Preaching Sources

May 5, 2016 By

By Dr. Steven Smith

As a preacher, you are constantly trying to improve your craft. Your goal is to be an effective preacher and communicator in order to reach as many people as possible with the Gospel. You spend countless hours studying Scripture, developing main points for your message, and practicing the delivery of your message—praying that the words would resonate with the congregation.

For most pastors, this is a process that takes place every week, if not multiple times a week. And there are no shortcuts. However, there are resources that can help.

Dr. Steven Smith has generated a substantial list of resources to assist you in preparation and delivery of your sermon.

PREACHING COURSES

  1. Don Carson’s Lectures On Preaching
  2. Fundamentals Of Expository Preaching – MacArthur and Lawson
  3. Derek Tidball Lectures on Preaching – Justin Taylor
  4. Richard Gaffin Lectures: Reformed Hermeneutics – Justin Taylor
  5. How Sermons Work: David Murray’s Video Lectures on Preaching

 

BASICS OF PREACHING

  1. Top 10 Books on Preaching
  2. What You’ll Never Hear About Preaching In Seminary
  3. How Do You Define Preaching? Pure Church by Thabiti Anyabwile
  4. John Wesley’s 12 Rules For Preachers
  5. Praying During Sermon Preparation | Ordinary Pastor
  6. The Craft of Life-Changing Preaching – The Gospel Coalition Blog
  7. A Classical Analysis of Puritan Preaching – Reformation21
  8. Preaching and Sermon Preparation – Reformed Forum
  9. Things I’ve Learned Along the Way… | H.B. Charles Jr.
  10. Four Rules for Preachers – Justin Taylor
  11. Ed Stetzer – Preaching “One-Time” Sermons
  12. 8 rules for preachers from Luther – Reformation21 Blog
  13. Preachers on Preaching | The Cripplegate
  14. 40 Lessons I’ve Learned About Preaching After My 400th Sermon | Pastoralized
  15. Sermon preparation – Ray Ortlund
  16. Four Easy (and often overlooked) Tips that Could Improve Your Preaching | Ordinary Pastor
  17. Ligon Duncan on Lloyd-Jones – Kevin DeYoung
  18. 10 steps to better preaching | Mission-minded Church | Sydneyanglicans.net
  19. Don’t Strive To Be a Great Preacher – Reformation21 Blog
  20. Josh Moody on Preaching – Justin Taylor
  21. Paul Washer on Homiletics | The Cripplegate
  22. Help in Preaching the Hardest Sermons – Justin Taylor
  23. Principles for preaching « The Wanderer
  24. Lloyd-Jones on the Practice of Real Preaching – The Gospel Coalition Blog
  25. 7 Ways to Preach a Lousy Sermon by Ken Collins -SermonCentral.com
  26. 7 Marks of Great Preaching by David Lose -SermonCentral.com
  27. Urban Legends: The Preacher’s Edition : Kingdom People
  28. How Shall They Hear Without a Preacher? – Reformation21
  29. What is Homiletics? on Vimeo
  30. YouTube – What is Redemptive-Historical Preaching?
  31. How to Think of Sermon Preparation and Delivery Like a Three-Course Meal – Justin Taylor
  32. Practical Questions On Preaching | Proclamation Trust
  33. Gospel-Centered Preaching : Kingdom People
  34. Preaching that Paints the Shedding of Christ’s Blood – Feeding on Christ
  35. The Imperative of the Indicative: Preaching Christ from the Gospels
  36. An Outline for a Process of Sermon Preparation – Justin Taylor
  37. Normal sermon prep? Really? | HeadHeartHand
  38. Six steps of sermon preparation | HeadHeartHand
  39. What Does It Mean To “Preach Christ?” |HeadHeartHand
  40. 8 Lessons I Learned About Preaching From Painting My Kitchen | HeadHeartHand
  41. The secret to powerful preaching | HeadHeartHand
  42. What Is Preaching? | HeadHeartHand
  43. Dying To Preach | HeadHeartHand
  44. Six Keys To Excellence In Preaching | HeadHeartHand
  45. Tell Them One Thing | HeadHeartHand
  46. Great preachers are great listeners (and lovers) | HeadHeartHand
  47. God Blesses Beta Sermons | HeadHeartHand
  48. A preacher who dreads sermon preparation? | HeadHeartHand
  49. Sermon Eurekas | HeadHeartHand
  50. White Space For Preachers | HeadHeartHand
  51. Faithful Expository Preaching Is Christ-Centered Preaching | Prince on Preaching
  52. What to Know When You Are the Guest PreacherPreach Truth – Better
  53. Spurgeon on Expositional Reading and Teaching in the Worship Service? – Feeding on Christ
  54. 4 Reasons Why Some Preachers Get Better and Others Don’t by Hershael York -SermonCentral.com
  55. R-Rated Texts for an R-Rated World – The Gospel Coalition Blog
  56. 10 Lessons I Learned From My Mistakes in Preaching – Justin Taylor
  57. Seven Habits of Highly Effective Preachers – ThomRainer.com
  58. A Preaching Confession | Gentle Reformation
  59. Don’t Outsource Your Sermon Prep
  60. 50 Strategies for Better Preaching | TGC
  61. Four Things To Keep In Mind For Your “Last Sermon” – Feeding on Christ
  62. The Best Way to Improve Your Preaching – Borrowed Light
  63. 8 Ways You Might Be Losing People in Your Sermons
  64. Preparing for the pulpit – Reformation21 Blog
  65. Moore to the Point – What Martin Luther King Can Teach Us About Preaching
  66. The Role of the Imagination in Good Preaching – Justin Taylor
  67. A Key Sign that You Are Maturing as a Preacher | Canon Fodder
  68. Sermon Prep for the Bivocational Pastor | PhilipNation.net
  69. 21 Skills of Great Preachers | JoshuaReich.org
  70. 4 Sermon Types to Avoid by Derek Thomas | Ligonier Ministries Blog
  71. Getting Through a Preaching Slump – Pure Church by Thabiti Anyabwile

 

EXEGESIS

  1. 10 Questions For Expositors – Brian Croft
  2. 10 Tips From Wayne Grudem On Bible Interpretation
  3. The dilemma of preaching and hearing God’s word | The Briefing
  4. The Peculiar Pleasure of Difficult Sermons « unashamed
  5. BibleX: Five Crucial Sermon Questions
  6. Snapshot Sermons | HeadHeartHand
  7. Dangerous dissection | HeadHeartHand
  8. 7 types of preacher’s block (and what to do about them) | HeadHeartHand
  9. Sermon prep and the chemistry of fear | HeadHeartHand
  10. 7 easy steps to much faster sermon prep | HeadHeartHand
  11. Catchy sermon titles? | HeadHeartHand
  12. How to Write Better Sermon Titles – Pro Preacher
  13. What will I preach on? | HeadHeartHand
  14. Investing In Sermon Titles | HeadHeartHand
  15. 10,000 Hours to a Great Sermon? | HeadHeartHand
  16. Four Reasons Why Some Preachers Get Better and Others Don’t | TGC | The Gospel Coalition
  17. Top 20 Christ-Centered Expository Preaching Checklist « Prince on Preaching Prince on Preaching
  18. Reading and Preaching the Text in Context – Feeding on Christ
  19. BibleX: Suggestions for Crafting Message Statements
  20. Pyromaniacs: Preaching Proverbs 6 — getting started (#2)
  21. Pyromaniacs: Preaching Proverbs 6 — getting in shape to preach (#4)
  22. God’s Word is most powerful in context | The Briefing
  23. Koinonia: Hebrew and You with Lee M. Fields — The Art and Force of Ps 119:1-8: Part 3
  24. Koinonia: My Advice to Students — Van Pelt Shares Solid Languages Advice He Got and Wished He Got
  25. How NOT To Use Strong’s Concordance
  26. Credo Magazine » D. A. Carson on Biblical Exegesis
  27. 7 Ways to Do a Bad Word Study. | Scribblepreach
  28. Borrowed Light: The Googlization of Bible Study
  29. Typology Preserves Biblical Inerrancy Against Ehrman’s Mistake | For His Renown
  30. Do Not Muzzle the Ox: Does Paul Quote Moses Out of Context? – Justin Taylor
  31. Chiasms on the Brain? | For His Renown
  32. Do You Make These 5 Common Word Study Mistakes? | Pastoralized
  33. So What Is “Theological Interpretation of Scripture”? – Justin Taylor
  34. Your Theological System Should Tell You How to Exegete – Kevin DeYoung
  35. BibleX: The Exegetical Habit
  36. Jesus Redeems a Psalm: What a Difference “Christotelicity” Makes!
  37. 3 Steps for Interpreting Old Testament Pairings | Logos Talk: The Logos Bible Software Blog
  38. ABC Study « Gentle Reformation
  39. 11 Questions Every Pastor Should Ask : Kingdom People
  40. Fight the Text Before You Flee to Christ – The Gospel Coalition Blog
  41. ESV GreekTools – Justin Taylor
  42. Women Weeping Over Diagrammed Sentences – The Gospel Coalition Blog
  43. Can That Be Right? The New Testament’s Use of Old Testament Prophecy – Kevin DeYoung
  44. Home – How To Do A Word Study Without Knowing Hebrew Or Greek – Azusa Pacific University
  45. Word Studies
  46. Feeding on Christ » Blog Archive » The Puritan Exegesis Project: William Cowper on 2 Cor. 5:5
  47. Plummer’s Primer to Hermeneutics: A Must-Have : Kingdom People
  48. Three Questions with Gerald Bray: On Three Questions to Ask of Biblical Texts – Justin Taylor
  49. Koinonia: Three Views on the New Testament use of the Old Testament Darrell Bock, Walt Kaiser, and Pete Enns

 

EXPOSITORY PREACHING

  1. Hearing Both Sides Of The Preaching Debate « unashamed
  2. 7 Reasons in Support of Consecutive Exposition of the Scripture
  3. 6 Advantages Of Consecutive Expository Preaching | NWBingham.com
  4. How Expositional Preaching Protects Preachers
  5. Why Should a Pastor Preach through Whole Books of the Bible…Even the Hard Ones?
  6. Pros and cons of consecutive expository preaching | HeadHeartHand
  7. ‘Expository Preaching’ – Time for Caution
  8. Seven Qualities of Expository Preaching
  9. 9 Reasons for Consecutive Expository Preaching | The Briefing

 

COMMENTARIES

  1. Don Carson’s Best Commentaries
  2. Joel Beeke’s best Commentaries
  3. Best Commentaries
  4. Best Commentaries: Top 2 for each book
  5. Ligonier: Top 5 Commentaries on every book of the Bible
  6. Desiring God recommendations
  7. Tim Challies’ Top 5 Commentaries
  8. Carson Explains What Makes a Good Commentary – The Gospel Coalition Blog
  9. 5 Reasons Why You Should Consult Commentaries | David L. Allen
  10. A Short Commentary on Commentaries (Acts) – Kevin DeYoung
  11. How TO Use a Commentary | capsministry.com
  12. 6 Reasons to Dig Into Calvin’s Commentaries – The Gospel Coalition Blog
  13. Why a Commentary?
  14. Commentaries as a Ministry by Douglas Moo | Reformed Theology Articles at Ligonier.org

 

INTRODUCTION

  1. The one sentence most public speakers get wrong | Articles
  2. How not to start a sermon | HeadHeartHand

 

STRUCTURE

  1. 20 Sermon Structures | HeadHeartHand

 

DELIVERY

  1. How to Transition Between the Points of Your Sermon without Losing Your Audience | Pastoralized
  2. Ways to Capture and Hold Attention, Part 1 | hopeingod.org
  3. Ways to Capture and Hold Attention, Part 2 | hopeingod.org
  4. The Missing Ingredient in Many Sermons | Ordinary Pastor
  5. BibleX: Teaching vs. Preaching
  6. (42) Ask RC- What’s the difference between teaching and preaching?
  7. The difference between a lecture and a sermon – Reformation21 Blog
  8. The Personality of the Preacher | Biblical Preaching
  9. The Personality of the Preacher 2 | Biblical Preaching
  10. The Personality of the Preacher 3 | Biblical Preaching
  11. Becoming Well-Spoken: How to Minimize Your Uh’s and Um’s | The Art of Manliness
  12. How We Are Judged by Our Voice in Dating and the Workplace | Psychology Today
  13. Pastors: Don’t Just Quote but Be Quotable | Ordinary Pastor
  14. When Presenting, Remember To Pause | HBR
  15. Luther on sermon length « Expository Thoughts
  16. How long should my sermons be when I preach? | Practical Shepherding
  17. How long?
  18. Pyromaniacs: On the Folly of Preaching too Long
  19. Writing A Book – Structure
  20. What Tone Should Preachers Aim At? – Desiring God
  21. A Presenter’s Guide to Remembering What to Say – Harvard Business Review
  22. How to Improve Your Public Speaking by Practicing Out Loud
  23. Voice lessons | The Christian Century
  24. Preaching: Simple, not Simplistic | NWBingham.com
  25. Paradoxically Speaking: Simple Preaching
  26. Simplicity And Love In Preaching
  27. Pace and preaching | Don’t Stop Believing
  28. A plea for profound simplicity | HeadHeartHand
  29. Preachers wearing too much make-up | HeadHeartHand
  30. The charity of clarity | HeadHeartHand
  31. Notes from My Speech Coach
  32. The Manner Is The Message | HeadHeartHand
  33. 10 Foolish Obstacles To The Foolishness Of Preaching | HeadHeartHand
  34. 8 Ways Preachers Harm The Depressed | HeadHeartHand
  35. Truthful + Beautiful = Faithful |HeadHeartHand
  36. Top 10 preaching mistakes | HeadHeartHand
  37. David Wilkerson’s heartfelt plea for “anguish” | HeadHeartHand
  38. Should We Practice Preaching? HeadHeartHand
  39. Learning to preach from non-preachers | HeadHeartHand
  40. The preacher’s vocal toolbox | HeadHeartHand
  41. Overcoming The Frustration Barrier In Preaching | HeadHeartHand
  42. Freshen Up Your Preaching | HeadHeartHand
  43. How Not To Preach Boring Sermons | HeadHeartHand
  44. 8 Ways to Become a Warm-Hearted Preacher | Biblical Preaching
  45. The Cost of Dull Preaching and Teaching – Borrowed Light
  46. Preaching Earnestly | Gentle Reformation
  47. 4 Characteristics of Earnest Preaching | The Christward Collective
  48. 88 Questions Because Delivery Makes a Difference – III | Biblical Preaching
  49. Credo Magazine » Preaching Through Mental Fog (Timothy Raymond)
  50. 20 World-Class Presentation Experts Share Their Top Tips
  51. 5 words on extemporaneous preaching
  52. Be More Specific Than “Points” or “Things” | Andy Naselli
  53. The Danger of Self-Awareness in Preaching – The Gospel Coalition Blog
  54. 4 Characteristics of Spirit-Empowered Preaching
  55. Your Default Preaching Tone | Bibli cal Preaching
  56. Is Your Body Language Hurting Your Preaching? | Pro Preacher
  57. INFORMATION OVERLOAD
  58. Preaching with Authority | Gentle Reformation
  59. Sermon Prep for the Bivocational Pastor | PhilipNation.net
  60. Simple, Practical Ways to Improve Your Preaching | Ordinary Pastor
  61. Let the Tone of Your Sermon Match the Tone of the Text – Trevin Wax
  62. Deadly, dull and boring | The Briefing
  63. How To Spice Up Bland Sermons | Ordinary Pastor
  64. The Top Mistakes I Make in Preaching ← Julian Freeman
  65. Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology: Top Ten Ways to Make Your Preaching Clearer
  66. How to Preach without Putting People to Sleep – Justin Taylor
  67. 6 Ways to Preach with Passion (Hint: Yelling Isn’t One of Them) | Pastoralized

 

NOTES

  1. Paper or Plastic? Why I hate handwritten sermon notes | The Cripplegate
  2. Preaching from an iPad | Proclamation Trust
  3. 10 Steps to Preach From Your iPad | Challies Dot Com
  4. Adam’s Apple: Preaching from an iPad | The Cripplegate
  5. Tim Keller on Writing a Sermon – YouTube
  6. Sermon Notes | Proclamation Trust
  7. Is Preaching Without Notes The Most Authentic? | Proclamation Trust
  8. BibleX: The Value of a Good Outline
  9. S. Lewis’s Advice on Writing Well – Justin Taylor
  10. Preaching Without Notes | Connected Kingdom Podcast
  11. Preaching Without Notes (1) | HeadHeartHand
  12. Preaching Without Notes (2) | HeadHeartHand

 

APPLICATION

  1. Clarity and discretion – Reformation21 Blog
  2. Preaching that Cuts to the Heart – The Gospel Coalition Blog
  3. Pyromaniacs: Ways to profit from an expository sermon
  4. Every Pastor is a Translator | H.B. Charles Jr.
  5. I preach for me
  6. Deeper Application – Blog – DashHouse.com
  7. 5 Ways to Immediately Improve Your Preaching | Ordinary Pastor
  8. How to Preach Like Phil Ryken and Duane Litfin Without Sounding Like Them | Pastoralized
  9. Show Then Tell – Free eBook On Sermon Illustrations
  10. The Christian Curmudgeon: Don’t Tase Me, Bro
  11. A Call for Authoritative Preaching
  12. How To Astonish The World | HeadHeartHand
  13. Preaching with Bold Assurance: An Interview with Hershael York : Kingdom People
  14. Don’t Be Afraid To Preach To The Affections
  15. Preaching for Application – Justin Taylor
  16. Should Preachers Show Their Work? Or, Should Our Preaching Train People to Read the Bible? | For His Renown
  17. Preaching to the Whole Choir – Kevin DeYoung
  18. What Is Application? | HeadHeartHand
  19. 8 Principles of Application | HeadHeartHand
  20. Emotional Intelligence | HeadHeartHand
  21. Preaching To All Ages | HeadHeartHand
  22. Steve Jobs On Preaching | HeadHeartHand
  23. Disarming Your Hearers | HeadHeartHand
  24. Preaching that Cuts to the Heart – The Gospel Coalition Blog
  25. Preaching And Application (Pt 2) | The Heidelblog
  26. Learning the Art of Sermon Application – The Gospel Coalition Blog
  27. The Danger of Leaving the “Why” Out of Your Application | Pastoralized
  28. Preaching Careful, Consistent Application: A Conversation with Jonathan Leeman – Trevin Wax
  29. Charles Simeon on Discriminatory Preaching – Reformation21 Blog
  30. Preaching for Application – Justin Taylor

 

ILLUSTRATION

  1. Thoughts On Illustrations
  2. How to Guarantee Your Sermon Illustrations Succeed by Eric McKiddie – ChurchLeaders.com 
  3. The Value of Sermon Introductions: How to Stop Giving Your Congregation Theological Whiplash | Pastoralized
  4. 3 Things Photographers Can Teach You about Developing an Eye for Sermon Illustrations | Pastoralized
  5. 12 Reasons for Using Sermon Ilustrations
  6. The Easier Path to Sermon Illustrations – The Gospel Coalition Blog
  7. Why I Use Illustrations in My Teaching and Preaching by Erik Raymond | Ligonier Ministries Blog
  8. What makes for a good illustration? | Blogging Theologically
  9. 12 Steps to Strong Sermon Illustrations | Pastoralized

 

OLD TESTAMENT PREACHING

  1. There’s a lot more here: Top 200 Online Articles on Preaching Christ From The Old Testamentand Top 70 HeadHeartHand Articles on Preaching Christ From The Old Testament
  2. Top 10 Books on Christ in the Old Testament
  3. Top 20 Online Resources on Christ in Proverbs
  4. Top 70 Online Resources on the Psalms
  5. “On Preaching Christ from Daniel” by Sidney Greidanus
  6. Preaching Through Joshua | Preaching.com
  7. Dale Ralph Davis on Preaching and Praying the Psalms « unashamed
  8. The Apostolic Hermenuetic: Preaching Christ From All The Scriptures
  9. BibleX: Preaching Amos
  10. A Review: “The Word Became Fresh: How to Preach from Old Testament Narrative Texts”
  11. BibleX: Reasons for Preaching Predictive Prophecy
  12. Pyromaniacs: The sting of sending a sluggard: Preaching a single verse from a chiasm in Proverbs
  13. To Cut a Long Story Short: Preaching Obadiah | the Cripplegate

 

EVANGELISTIC PREACHING

  1. The Secret to Spurgeon’s Evangelistic Ministry by Steven Lawson | Ligonier Ministries Blog
  2. Stop preaching only to the choir? | The Briefing
  3. 5 Ways Pastors Can Improve Their Apologetic Preaching – The Gospel Coalition Blog
  4. Evangelistic Preaching on Sunday Morning? – Justin Taylor
  5. What is evangelistic preaching? | HeadHeartHand
  6. 4 kinds of evangelistic sermons | HeadHeartHand
  7. Why is evangelistic preaching so rare today? | HeadHeartHand
  8. 4 characteristics of evangelistic preaching | HeadHeartHand
  9. 4 (more) characteristics of evangelistic preaching | HeadHeartHand
  10. What does an evangelistic sermon look like? | HeadHeartHand

 

EVALUATING PREACHING

  1. Deep Preaching: Theological Matters
  2. Moore to the Point – Good News for Bad Preachers
  3. How should a pastor respond when he is complimented about his sermon? | Practical Shepherding
  4. Teaching preaching | The Briefing
  5. Flattery Can Kill – The Gospel Coalition Blog
  6. An assessment of preaching « The Wanderer
  7. The Three Basic Forms of Defective Preaching « Building Old School Churches
  8. 3 Reasons Why PowerPoint Preaching is Not Prophetic
  9. How To Critique A Sermon | HeadHeartHand 
  10. How should a pastor respond when he is praised for a good sermon? | Practical Shepherding

This list is adapted from David Murray’s list presented on his blog www.headhearthand.org.

Dr. Steven Smith serves as the Vice President for Student Services and Communications and Professor of Communication at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas. Follow Dr. Smith on Twitter at @StevenWSmith.

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Filed Under: Articles, Ministry & Leadership, Preaching & Worship