Some discussion starters for preachers.

1. Do we agree on what preaching is (and is not?)
2. What are the qualities of a ‘good’ sermon?
3. If the aims of preaching may be defined as ‘having something to say’, and ‘knowing how to say it’, are we in danger of neglecting the skills involved in the latter of these?
4. How important and helpful is it to have systematic appraisal of our preaching?
5. Are we missing opportunities for consecutive teaching?
6. Do we need to explore biblically-justifiable complements to expository preaching?
7. Do we sometimes confuse quantity with quality? (Do we tend to assume that a 20-minute sermon is twice as good as a 10-minute one?)
8. Does our preaching sometimes lack emotional appeal and impact? If so, why, and what should we do about it?
9. People seem regularly to lament a lack of application in preaching. Can we agree on what kinds of things count as appropriate applications?
10. Are there ways in which we can help our hearers to become less passive, and more involved, when we preach?
11. To what extent is diversity in teaching between preachers a ‘good thing’? Are there areas of teaching in which differences amongst preachers are leaving the congregation as a whole confused?
12. Do we take sufficient care to present the great doctrines of ‘the faith’ (creation, revelation & inspiration, God the Father, Christ, the Holy Spirit, sin & redemption, the church, the last things etc) in their ‘biblical relations and proportions’?
13. What are the respective responsibilities of the preachers and hearers, of sermons?