I read something Charles Metcalf wrote that I thought was brilliant. He said, "You will never preach better than the person you are. Preaching is not an isolated skill; it is the public overflow of your private life. As your character deepens, your preaching gains weight, texture, depth, beauty, and authority, but if your life is shallow and small, your preaching will be thin no matter how polished or impressive your delivery is. People don’t just hear your words—they feel your life, and they are trained to sense authenticity even if they can’t articulate it. If you’re disconnected, performative, or simply re-preaching something you heard this week, people know, even if they don’t know how they know. If your world is small, your preaching will be small; limited exposure to people, pain, culture, life, love, faith, and risk produces narrow preaching. You cannot want big preaching and live a small life. Your soul is all you’ve got, and in an age where people can access Scripture instantly and study it deeply on their own, your value is not just information—it’s conviction. Your authority doesn’t come from saying something new, but from living something real. Pray you are well. 🖤"- C In my coaching, we talked about people knowing if what you're preaching is real to you. Tim Keller calls it, "non-deliberate transparency". People know you ate the bread you're serving as a preacher. I told our group: we preach with confidence when we preach with conviction... and we preach from conviction when we have been personally convinced. Here are 10 things the craft of preaching cannot replace. 1. Your secret place with God. 2. Spending time with people not just preparing for them. 3. Having spiritual authority that you're submitted to. 4. Your growing relationship with God. 5. Pain & Suffering. 6. Biblical observations that have first impacted you. 7. The books you read/listen to. 8. A long obedience in the same direction. 9. The art you consume. 10. Steps of faith.

This past week in the DYP coaching group we talked about one of my favorite parts of the sermon writing process.....OBSERVATIONS. In the I.N.S.P.I.R.E.D. sermon framework it is step two: NOTICING. It's the unlock that will make you more confident as a communicator, more valuable than AI, and give the ability to never run out of things to say. It's the step many are tempted to skip... It's much easier to pull up YouTube, rely on cliches, or go straight to the expert in a commentary. But what you want to do is SIT WITH THE TEXT. Well... before that.. pray what David prayed: "Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law."- Psalm 119:18 Then... SIT WITH THE PASSAGE. LOOK. LOOK AGAIN. LOOK AGAIN AGAIN. WHAT'S HAPPENING? WHO'S TALKING? WHERE ARE WE IN THE META-NARRATIVE OF SCRIPTURE? WHAT ARE THE ACTIONS OF HUMANITY? WHAT ARE THE ACTIONS OF GOD? ASK QUESTIONS. ASK MORE QUESTIONS. MAKE CONNECTIONS. Your heart is not to see something "no one else has seen before." That's arrogant. The heart is to see something YOU'VE never seen before. A connection you've never seen before or a greater enlightenment on a simple truth. Anything that God wants to show you. I'm writing those observations down. I'm turning those observations into points. I'm turning my process of discovery into a sermon. There is so much to see. Here's a truth that needs to be a conviction for every preacher: EVERYTHING IN THE PASSAGE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE THE BIGGEST DEAL. Read that back and get that in your heart. I heard a preacher preach on a comma before. "Don't put a period where God puts a comma." lol. People got saved that night. He preached on a comma y'all! I'm opening up a new discussion category for anyone to write out biblical observations from your study. Here's on from reading Psalm 23... The first 3 verses of Psalm 23.. David is talking about God in third person. THE LORD is my Shepherd. HE makes me lie down... HE leads me besides still waters... HE refreshes my soul...