Follow Me
written by: Charles DeVane Sometimes a person can say a lot with just a few words. I heard of a man who joined a monastery where the monks take a vow of silence. Each year at their annual review, however, they were allowed to speak two words. After the first year this man said, “Bed
Q is for Quotations
“Thoughts belong to everybody,” said Charles Haddon Spurgeon. “I must not wonder that other people steal my thoughts, since I have stolen so many of other people’s. For my part, I beg, borrow, and steal from every conceivable quarter, but when I steal a man’s coat, I tear it all to pieces and make a
I Don’t Get Home Much Anymore
From the day I was born, until the day I went off to college, my home address was 1414 Lafayette Ave., Pascagoula, Mississippi. My parents lived in the same house for nearly fifty years. After dad died, we sold the house. For the first time in fifty years, the house is not owned by a
‘V’ is for Variety
Preaching that’s predictable usually isn’t very powerful. If our listeners know where we’re going in a sermon and how we plan to get there, they will soon lose interest in the message, no matter how well we preach it. Without the unexpected and the element of surprise, even the best message will sound bland. Predictable
Do You Ever Feel Like You Can’t Win?
All of us have experienced the honeymoon stage in a new church. It’s the time when the pulpit committee thinks they’ve called the Apostle Paul, when the little old ladies class thinks you are the best looking preacher in town and when the overwhelming majority believe in you. However, something happens along the way. Sooner
Eutychus: A Theology for Doorkeepers
The most exciting book announced at the recent Christian Booksellers Convention was The Church Janitor’s Bible Commentary, published by Boiler Room Press of Kokomo, Indiana. The editor, Claude Faucett, was kind enough to give me a free copy and explain the merits of the book. “People think church janitors are illiterate,” he said, “but we
Marks of Maturity in the Ministry (Part 3)
Dictatorship or leadership. A sixth mark of maturity is this: distinguishing between dictatorship and leadership. Churches rise or fall on leadership. Certainly it is true that all believers are one in Christ; but it is also true that God has set some believers over the local church as spiritual leaders. The church is an organism;
D Is For Dictionary
Serious study takes time and is hard work. When sports writer Red Smith was asked how he kept turning out his excellent newspaper columns, he replied, “You just sit down at your typewriter and open a vein.” Substitute “sermon” for “newspaper column” and “computer” or “desk” for “typewriter” and you have today’s preacher. Maybe the
Even the Lunchroom Lady Eats Lunch
I was sitting at breakfast the other day, eating with one of our college students. He believes God has called him into the ministry, so on occasion, we get together to eat and talk. During the breakfast, he conducted an interview with me on ‘what’s working and what’s not’ for his seminary class. I really
The All You Can Eat Buffet
There’s an incredible emphasis these days on the food we eat. If you go in a grocery store, you’ll find health conscious moms reading the ingredients on everything from Frosted Flakes to Granola. You would think they were reading the Torah. We are obsessed with health in America. Although we are the most obese nation
Eutychus: Sacred Alliterature
The massive advertising campaign for the Ryrie Study Bible has, unfortunately, taken away the attention of the evangelical public from The New Amazing Sermon Bible, known to the trade as the NASB. Published by Alliteration Press, this new edition of the Bible is exactly what the sermonizer needs. Let me describe its many features. Instead
Eutychus: Priming the Preacher
The most valuable lesson I learned in seminary was imparted to me by a professor who stole the idea from John Henry Jowett at an unguarded moment when Jowett was combing his moustache and not paying attention. “If you have trouble getting a sermon from a text,” he advised, “just try to imagine how some