FIRST GOLF LESSON A retiree was given a set of golf clubs by his co- workers. Thinking he’d try the game, he asked the local pro for lessons, explaining that he knew nothing whatever of the game. The pro showed him the stance and swing, then said, “Just hit the ball toward the flag on …
SERMONS & MEALS A Christian wrote a letter to the editor of the newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. “I’ve gone for thirty years now,” he wrote, “and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me I can’t remember …
THE LIMITS OF TEACHING Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. — Wilde
CATCHING RELIGION Religion is caught, not taught. From William Ralph Inge, Anglican prelate and writer
GUIDE AT THE SIDE Be a guide at the side, not a sage on the stage — John Saxon, creator of Saxon math
FOUR SERMON PREPARATION QUESTIONS Who is my audience? What are the concerns, troubles, and interests of my audience? What does the Bible say to these concerns, troubles, and interests? How can I MOST effectively communicate Biblical truth to these concerns, troubles, and interests? By Michael Hodgin
CHANGE REQUIRES REPETITION Changing people’s habits and way of thinking is like writing your instructions in the snow during a snowstorm. Every twenty minutes you must rewrite your instructions. Only with constant repetition will you create change. By Donald Dewar, Communication Briefings, July 1987
GO SLOW It is reported that once, during Vince Lombardi’s years at Green Bay, the Packers were resoundingly defeated by an opposing team. They did everything wrong. The very next day at practice, Coach Lombardi stood up and said, “Gentlemen, I’ve seen about enough. We’re going to start over, right at the very beginning! The …
KEEP IT SIMPLE STRATEGY A lot of communities have Little League Football programs in the fall of the year. In one such community, two weeks into the season, an armchair coach with a big gut like Norm on Cheers, came into the YMCA and wanted to see the person in charge. He said he had …
SERMON FEED An old farmer said to the preacher, “I see at the Minister’s Seminar you discussed, how to get people to attend church. I’ve been to a lot of meetings for farmers, but I have never heard a single speech on how to get the cattle to eat. We spend our time discussing the …
SERMONIC LEFTOVERS A young pastor in his first charge announced nervously: “I will take for my text the words, ‘And they fed five men with five thousand loaves of bread and two thousand fishes.’” At this misquotation, an old parishioner said audibly: “That’s no miracle — I could do it myself.” The young preacher said …
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THORN BUSH SEEDS Many a word drops a seed from us that grows up a thorn bush in the soul on which it falls. — Henry Ward Beecher
TOXIC TEACHING On January 1, 1992, the Chicago Tribune reported the death of thirty church-goers in the remote town of El Charquillo in the San Luis Potosi desert, about 300 miles north of Mexico City, Mexico. The victims included the preacher and his family. The unfortunate congregants suffocated from toxic fumes emitted by a butane …
AMAZING MAZE In the middle ages, when they were constructing many of the huge cathedrals, they made the floors out of tile. There were no pews then, so the area of the floor was all open. Sometimes they would lay the tiles in the pattern of a giant maze for people to walk through. One …
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KAMIKAZE CLASS There is only one problem in teaching a class for Kamikaze pilots. You only get to teach the class one time.
COMPLEX OR SIMPLE Some take the complex, explain it, and it remains complex. These teachers are admired as intelligent– yet boring. Others take the complex, explain it, and it is made simple. These teachers are admired as practical–yet loved.Michael Hodgin
SPURGEON ON PARENTING In dibbling beans the old practice was to put three in each hole: one for the worm, one for the crow, and one to live and produce the crop. In teaching children, we must give line upon line, and precept upon precept, repeating the truth which we would inculcate, till it becomes …
FIVE PREACHING CONSIDERATIONS There are five considerations that must be met in every successful sermon. There should be an appeal to the Reason, to the Conscience, to the Imagination, to the Emotions, and to the Will; and for each of these there is no method so serviceable as systematic exposition.By F. B. Meyer
“‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your Name.’ He said to them, ‘I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and have all the power of the enemy’” (Luke 10:17, 19). When World War II ended in Europe, a German theologian took his students to a refugee camp in …
“Teacher, what shall we do?” (Lk. 6:40). A distinguished preacher tells of an experience he had while still in seminary: I had the opportunity of speaking to a large group of inmates in a penitentiary. In trying to emphasize the importance of personal involvement, I said: “If I wanted to learn to swim, I could …