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In this episode of The Sermonators, we discuss 3 key ideas for maximizing a personal assistant to streamline your workload and gain time in your week. Unless you already have these three ideas fully implemented, you could gain as many as five hours or more in your week.

Hey, bi-vocs… we also discuss how to find and use a volunteer assistant this week if you don’t have one yet.

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Reverends, we must be more reverent to the Reverendettes!

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In this episode of The Sermonators, we discuss the role of the Holy Spirit in the pastor’s personal life, his sermon preparation and delivery.

Is effective preaching based on skill and technique or supernatural power from above?  Are The Sermonators unspiritual  because we teach skills and techniques?  At what point does your work in the study stop and the power of the Holy Spirit start?  As pastors and preachers, on what do we rely to transform the lives of congregation –  our work or His?

Items mentioned in this episode:

Spirit-Led Preaching: The Holy Spirit’s Role in Sermon Preparation And Delivery by Greg Heisler

posted by Scott Newton Smith

Up front disclaimer:  We’re not endorsing nor bashing Driscoll here at The Sermonators.  We’re not groupies for any particular preacher "celeb."  You won’t find us pushing a particular preacher, nor a group of them.  That’s not what this site (or our show) is about.  Our job is to find and develop good content for busy pastors.

So, Mark Driscoll.  Love’im or hate’im, there is something to learn from Driscoll’s experience in regards to our primary topics of time management and preaching management in ministry.  The following sound bite is worth a listen.

Here’s the background:  At a recent Resurgence Conference, Mark Driscoll, preaching pastor at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA indulged an interesting Q&A session about the more practical aspects of his ministry.  I know that most of our audience here are not pastoring mega-churches as he is, nonetheless we get some good insights from his answers.

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Posted by Joel Southerland

One thing I have noticed over the years is that a great preacher rarely gets dismissed from his church or gets asked to leave (of course there are always exceptions). In conjunction with that, the pastor who accomplishes much for the Church and Kingdom rarely runs into serious trouble.  Now, it doesn’t mean they will not have trouble - all pastors have church trouble - it’s part of dealing with people. But, there is a difference between SERIOUS church trouble and everyday church problems.

If a pastor is a dynamic preacher that feeds the flock in a way that leaves them wanting more he will develop such a following that it becomes near impossible to “mount a movement” against him. 

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In this episode of The Sermonators, we discuss five tips to bulletproof your study time each week.  Making sure that you block uninterrupted time to do your sermon preparation each week is crucial for effective preaching.

We promised the script for the phone message that Southerland (Joel) leaves on his cell phone as a "temporary absence" message while he is in his study.  It reads like this:

"Hi this is [your name] and it is [date] and you have caught me in my study. I’m not able to take calls right now, so if it is an emergency you can call the church office at [your church phone number]. However, I will be returning phone calls later on, so if you would like, leave me a message and I will call you back later in the day. Or, you can email me at Pastor AT [whatever your church] DOT [com, net, org or we-hope-not-gov] & I will be checking those occasionally. Thanks for understanding and have a blessed day."

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In this episode, Smith and Southerland walk backward to the beginning point for creating powerful, high-impact illustrations.  We give 2 audio examples of our own attempts from live sermons.

An illustration (as used in a sermon) is "a concrete analogy of an abstract spiritual truth."  An illustration appeals to the imagination of the listener because it, by its very nature, contains imagery.  That’s why illustrations are often given in the form of a story — a favorite technique of Jesus Himself.

A good illustration has a high "correlation factor" to the abstract principle that it illustrates.  We discuss how to insure that the picture you paint in the concrete analogizes well (man, we hope that’s a real word) with the principle that you’re illustrating.  It has to correlate as much as possible. 

Mentioned in this show:

• 12 Essential Skills For Great Preaching by Dr. Wayne McDill

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This is our pre-launch episode to introduce the format of The Sermonators Internet Radio Show (a.k.a. podcast) as well as introducing the hosts, Smith and Southerland, (a.k.a. Scott and Joel).  You can read about the guys on the Smith&Southerland page (a.k.a. the re-labeled "about us" page). 

Bottom line: Scott Newton Smith is the itinerant preacher; Joel Southerland is the pastor. 

Together we want to bring our unique and shared perspectives to the table in an effort to bring solid value to the lives and ministries of pastors everywhere.  We really believe the Lord put us together for this purpose:  to provide ongoing support to busy pastors in order to help them preach with ever-increasing effectiveness and live with ever-increasing balance and productivity.

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by Scott Newton Smith

Preaching is a science and an art.  Our intention is not to communicate that it’s all art, or all science, although I’m sure that our critics will accuse us of both.  Check back here often as you will learn much about the science and the art of biblical, expository, and thoroughly engaging preaching.