The Homiletics Online Blog
By Joanna R. Loucky-Ramsey If the last several months have been challenging for your group, you’re not alone! Navigating relationships during a pandemic, with all the challenges of social distancing, lockdowns, and meeting each other on small screens, hasn’t been easy. Many groups have experienced losses and change. Whether or not you normally take a…
Faithful readers of Homiletics will recall that I’ve waxed modestly about trees on several occasions. The archetype of the tree is an important device in both Scripture and literature. Indeed, the Bible begins with “the tree of life” (Genesis 2:9) and ends with the “tree of life” (Revelation 22:19). Adam and Eve were not to…
Several of our longtime writing contributors are avid enthusiasts of different athletic activities. One is a seasoned cyclist who’s ridden back and forth across the entire country and probably pedaled every back road in the state of Ohio. Another is a marathon runner who’s completed both the Boston Marathon and the New York City Marathon….
The first week of the New Year is often a time to take a breath and relax. Autumn was full of excitement with fall festivals, trips to the orchard and pumpkin-spice everything. We were still enjoying Thanksgiving leftovers when Advent ushered in the magic and joy of Christmas, with events nearly every day in December. And we probably stayed up too late on New…
Tell me we live in a post-Christian era or a post-Christian culture and I will agree with you with one proviso: Let’s not talk about the weeks between Thanksgiving and December 25. During these roughly four weeks, the United States is anything but a post-Christian culture. It’s a decidedly Christian one. How do I know…
One of my daily rituals is pulling into my favorite coffee shop first thing in the morning for a quick cup to go. It’s the kind of place that has those pump pots all lined up on the counter with exotic names and flavors aplenty, but I’m a creature of habit so I always get…
Fall is part of that time on the church calendar known as ‘common’ or ‘ordinary’ time, but if your church is like a lot of others, there’s a good chance you’re also getting ready to celebrate the most important unofficial season of the church year. I’m referring, of course, to stewardship season — the roll-out…
The 20th anniversary of 9/11 is an important and somber observance for Americans and others. It can be an emotional and tough topic to cover, so we at Homiletics Online are glad to be able to work with the editorial team at The Wired Word and share with you this special 9/11 Patriot Day edition…
How to Help Your Congregation Chew Their Food By Timothy Merrill Everyone except the preacher seems to agree that a good sermon’s most appealing attribute is brevity. Hands down. The late comedian George Burns once said, cigar in hand, that “the secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good…
One of my guilty pleasures this time of year is to go home on Sunday afternoon after a long morning of services, plop down on the couch and turn on — oh, how I hate to admit this — the NASCAR race of the week. That’s right, I really do enjoy watching 30-some cars do…
