Preaching: When I preach I take the opportunity very seriously. There are several reasons. The first being that I don't get to preach to often, maybe 3 times a year, so when I do preach I want to gain experience in preparation and delivery for when I am doing it every week. The next reason is that I know that for many people in my church it is the only time they are hearing from the word during the week. And because of this reason comes my final reason, when I preach I want the word of God to come alive for that person I want them to engage the scriptures and of course I want them to be stirred to action.

Because of these reasons I am always paying attention when I hear others preach. I pay as much attention to the crowd as I do to the preacher. I am hoping to learn what is engaging people. What is making them take notice? What is boring them? What parts of the text are they interacting with? and if I have the ability I ask them weeks down the road what the particular sermon was about and to see what they remember and if they actions changed because of it.

I was sitting outside with my son this morning and I came to that point once again, like I do for every sermon that I have to lay the message at the food of Christ. I have to surrender the sermon and be reminded that I preach not for the approval or benefit of man but I preach out of obedience to Christ. I think that when I study people and how they learn and how they are impacted I am being obedient but because of this study I sometimes wonder how I can best impact the person rather than ask how I can best be obedient to Christ. The paradox is that when I am obedient to Christ and what he wants me to say he uses my gift of creativity to impact people. Which is what I love to do.