One of your jobs as a preacher is to teach your listeners how to live out the truths you preach from Scripture.

Preaching, of necessity, requires application. We’re preaching for life-change. We’re preaching to make the written word become the living word in people’s daily lives.

But the application part of the sermon is often the most difficult to execute well. I once listened to a sermon where the preacher concluded with a list of 13 ways to apply the message. Thirteen ways! Most people struggle to remember thirteen different truths from one sermon, much less apply them. He was well-meaning, but the buckshot approach just doesn’t work.

With that said, drilling down on just one application seems too narrow. You have a varied audience with varied needs. The text has one meaning, and hopefully your message can be summed up in one big idea, but the way the text can be applied to someone’s life is innumerable. You can’t list every possible way it...

"Shorter sermons are almost always better."

That was the title of one of the first articles I published at Preaching Donkey back in 2014.

I felt strongly that a shorter sermon is a more effective sermon simply because there is less room for fluff and filler.

Over the years I've adjusted my view, and I want to share my thoughts on this issue. Is a shorter sermon better? Is a long sermon preferable? What are some things to consider?

We'll dive into all that in this episode.

There’s nothing like a good snoozer of a sermon. We’ve all sat through them. We’ve all given them at one point or another (myself included).

But what does it take to preach a sermon that makes your listeners fall sound asleep?

What does it take to defy everyone’s ability to pay attention?

If you aspire to give boring sermons that help your people catch up on rest while you preach, there are five easy steps which I'm sharing in this episode!

Outlining is a crucial part of the sermon prep process.

Just like a body needs a skeleton, a sermon needs an outline to provide a framework for the message.

In this episode, we will dive into the most effective way to outline your message every single time.

Bill Isaacs, author of Be the Leader, joined me for the sixth episode of the Preaching Donkey Podcast. He shared about how he utilizes his team for sermon prep, how he focuses on what is most important and lessons from leading through a pandemic.

Brandon Kelley, author of Preaching Sticky Sermons and founder of Rookie Preacher, joins us for episode one of the Preaching Donkey Podcast to talk about finding your voice as a preacher, preparing a text in order to preach it compellingly and the unique struggles of leading during these challenging times.

Not everyone processes information the same way! Some learn audibly, others visually, still others kinesthetically. As preachers who want to communicate effectively with our audience, we must leverage all the tools we have to reach everyone in our audience with our message. In this video, we explore three things you must do to ensure your messages reach everyone in your church.

The concept of authority is a touchy issue. Some avoid it altogether because of how they've seen "authority" abused in church settings. Other people want to preach with a sense of authority but don't know how or even fully what that means. I think there is a lot of confusion around this issue, and I hope to bring some clarity to it. I believe every preacher should preach with authority and confidence. But that authority does not derive from within themselves, the authority comes from preaching the Word of God. In this video, I'll outline what it looks like to preach with authority the way we were meant to as preachers.

This is taken from the Something More podcast hosted by Steve Karma. In this segment we discuss the important question, "What is your process for sermon prep?"

Hey there! Thanks for checking out Preaching Donkey! We post a new video each week on SERMON PREP, SERMON DELIVERY or CHURCH LEADERSHIP. All with the goal of helping your preach with more impact and effectiveness than ever before!! I believe the GOSPEL is the most important message in the world! Let's make sure it's heard! Be sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell so you don't miss a video!