In Preaching Articles: "Loving The Lost"

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)

The Worst Thing About My Own Sermons

By Joe Mckeever on Aug 22, 2024

Joe McKeever loves praise as much as the next guy. He also knows the preaching error he is most likely to make.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 4:5

Tags: Preaching, preaching

The Critical Relationship Between Pastor And Worship Leader

By Chuck Fromm on Mar 4, 2020

Worship Leader magazine editor Chuck Fromm discusses the key imperative in a pastor establishing a meaningful relationship with his/her worship leader and team.

Scripture: Mark 3:25

Tags: relationships, fiery furnace, Worship General, love your enemies, Service, Church, Worship, Preaching, pastor, staff  (view more)  (view less)

Cut Off Your Hand, Tear Out Your Eye

By Ray Ortlund on Aug 3, 2022

Hard words are not harmful words—when they come from Jesus. The real Jesus loves us enough to accept us freely and confront us honestly.

Scripture: Colossians 2:23, Philippians 3:14, Hebrews 13:21, Matthew 5:6, Titus 2:11-12, Hebrews 12:4, 1 Corinthians 9:27, Matthew 5:29-30  (view more)  (view less)

Tags: Righteousness, Theology, soul care, Hard Teaching

When A Private Apology Is Not Enough

By Joe Mckeever on Jul 15, 2022

"Nothing is so lovely and so welcome and so healing in a church as for a member to go before the congregation and admit to his/her destructive behavior and ask for forgiveness."

Tags: Humility, Reconciliation, repentance, restitution, Confession of Sin, church ministry, Apology, Making things right, Admitting Guilt, Repentance  (view more)  (view less)

Christmas: Not A Time For Inventing Twists On The Age-Old Story

By Joe Mckeever on Dec 14, 2024

Tell it with gusto and love. Tell the story of the birth of Jesus with all the excitement of someone hearing it for the first time. Tell the story without detouring into theories and guesses and myths and controversies.

Scripture: Luke 2:11

Tags: Christmas Advent, Christmas, Simplicity, storytelling

Is The Body Of Christ In Trouble?

By Barry O. Johnson on Sep 12, 2024

Barry Johnson offers some helpful insights into the state of the Church in America, and offers a loving call for pastors to take bold steps of faith wherever God has planted them.

Tags: preaching, Gospel, Truth, Preaching, Body of Christ, gospel  (view more)  (view less)

Five Steps To Respond To A Hurtful And Hateful Email

By SermonCentral .com on Jul 7, 2022

“You have no business being the pastor of our church. All you are interested in is getting your own way and changing all the good things we have going. People are saying you should be fired. I agree with them.”

Scripture: Proverbs 15:1

Tags: church ministry, Difficult People, Facing Controversy, criticism, Leadership, Perseverance, leadership, conflict, Criticism, loving people, pastoral leadership  (view more)  (view less)

Those Frustrating Times With Church Members

By Joe Mckeever on Dec 14, 2023

"Any pastor can tell you about it. Even when you do your best to serve God by ministering to His people, some church members are not going to forgive you. You didn’t do it their way, weren’t there when they called, didn’t jump at their bark." So how do you handle these kinds of situations?

Tags: Love like Christ, pastoral leadership, church membership, Pastoral Ministry, church ministry, ministry struggles, Difficult People, conflict  (view more)  (view less)

3 Reasons Good Preaching Is As Important As Ever

By Joe Hoagland on Jul 28, 2022

People love to tell you that preaching is irrelevant in this day and age. But contrary to this kind of thinking, good preaching does remain important. In fact, preaching remains as important as it has ever been.

Tags: Communication, Preaching, Teaching God's Word, communication, preaching, Pastoral Ministry, faithful preaching, Value of Preaching, Modern Age, Busy Culture, Shepherd the Flock  (view more)  (view less)

Legalism And Preaching

By Peter Mead on Feb 4, 2021

Defining legalism carefully is vitally important. It is important for each follower of Christ. It is a serious business to discount a restriction as legalism when it actually is displeasing to the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.

Tags: obedience, Preaching, Legalism

Doing Ministry Without Losing Your Soul Part 1

By Lance Witt on May 13, 2024

"There is nothing worse than trying to inspire people to be passionate about God when you have little or no passion yourself. There is nothing more empty feeling than trying to connect people to God when you feel disconnected from God."

Tags: soul care, avoiding burnout, church ministry, Growing in Faith, Christ's Love for Us, Healthy Ministry, pastoral leadership, Pastoral Ministry  (view more)  (view less)

The Power Of Choosing To Be A Touchable Leader

By SermonCentral .com on Jul 5, 2023

I love people, but I need to let them know it. So it requires intentional effort to communicate that I’m touchable and approachable, that I care enough to listen and that I’m a safe place for people.

Tags: leadership, Preaching, Leadership, preaching

How To Powerfully Preach A Narrative Passage

By Brandon Kelley on Feb 17, 2021

People love stories, and that is what narrative is. When we can powerfully preach a narrative passage, we’ll see people not only respond to the message, but they’ll become more in awe at God’s word!

Tags: Preaching, preach, Narrative Passage, preaching

4 Ingredients Jesus Used To Hold An Audience

By Peter Walters on Jan 17, 2022

As a preacher, I am always looking for ways to improve my speaking. I study other communicators, for example, if a comedian gets me hooked, I analyze why he was successful and I love to read books on communication.

Scripture: Job 1:1-10, Luke 6:46, Matthew 13:16, Luke 12:25, Matthew 6:28, Matthew 13:34, Luke 10:30, Matthew 13:33, Matthew 6:5, Matthew 7:1, Genesis 2:10-20, Genesis 1:4-10, Luke 13:4  (view more)  (view less)

Tags: Preaching, Following Jesus, jesus parables, Communication Speech, preaching  (view more)  (view less)