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Advice to Younger Preachers: How You Preach
Advice to Young Preachers: Don’t control your message; let the message control you. What this means is something I believe in very much. While we all have personalities that form how we preach, the material should also be a major part of that “how.” Not all sermons should be preached with the same style, personality, or form. Some sermons need to be calm, others fiery. Then there is the serious versus lighthearted approach that the material needs. How long a sermon should be is also based on the material. Why spend 25 minutes on something that needs 45 minutes; and why spend 45 minutes on something that needs only 25? You are not standing there to fill up a certain time limit; but to fill a need. If all your sermons have three points, are you forcing your outline onto the text? If all your sermons sound the same, are you controlling the message or allowing the message to control you?
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