Preaching

A friend and fellow planter asked me the other day what the one thing is that I've learned (and try to practice) when preparing a message.

It didn't take me long to answer but it is something that God has continually shown me. My big lesson for message preparation is to have faith in the Word/text that you are speaking from. So many times after a hectic week I've been tempted to drop a passage I was studying in favor of something easier or more familiar ... and after getting desparate ... God would then open my eyes to see something cool, practical, and awesome in the text. God's Word is the power and it is my 'crutch' (so to speak) as a teacher/communicator. I can't improve upon it and folks love it when they leave a service understanding the Bible better AND able to apply something from it to their lives ... because it works Monday through Saturday.