by Adam Hughes | Nov 30, 2018 | Preaching
How do you keep your preaching fresh year after year during Christmas and Easter? Or more to the point, how do you keep your people freshly interested in attending and hearing you during these seasons? No doubt this can be a challenge. After nearly 20 years in the pastorate and in the pulpit on a regular basis, I have a few ideas that have aided me in doing just this. In this post, I list and discuss three of the ones I discovered to be most beneficial.
by Adam Hughes | Nov 16, 2018 | Leadership
As a pastor, you often are called on to travel and represent your congregation as a part of your ministry. The difficult part is this does not mean that the rest of your responsibilities stop simply because you are out. Amazingly, I have found that I can be more productive on the road if I plan to be and expect to do so. In this post, I share a few of my tips that I have learned along the way that help me use my travel time wisely.
by Adam Hughes | Nov 9, 2018 | Preaching
A few weeks ago, we explored sermon introductions. This week we want to look at the other end of the spectrum – sermon conclusions. If sermon introductions are about gaining a hearing, then sermon conclusions are about leaving an impression. Therefore, in this article I give you the three simple goals that I try to accomplish in the conclusion every sermon I preach.
by Adam Hughes | Nov 2, 2018 | Uncategorized
This article first appeared on Theological Matters, the academic blog of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Immigration, border security and citizen safety currently constitute one of the hottest issues in the American political scene. Certainly, no one...
by Adam Hughes | Oct 26, 2018 | Leadership, Preaching
I genuinely believe that a pastor holds the place as the primary leader of the church he serves. This is true whether he desires or aspires to this or not. The question for you, then, is will you lead from the pulpit intentionally. Will you do it with clarity and purpose? In this post, I give you 3 suggestions for preaching your pastoral vision as a part of your preaching ministry.
by Adam Hughes | Oct 12, 2018 | Sermon Prep
There are more homiletics resources available now in a coalesced way that at any point in history. So, there is no reason, resource wise, for today’s pastor to be ill equipped to preach well. However, perhaps with so many resources, it is easy to become overwhelmed. Therefore, in this article I want to share a few of the resources that I have come to consider my personal favorites.
by Adam Hughes | Oct 5, 2018 | Sermon Prep
Most people decide within the first 30 seconds of your sermon if they will listen to you for the next minute or two. Then, within the first minute or two, they decide whether they will listen to you for the next 30 minutes. This has everything to do with how you begin your message. Therefore in this article, I want to share with you five tips that I use to assemble a well crafted introduction.
by Adam Hughes | Sep 28, 2018 | Preaching
I believe in the role and anointing of the Holy Spirit in our preaching. However, much of what we pursue regarding the power or unction of the Holy Spirit in our ministries should be closely related to our personal purity. We must understand that the Holy Spirit will not bless our preaching, or our ministries in general, if our lives are at odds with the Word of the Spirit. Therefore here, I offer three thoughts for understanding the role of the Holy Spirit in our preaching . . . or how you should understand becoming text-driven in your living that leads to being Spirit-led in your preaching.
by Adam Hughes | Sep 21, 2018 | Pastoral
In any ministry setting conflict resolution, unity, and the ability to lead forward is a must. A church cannot only get through these situations but they can learn to use them to produce and grow in congregational health and discipleship. However, in order to do so a culture of listening has to be created in the church. In this article, I offer three essentials for creating a culture of listening in your pastoral ministry.
by Adam Hughes | Sep 14, 2018 | Preaching
I say in the classroom often that preaching is an art more than a science. And, if this is true of sermon construction, it is certainly true of sermon delivery. Essentially, you must learn to be the best “you” you can be yet all the while making sure that version of you doesn’t distract your audience. In this post, I offer three tips that have helped me learn to be the best “me” that I can be through the years.
