John Brand, a friend of mine who is the principal of Faith Mission Bible College and is a gifted Bible teacher, recently interviewed me for his website which deals with expository preaching. I thought you might be interested to read that interview. If you are, click here.

The year 2010 has been a busy one for my household - we had three graduations! My son graduated from college, one daughter from high school, and I finally finished my PhD in Theology!  Although the attention in our home is rightly focused on the accomplishments of our children, my wife and I occasionally exchange a look that says, “Yes! We are finally finished the PhD!”

It took me nine years of official work and even longer if you count some preliminary studies. It started when we lived in Africa and spanned the first eight years of our time back in the U.S. I never was able to devote my sole attention to it - I was working full-time and squeezing the studies into the “cracks” of time between work and family responsibilities. More than once I questioned whether I would actually succeed. In those times I asked myself again, “Why are you doing this?” For those in the church which I pastor you may be interested in the answer to that question. So here goes… (more…)

Yesterday I quoted Greek words in my sermon. I don’t usually do that - and for a reason. (more…)

Some people suggest that preachers should manuscript their sermons. (By ‘manuscripting’ I mean writing out word for word what they want to say.) One of the suggested benefits of manuscripting is that the sermons could immediately be put on the website in written form. Another is that there would be no question about the length of the sermon. The preacher could practice it and cut and edit until it was exactly the length that circumstances required. I suppose another perceived advantage would be that there could be an economy of words - no redundancy. Also, words could be carefully chosen. Also - no bad grammar would be included in the sermon itself. I suppose that as I explore this subject I’ll come across other “reasons why.” But I don’t believe in it. Why don’t I? (more…)

What is it that you hope your pastor didn’t forget to bring with him, other than the Bible, when he stands up to preach on Sunday? His suit and tie? His sermon notes? His PowerPoint presentation?

I’ve got one thing in mind that your pastor needs - and you should understand this too even if you are not the preacher.  When a preacher stands up to preach he need to bring his… (more…)

Do you pray for your pastor?  There is an interesting verse in the book of Jeremiah that gives insight into anyone who is called on by the Lord to speak for Him - and that is, of course, what pastors are called on to do! The verse goes like this: (more…)

Do you think that understanding the intended meaning of the Scriptures is only a matter of being careful to read and study them? Do you think that if you learn the right way to study the Bible then all you need to do is follow those guidelines and the meaning will be clear to you? If so, you are mistaken. (more…)