Links of the Week (1/7/17)

Each Saturday we point you to the best preaching, leadership, and ministry content we have encountered on the internet during the week.

Links of the Week

Want some free preaching and productivity resources? How does a sermon evaluation worksheet, a weekly productivity template for Evernote, a sermon series planning template for Evernote, and 56 weeks of preaching topics sound to you? Grab them by going here (and never miss fresh content from RookiePreacher.com).

Top 10 Sermon Introduction Mistakes – by Eric McKiddie

How you get your sermon started matters. While there is lots of room for error in the body of your sermon, there is little room for error in your introduction. It can be the difference between someone being on the edge of their seat or slumped in their seat, between using their phone’s Bible app or fantasy football app.

My Favorite Bible-Reading Plan for 2017 – by Tim Challies

This is the plan I’m using.

5 Ways You Can Grow in 2017 – by Justin Trapp

My wife says, “You are addicted to progress.”

It’s true.

Ten Major Trends for Churches in 2017 – by Thom Rainer

For those who read my blog regularly, you know I do a “trends post” every year early in January. This next statement sounds totally immodest, but I’m pretty good at predictive trends.

4 Responsibilities Of Church Leadership – by Brian Dodd

In a recent podcast, Shawn Lovejoy talked a lot about how church leadership can help create vision and use it to move the church forward. In creating vision and leading people through it, there comes a lot of responsibility though. Shawn offers some advice:

CT Pastors’ Top 16 Articles of 2016 – by Kyle Rohane

For Christianity Today’s pastoral resources, this was a year of transitions. After 36 years serving pastors with remarkable ministry insight, Leadership Journal published its final issue in January. But its legacy (and entire catalog of articles) lives on here at CTPastors.com.

How to Leverage the L.E.A.P. Principle for Big Results – by Michael Hyatt

The turn of the year is always a good time to evaluate what’s working in our lives, what’s not, and make any changes that will start us down a better path.

A Tip for Husbands – by Eric Raymond

This works as a tip vice versa too.

7 Writing Tips from Charles Spurgeon – by Lucid Books

Prior to the standardization of typewriters—let alone the development of computers—Charles Spurgeon literally penned a boatload of content. He’s considered to be the most widely read preacher and he produced more written material than any other Christian in history.

The Preacher’s Guide to Preparing Sermons with a Team – by Lane Sebring

Preachers do weird things. One weird thing we do is prepare our sermons alone. Every week you have to get up in front of a group of people and say words. Those words have to be engaging, powerful, motivating, encouraging, accurate, practical, and spiritual all at the same time.