Links Worth a Look

Here are a few links worth a look.

Steve McCoy on ten ways he "hits refresh." If you are struggling with burn-out, this is for you.

Josh Harris is doing a series of posts featuring the sermon notes of well-known preachers. So far he has posted on:
Mark Dever
Mike Bullmore
C.J. Mahaney
Ray Ortlund, Jr.
Tim Keller is next.

Some of the best Tips for Writers I've read online have come from Scot McKnight over at Jesus Creed. Lots of good material there.

The Gospel Coalition has posted some new videos. Take a look.

Check out the best sermon that's been preached at Fulkerson Park in a while. It's all about change. (BTW, it was my Sunday off!)

6 comments:

andrew said...

Thanks for the links! All worth the look. So when do we get to see your sermon notes? :)

Seriously though, do you tend to write your whole sermon out word for word and memorize it, or just make short notes of what you want to say? I'm starting to get curious about these sorts of things as I prepare a few practice lectures this semester.

Brian G. Hedges said...

I've done all kinds of things over the years, from extemporaneous preaching from a memorized outline to writing a full manuscript. Now I almost always preach with a thorough set of notes in hand - usually about 1 page for every 2-3 minutes of content. I don't rehearse or memorize and I rarely say everything in the notes - so, for example, I frequently paraphrase helpful tidbits from commentaries, rather than reading the quote in full. Occasionally I will preach without notes, but usually that's in a context less formal than a Sunday morning. I always have an outline and can't figure out how some preachers preach without points. My mind just won't work that way! Most of the time, I write the introduction in full and stick to it closely. Conclusions are frequently less prepared. My general rule of thumb is to include explanation, illustration, and application headings under each point, though I don't think I keep that balance nearly well enough. Another other idiosyncrasy: I often write initial sermon ideas on scraps of paper - backs of receipts, envelopes, etc. - but almost never preach from these or file them away. By the time I preach the sermon, I've usually been through three or four outlines and the notes are typed out. I always keep those notes and frequently reuse them on mission trips. Well, that's way more than you asked for and just shows how easy it is for me to talk about myself, even to the point of boring others!

Amanda said...

Perhaps it's the nerd in me (haha) but I found your thought processes to be quite interesting. :D

mwh said...

Do you think you'll start sending out your sermon notes again? The diversity among those preachers is startling.

Are you going to review Blue Parakeet from JC?

Brian G. Hedges said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Brian G. Hedges said...

I don't know on the sermon notes. I don't like to send anything other than a finished manuscript, and I rarely get that far in my preparation these days.

I've not read Blue Parakeet, so no review is planned. I'd like to read it someday, but now that I'm writing, my reading has slowed down a lot.