Aspiration and imitation are a natural part of life. Little boys and girls aspire to run or shoot like their favorite athletes. Writers aspire to craft sentences like their favorite authors. Young preachers aspire to exposit Scripture like the pastors streaming on their smartphone. It’s only natural that people emulate those who perform some skill … Continue reading So You Want to be the next Charles Spurgeon?
Tag: preaching
A sobering quote from Eugene Peterson's Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity: I don't know of any other profession in which it is quite easy to fake it as in ours. By adopting a reverential demeanor, cultivating a stained-glass voice, slipping occasional words like "eschatology" into conversation and heilsgeschichte into our discourse—not often enough actually … Continue reading The Danger of Faking Pastoral Ministry
From Martyn Lloyd-Jones' Studies in the Sermon on the Mount: I can never forget, in this connection, a man who, whenever I met him, always impressed upon me the fact that he was a great Bible student. I suppose in one sense he was, but his life was unfortunately very far removed from that which … Continue reading A Word to Pastors and Other Students of the Bible
This is the second installment of a series on preaching and youth ministry. Gurus of student ministry focus on many important aspects of ministry, but this is one that is often forgotten, unless the discussion centers upon the proper length of a sermon or how to keep teenagers' attention. The first installment discussed the need … Continue reading Preaching and Youth Ministry, Part 2: Your Own Material
I'm coming up on the two year anniversary of my time here at Heucks Retreat Baptist Church. Having said that, I understand that I'm still a novice at youth ministry and ministry in general. That's why I don't want to sound like I have everything figured out. But I would like to do a short … Continue reading Preaching and Youth Ministry, Part 1: Whole Books of the Bible
Last night, I had the opportunity to preach at Heucks Retreat. I'm reluctantly putting this information out there because I feel like I'm a stronger writer than preacher, though that isn't saying much. Anyway, here is the sermon audio. It's titled "Family Discipleship."
Cody A. Cunningham 