Sermon ideas ignite when the flint of people's problems strikes the steel of God's Word.
— Haddon Robinson

Preaching well is hard work. We're expected to be witty, warm, and wise. And then next week, we have to do it again.

The great science fiction writer H. G. Wells reportedly said most people think only once or twice in a lifetime, whereas he had made an international reputation by thinking once or twice a year.

Lots of pastors have to think once (or more) a week! More often than we would like to admit, we begin preparing a sermon with the feeling not that we have something to say but that we have to say something. Only one time in twenty do I start a sermon with the feeling that this sermon is going well. The creative process is accompanied with a feeling of ambiguity, uncertainty, of trying to make the unknown known.

Like the homemaker whose goal of three nutritious meals a day is complicated by toddlers making messes, demands of a part-time job, overflowing baskets of laundry, and a ...