Given the state of the world, particularly in Ukraine, encouraging preachers to stretch into prophetic preaching seems timely, even during this season of repenting and walking with Jesus to the cross.
Wanting to impress on the preachers in his Zoom audience Wednesday the importance of garnering helpful listener feedback following their sermons, the Rev. Dr. Chip Hardwick offered up the words of a very popular preacher from back in the day: Jesus himself.
Sermons that are memorable and have impact often rely on two tiny prepositions: “from” and “to,” the Rev. Dr. Tim Slemmons told a group of about two dozen preachers gathered online last week to participate in a webinar designed to help them improve their preaching.
If you think congregants are busy during Advent and Christmas, consider your preacher, who, as the Rev. Dr. Chip Hardwick quipped on Wednesday, quoting a friend, must be, during the few hours between Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, Billy Graham, Martha Stewart and Santa Claus rolled into one.
Dr. Anna Carter Florence, the celebrated preaching professor at Columbia Theological Seminary, said Wednesday that talking to pastors about preaching — especially during such a challenging time as the last 18 months have been — “is like sitting in an armchair talking to the people playing on the field. The ground you are breaking and the space you are holding is incredibly important. I am in awe of all of you.”
