Incremental Preaching

Here's an interesting article about preaching.

Incremental Preaching | LeadershipJournal.net

I actually read quite a lot about preaching and about how different churches approach building series and planning programmes. I still believe that there is a place for the sermon, but it has to be part of a wider, and maybe deeper, commitment to living transformed lives. I worry that we have we invested so much time and effort in teaching truth that we've lost our ability or even desire to implement that truth. We simply don't do application very well.

It isn't that we don't strive to find the application, it's just that we rate clever alliteration and sound doctrine above the actual life changing application of the message. We prefer intellectual stimulation over the uncomfortable challenge to live differently.

I know I don't always succeed to do this, but when I preach my intention is to inspire us to see the bigger picture, to grasp the amazing possibilities of what a life lived in the hands of God might look like, and then to pursue it with everything we have. I am, I will confess, less interested in teaching a group of people stuff they probably already know, and much more concerned with how we are being transformed into the image of Christ.

Anyway, I found this article interesting and helpful and challenging.