Preaching Points

55 Tips for Improving Your Pulpit Ministry

Scott M. Gibson

• Publisher: Lexham Press
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781683592099
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Preaching Points: 55 Tips for Improving Your Pulpit Ministry
© 2016 by Scott M. Gibson

Lexham Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225
LexhamPress.com

First edition by Weaver Book Company.

All rights reserved. You may use brief quotations from this resource in presentations, articles, and books. For all other uses, please write Lexham Press for permission. Email us at [email protected].

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Print ISBN 9781683592082
Digital ISBN 9781683592099

Cover: Frank Gutbrod
Interior design and typesetting: { In a Word }
Editing: Line for Line Publishing Services

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To our former, present, and future students — that they

preach faithfully God’s Word.

Contents

Acknowledgments

The Authors

Introduction

1. Preach the Big Idea

2. Go to the Bible to hear God speak

3. Soak yourself in the text

4. Being biblical and contemporary is the art
of Christian communication

5. Speaking truth to people takes moral courage

6. We need scholarly evangelists and
evangelistic scholars

7. Sermon preparation is twenty hours of prayer

8. Match the mood of the text

9. Give your listeners the opportunity to respond to the message

10. Make preaching a priority

11. Guard your ser...

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• The Authors
• Introduction
• Preach the Big Idea
• Go to the Bible to hear God speak
• Soak yourself in the text
• Being biblical and contemporary is the art of Christian communication
• Speaking truth to people takes moral courage
• We need scholarly evangelists and evangelistic scholars
• Sermon preparation is twenty hours of prayer
• Match the mood of the text
• Give your listeners the opportunity to respond to the message
• Make preaching a priority
• Guard your sermon preparation time
• Preach the principle
• Drain the liquid
• Interrupt your preaching plan
• Don’t just get feedback, get feedforward
• A wise leader works exercise into his or her schedule
• Lay hold of the Bible until the Bible lays hold of you
• Use your introduction to set up the body of the message
• The essence of good preaching is unity, order, and progress
• Diversify your illustrations
• Conclusions should come to a burning focus
• It doesn’t all depend on you
• Preach as a dying man to dying men
• Be yourself when you preach
• Mobilize your language and send it into battle
• The better you know yourself, the better you can serve God in the situation in which God has placed you
• Feed my lambs, not feed my giraffes
• Preach to the outer edges
• In our preaching, less is more
• Remember the ERP Factor
• Preach “we” more than “you”
• Study your listeners
• Paper is a poor conductor of heat
• Effective preachers exegete the Bible and their people
• Observant preachers make insightful preachers
• Adapt to genderlects
• Preach to one person at a time
• People-pleasing puts the pulpit in peril
• Preach to those you want to come
• Take a survey of who’s listening
• Gentleness isn’t for wimps
• Preach about money
• We need reminders
• Good preachers own wastebaskets and use them
• You need ten “‘atta boys” for every one “you jerk”
• Go to the balcony
• Praise your listeners before correcting them
• Give your listeners verse numbers
• Pastors are soul-watchers
• Preachers can create a culture
• Strengthen yourself in the Lord
• The disease of modern preaching is its search after popularity
• Guest preaching doesn’t have to be a guessing game
• Pastors are preachers and preachers are pastors
• A crown awaits elders who lead well