Jeremy Hoover

This is a third post in my series reflecting on leadership in service. In the first post, I wrote about how ministers and preachers should be the lead servants in their congregations, out and among the people, serving them. In a follow-up audio, I explore how we need to be the lead servants because Jesus called us not to be served but to serve.

In this provocative 7 minute audio, I examine more about Jesus' teaching to serve and to be first by being last. I ask preachers especially to examine the tradition of spending hours and hours on sermons and lessons and ask themselves whether they do so on behalf of the congregation or to serve themselves.

Next week, I'll follow this up by exploring what sermons and lessons might look like if we spent less time on them and more time among people, serving them.

These are study questions, notes, and application ideas from Acts 2. Please use and distribute these (or link to them) if you find them useful.

You can download this study guide by clicking on the download button. You can also resize it or read it on fullscreen by clicking on the corresponding button.

Do you ever wonder how speakers put their talks together? As a preacher, do you struggle with lesson preparation? Do you want a system that can help you prepare lessons that connect with people? If you answer yes to any of these questions, either or both of these books will be helpful and useful to you.

Last year I read World Class Speaking by Craig Valentine and Mitch Meyerson. Meyerson provides some information about marketing yourself as a speaker and building an online system for doing such, but the meat of the book is Valentine's instruction about the nuts-and-bolts of speaking.

Craig Valentine is a "world champion of public speaking" through Toastmasters and has identified a clear system that can help any speaker create an idea and move it forward to a full-blown keynote speech. He lays this system out in his book. The book is organized around three parts that focus on building your speech, generating leads, and building an information business through your speaking.

The heart of the book, for me, is Part I, "How to Master the Art of Public Speaking." In four chapters, Craig covers general speaking tips, speech-structure, content development, and stage presence and delivery. His chapters are well-written and filled with examples that illustrate his point and hints to help you put these concepts into practice in your own speaking.

The final two Parts have more to do with marketing and business and are probably more useful for professional speakers than preachers, though I was able to apply some of the concepts to my blog and social media strategies.

I'm using Craig's 9 Step Structure Model to develop my sermons and have been rewarded with several comments about the clarity of these lessons. It's a useful approach and well worth investing about $15 in for the book.

Craig is also a contributor to The Speaker's Edge, along with four other full-time speakers (Mark Brown, Darren LaCroix, Patricia Fripp, and Ed Tate). Although the book appears to be a promotion for their World Champions EDGE speaking program, it provides short, simple, clear, useful chapters about speaking.

Also organized around three parts, this book covers "Platform Presence," "Content Excellence," and "Winning Techniques." The chapters are short and provide just enough information to help you understand the concept. The contributors obviously want you to seek more information from their membership website, but if the information is as good as Craig's World Class Speaking book, the membership site will be worth the monthly fee ($29.95).

These are two good books for presenters and speakers of all stripes. Of the two, World Class Speaking is better, but both are helpful and useful, and I recommend both of them.

Some of you have been interested in hearing about things such as why I preach and teach texts and through books of the bible instead of topical lessons, how I prepare, how I study, and so on. So I made this video today during my sermon preparation to try and describe how I prepare my sermons. I hope it's helpful and would enjoy hearing some feedback from you about it.

I wrote this blog post several months ago. I'm republishing it as a PDF for you to download and print out. It will be most useful for preachers and teachers, but it also contains tips that will be  helpful for anyone who reads the bible.

PDF: 4 Steps for Sermon Prep