great communicators who realized the power of attention-grabbing hooks.

Tags: flowers, preaching, anxiety, Bird, Preaching, Anxiety, Field  (view more)  (view less)

How Your Preaching Can Hurt Your Church

By Erik Raymond on Apr 25, 2025

Like so many blessings from God, we can elevate them to become a distraction or even an idol.

Scripture: 1 Peter 5:1

Tags: Preaching, preaching

11 Steps To Connect Your Volunteers To Your Vision

By John Gilman Ii on Feb 19, 2021

How can a group of people who are committed to seeing something great happen and are willing to put in the time and energy it takes, only to see their vision fail?

Tags:

Has Your Emotional Brain Hijacked Your Leadership?

By Charles Stone on Dec 1, 2023

Great ministry leaders keep their emotions in check. Unfortunately, when we don’t keep them in check, our emotional brain can hijack clear thinking and good leadership.

Scripture: Romans 10:10

Tags: pastoral leadership, Pastoral Ministry, church ministry, Leadership, brain, Emotions, leadership, Brain, memory, Decision making  (view more)  (view less)

Your Great Preaching Is Not Going To Build Your Church!

By Joe Mckeever on Sep 12, 2022

Get out of the office, pastor, and knock on some doors. Later, you can get your people to do it. But first, you do it. Do it by yourself, if you must. Or take someone with you. Do it by appointment or cold-turkey. But do it. That is as profound a way as I know to build a great church.

Tags: Growth Strategy, Building the Church, Out of the Office, Door to door, church attendance, Church Growth, Church Attendance, Personal Evangelism  (view more)  (view less)

How To Preach To Old(Er) People

By Rachel Wrenn on Oct 24, 2025

"Mildred" loves the Lord, shows up early for service--and falls asleep nearly every week. What to do?

Tags: Preaching, preaching

Top 10 Healthy Ways To Handle The Church Critic

By Charles Stone on Aug 17, 2022

“Two things you can’t avoid in ministry are…people late to the service and … church critics.” In this short post, I suggest 10 ways to handle the church critic.

Tags: church ministry, loving enemies, Disarming, criticism, Criticism, patience, offense, pastoral leadership, Pastoral Ministry  (view more)  (view less)

Are Small Churches Less Fruitful?

By SermonCentral .com on Sep 26, 2022

Does the size of a church always speak of its faithfulness?

Scripture: John 15:5, Matthew 7:20, Matthew 12:33-34, Luke 3:9-14, Luke 3:8, Matthew 13:23  (view more)  (view less)

Tags: Trusting God, Church Growth, Church size, Love One Another, ministry, Ministry, Fruit, Faithfulness  (view more)  (view less)

The Central Message Of The Church Is Reconciliation

By Jeff K. Clarke on Oct 10, 2022

“The essence of forgiveness is absorbing pain instead of giving it.” – Timothy Keller

Scripture: Romans 5:8, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Tags: God's Love, forgive, Forgiveness in Jesus, gospel proclamation, The Church's Message, gospel, Forgiveness, Gospel, Reconciliation  (view more)  (view less)

How To Resolve Most Relational Conflict

By Jon Bloom on Nov 5, 2022

"Few things sap more of our joy, are as emotionally demanding and mentally distracting, as relational conflict. And few things wreak as much havoc and destruction on lives as relational conflict. And so much of it is avoidable."

Scripture: Matthew 10:34-36, James 4:1, Matthew 18:21-35, 1 Peter 5:6, Philippians 2:14-15  (view more)  (view less)

Tags: Humility and Pride, Humility, conflict, resolving conflict, Love Others, Dealing with Conflicts, selfish ambition, Peace  (view more)  (view less)

The Most Significant Thing A Pastor Will Ever Do

By Joe Mckeever on Jul 9, 2024

The most valuable ministry thing you have done just may be the time you stopped to encourage a homeless man and bought him lunch.

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:7, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, 1 Corinthians 4:3-4

Tags: servant leadership, church leadership, Faithfulness, priorities, Servanthood, Christian Love, Godly Leaders, pastoral leadership  (view more)  (view less)

Does Your Building Speak Louder Than Your Preaching?

By Ron Geyer on May 28, 2021

Actors know that where a story is told can influence how or whether the story is heard. It's true whether your story comes from Shakespeare or Solomon.

Tags: Building, Preaching, Sound, room, Loud  (view more)  (view less)

If You Overpack Your Sermon, Your Listeners Are In For A Bumpy Ride

By Chris Surber on Aug 30, 2025

Perhaps your sermon outline is actually a sermon series. Can you tell the difference?

Scripture: Acts 5:15-25

Tags: central point, preaching, Preaching, Content, Logic, Research  (view more)  (view less)