Tag Archives: homiletics

Apr 26 2010

ktl 2010 – 10 – preaching the sermon of your text…and a preaching critique

Free file for youth pastors:
KTL 10 – Preaching the Sermon of Your Text and a Preaching Critique (mp3)

This was our “lab portion” of the KTL semester.  The lab is when we go into the student building, I teach them how to speak, preach, and present their sermon in an effective way.  We go through everything from eye contact, to facial expression, to voice inflection, pitch, volume, rate, hand gestures, posture, standing and walking, and emotion.  After we went through all that with questions, we had our first student preacher go through his practice sermon.  Every Sunday night before the Wednesday one of our KTL preachers preach in April, we let that student preacher of the week practice preach.  I then offer them some critique on how to make it better before Wednesday.  Every student needs different instruction.  I then take them out to eat on that Monday night before they preach just to celebrate what’s coming up, talk with them more about it, and show them how thankful I am for them.

The mp3 here is the instruction on “how to preach” and it is the critique of David’s sermon just so you can hear how we handle it.  We’re pretty straight forward and don’t pull any punches.  Our guys love that because they want it straight up on how they can be the best preacher for Christ they possibly can!

Oct 16 2008

Part 6: How to Preach/Teach to Teenagers

Scriptures on Christ-Centeredness in All Things and Preaching (doc)

I remember being at a weekend conference for student ministries and hearing the dynamic speakers chosen to preach.  I was amazed that both speakers preached two different sermons, but their sermons were both so much alike.  They both introduced their sermon with the topic they thought the text hit on.  One preached on frustration and the other on gratitude.  The way they introduced their sermon was by going into a comedy monologue by telling a life story that had to do with their topic.  Then they talked about the importance and life impact of their topic.  Then they went to a passage of Scripture that addressed the biblical issues that go along with that topic.  Then they closed their sermon with a challenge on how to live that topic for Christ. 

To be honest with you, I think they both were good sermons.  I think they both honored God and the Word of God very well.  But I came home with many questions and even some confusion.  Is this how God intends His Word to be preached?  Is the Bible merely a spiritual self-help book that is written in the form of addressing many different topics and issues of our day?  Is it just a book on morality?  Do our sermons and lessons to students need to be heavy on application to their lives?

Personally, I think the primary thought we should have when preparing to preach/teach to teenagers is…JESUS CHRIST! Continue reading →