It”s a widely held maxim among students of church growth that churches tend to rise and fall on their preaching. While 
it”s not the only important thing, it seems evident a church can get a lot of things wrong and still thrive if the preaching is good. Conversely, a church can do everything else right and still fail if the preaching is bad.
So how do preachers keep coming up with great ideas? Assuming the preacher is already spending regular time in God”s Word, I think a two-pronged strategy works best.
First, read WIDELY. Begin with periodicals. In addition to CHRISTIAN STANDARD, I read Leadership Journal, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, and the Harvard Business Review each month with few exceptions. Obviously, most of that material isn”t going to yield sermon illustrations, but it challenges me and gets my brain moving along paths it otherwise wouldn”t.
And the same goes for books””strive for great variety. While I don”t always succeed at it, at any given time I want to be reading one work of fiction and one of nonfiction. My fiction reading is usually stuff by authors like Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, and Charles Dickens, but there”s a lot to be said for a summer page-turner from the best-seller list. Choose a book that holds your attention.
And as for nonfiction, spread it out. Leadership and church-growth books abound. You probably have 10 or 12 books on your to-read list right now. And that might be keeping you from picking up a book on astronomy, or wreck diving, or the origins of baseball””stuff you want to read up on just because you”re interested. Indulge your mind in what it hungers for, and preaching applications will surface.
Another practice that has helped me took a LOT of discipline: If you”re not enjoying a book, you don”t need to finish it! I know that”s a no-brainer for some readers. But a weird part of my psyche feels guilty if I get halfway through a book and don”t want to finish it, and I fear I”ve wasted a lot of hours just so I could say, “There, I”m done.” That is nonsense. If your mind ceases to be captivated, move on to something else.
Second, be a student of life. Learn to recognize that subtle feeling that says, there”s a sermon in there somewhere.Recently, while trying to qualify for the Olympics, two runners finished a race with exactly the same time””down to the thousandth of a second. One of the proposed solutions was to settle the tie with a coin toss! I haven”t figured out the application point yet, but there”s a sermon in there somewhere!
If you”re paying attention as you move through life””if you whisper a prayer every time you watch a movie or a television show””if you”re constantly saying, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening,” you”ll find amazing sermon material all around you.
I think many pastors miss the abundant teaching points God has provided, because we tend to live our lives on fast-forward. Avoiding this requires that you maintain some margin and operate from a place of peace. And that”s a whole other article.
Bert Crabbe is lead pastor at True North Community Church in Bohemia, New York.
Bert, I find your article appealing, to a point. Now, mind you I’ve not read the first part of this particular topic, so with all due respect I would like to access part one, if you can somehow publish/repeat it again. My apology for missing that one.
(NOTE FROM WEBMASTER: Part 1 on this five-part topic was written by Greg Lee; it is titled, “The Web World I Travel: Resources for Bible Teaching [Part 1],” and can be accessed by clicking the article’s title or from CHRISTIAN STANDARD’S home page.)
In any event, I’ve lots of respect for ministers as yourself and the labor of love to which they’ve been called. You did make the assumption that preachers already spend time in God’s Word. But then, you broaden your “sermon possibilities” into the area of contemporary reading hoping and praying that God will bring to mind something to teach and/or preach about; I agree, this method does have some validity.
One thing comes to mind however, Bert, do you meet often for personal discipling with any of the brothers of your church family, No. 1? No. 2, meeting often with your “fellow church leaders” do you go over the needs of the church and receive input from that vital source of material? In other words, praying over your constituents as to what they need to hear from the pulpit, plus talking with the leadership is a great way to plan a whole series of sermons throughout the year. And this way, the church’s spiritual needs are addressed and met to promote both personal as well as corporate growth. In addition to your article, I earnestly pray this little extra bit of info will be of benefit in your ministry, and above all, for the glory of the Lord Jesus, our God and Savior.