In Preaching Articles: "Sermon Planning"

How To Preach Like You’re Having A Conversation

By Lane Sebring on Jul 31, 2019

Want your sermons to connect on a deeper level? Learn how a conversational preaching style can make your message more personal, relatable, and engaging.

Tags: authentic ministry, Authentic Ministry

A Preaching Q&a With David Platt

By David Platt on Feb 15, 2025

Michael Duduit interviews David Platt about his sermon prep process and the most important things he has learned about preaching over the years.

Tags: Preaching, Learning, preaching

10 Ways To Authenticate Your Preaching

By Jared Moore on Aug 11, 2020

Your hearers often hear you before they hear the Scriptures. If your people know you, they’ll have a better basis for understanding your sermons.

Scripture: 1 Timothy 3:1-7, 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Tags: Service, Humility, Preaching, Biblical, Context, authentic  (view more)  (view less)

Do You Preach Around The Text, Or Do You Preach The Text?

By Dr. Scott M. Gibson on Dec 16, 2024

After listening to sermons all these years, I have concluded preachers either talk before the text or talk around the text but rarely talk about the text.

Scripture: Hosea 4:1-6, Psalm 30:1

Tags: Preaching, preaching

Does Preaching Really Matter?

By Lance Witt on Sep 12, 2019

Like most pastors, I will never forget the first sermon I preached. Basically, we had to hold people at gun point to get them to listen . . .

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:21, 2 Timothy 4:2, 1 Corinthians 9:16

Tags: Preaching, God's Power, Bartimaeus, calling

Jerry Rice And The Art Of Preaching Well

By Derwin Gray on Jun 26, 2024

Insights from Jerry Rice’s passion, self-awareness, and heroic mindset show preachers how to cultivate love, authenticity, and Gospel-centered confidence.

Scripture: Ephesians 3:16-19

Tags: Ministry Skills, evangelism, gospel, preaching, Pastoral Leadership, Gospel Ministry, Sermon Craft, Preaching, Lost, football, Christian Witness, pastoral leadership, gospel ministry, Evangelism, Witness, Gospel, Sports  (view more)  (view less)

5 Ways To Make Your Preaching More Practical And Relevant

By Rick Ezell on Jan 31, 2025

Practical preaching requires more than exegesis of Scripture. These five steps help you exegete your people—making sermons clearer, warmer, and more genuinely relevant.

Scripture: Acts 17:16-34, Romans 10:4

Tags: Preaching, Culture, Self, Relevance, audience, application, preaching, culture  (view more)  (view less)

Why Some Preachers Get Better And Others Don't

By Hershael York on May 25, 2021

"I've seen guys whose initial sermon was depressingly awful turn it around so radically I almost couldn't recognize them as the same preacher."

Scripture: 1 Peter 2:2

Tags: Preaching, Price, better, Improve

Keep The Momentum In Your Preaching

By Peter Mead on Feb 24, 2025

Does your sermon keep building momentum as you progress or does it stall out in the middle or end? Peter Mead offers encouragement for preachers to avoid the common pitfalls to message momentum.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:13

Tags: Communication, Preaching, momentum, Communication Speech, communication, preaching  (view more)  (view less)

An Illustration On Eternity

By Francis Chan on Oct 14, 2023

Francis Chan shares a powerful sermon illustration about living for God in the short time we have on this earth. Use this illustration in an upcoming message about the importance of living with an eternal focus.

Scripture: Philippians 3:12-15, Colossians 3:1-4, Psalm 37:18

Tags: Self, Confidence, perspective, Eternity, Love, Sacrifice, Resurrection, challenge, Perspective, Faith  (view more)  (view less)

You Are Not The Story!

By H.b. Charles, Jr. on May 3, 2022

People should not leave the sermon having learned more about the preacher than Christ. When we stand to preach the word, we should prayerfully whisper to ourselves, “You are not the story.”

Scripture: Colossians 1:28, John 12:20, 2 Corinthians 4:5, 2 Timothy 4:1-2

Tags: Pride, God's Story, self importance, Bible as a story

5 Mistakes Most Preachers Make

By Carey Nieuwhof on Aug 2, 2022

"So maybe you’re a preacher, or you listen to preachers (or stopped listening to preachers). Almost everyone has a perspective on what makes or doesn’t make for a great sermon."

Tags: preaching, teaching, Simplicity, effective, pastoral leadership, Pastoral Ministry, preaching Christ, Effective Teaching, Teaching, Preaching  (view more)  (view less)

If You Can't Apply What I Preach, I've Failed You

By Glenn Packiam on Aug 22, 2020

I have a hunch that if more of us preachers had to think about our sermons leading into a humble approach to the Lord's Table, we would end not with an empty challenge for people to "do better."

Tags: Preaching

Pastors, We Don’t Expect A Ted Talk—we Need A God-And-You Talk

By SermonCentral .com on Sep 28, 2021

When we come to your church, we don't expect a $7,500 sermon. Given current offering stats, most people aren't even expecting a $75 one.

Scripture: John 3:1-25, Matthew 6:25-34

Tags: Expectation, TED talk, preaching, Preaching, Heartfelt  (view more)  (view less)

Why I Pace Before I Preach

By Walter Wangerin Jr. on May 1, 2020

On the night before I preach, I pace—back and forth in my room, mumbling sermonic thoughts, testing them, scorning a hundred thoughts, exulting in one or two that shine like coin, investing those.

Tags: Preaching, preparation, preaching