Preach The Word

Insights from Unique Ministry Settings “I’m clearly not a part of their target audience.” After a busy day, I flipped through a few television channels one night. I settled on an old movie and soon ...

Taking Up the Challenge Many Cultures, One Lord is Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary’s annual effort to observe the Martin Luther King holiday. I preached at the service in 2015 just as the Black Lives Matter movement ...

Preparing the Sermon When my dad died in 2008, I decided to contact the four congregations he had served during his ministry. I asked the local pastors if they might announce his passing in case ...

The Sermon and the Proper Law and gospel. These two teachings, the most important truths of the Bible, must form the heart and core of the preacher’s sermon, and of the two, the gospel must ...

The Gospels: The Center of the Gospel The gospel is the good news that God forgives sins and saves sinners. This is good news because without this news the news is bad: God condemns sin ...

Movements in Sermon Writing I find that writing isn’t difficult. Sitting down to write—that’s difficult. The good lurking within my procrastination, fueling the fear at the edges of my work, is that it matters to ...

Joy and Confidence from the Basics - Part 5 You’ve heard that communication is 93% nonverbal. What does this say about sermon delivery? Clearly, we ought to spend way more time than we do in ...

A drill sergeant is giving an order to a cadet.Sergeant: “There is no talking during drill.”Cadet: “Yes, sir. The fellas were just explaining that to me.”Sergeant: “Be quiet, cadet! There is no talking during drill!”Cadet: ...

Joy and Confidence from the Basics - Part 3 I watch a pastor from three rows behind and a little to the left. He is celebrating 25 years in the ministry. He is listening to ...

Joy and Confidence from the Basics - Part 2 If there were such a thing as “Paustian’s Famous Home-Cooked Chili,” I imagine creating each new batch by some combination of habit, instinct, and muscle memory. ...