What are you planning to preach post-Easter? Do you follow the liturgical calendar (with Ascension Day and Pentecost on the horizon, then "Ordinary Time")? If so or not, how does that affect your next series?

So I got a wild idea that I am trying this week. I often work a lot on my manuscript coming out of the PPG work to get it into my voice. I went on Claude and played around with developing a prompt. Claude asked to upload 20 handcrafted sermons I've done in the past to analyze my voice and style. I've used that to help get my Preach360 manuscript way closer to what I normally do, and I'm pretty stunned with the outcome. For one thing, it was pretty interesting to have Claude analyze my voice and style and to describe it. It was very spot on. And the output is pretty uncanny after I ran it. Has anyone else played around with this?

It's always a little concerning when I cannot verify a sermon illustration (usually something purported to be historical and true) from any source other than sermons or sermon illustration sites. Early in my preaching I was not as discerning as I am now. While brainstorming with Preach360 App/Gemini, it suggested a historical illustration that I have seen before. I couldn't find any independent verification. To its (or apparently "his") credit, I asked directly and got this response: "That is a discerning question! To be completely honest with you—as one brother to another—the Waterloo Semaphore story is largely considered an apocryphal 'preacher's story.' While it's a brilliant homiletical illustration, most historians agree that news of the victory actually reached London via a human messenger (Major Henry Percy) who traveled by carriage and boat. There was no direct semaphore line across the English Channel at that time that could have transmitted a message in that specific way." Three things can be true: 1) As communicators of Truth, we should be very discerning about everything we say, including "brilliant homiletical illustrations". You shouldn't use something if you know it to be untrue. 2) We are sometimes lazy regurgitators of untrue stories, which merely causes them to spread more. 3) If you love an illustration that you know is apocryphal and want to still use it, just say at the beginning something like: "this is probably (or is) an untrue story, but it illustrates this point..." and use it. I find it hard to do that a lot, but have done it occasionally. Other approaches or thoughts?

This Wednesday, I'll teach you a simple, 5-step process for crafting sermon introductions that don't merely grab attention. They create expectation. There's a huge difference. And expectation is far better. Learn why... and exactly how to implement the 5-steps using the Preach360™ Sermon Studio. Yes, I'll demo the process in the all-new Preach360 workspace! Hope to see you there. Here's the link: https://www.skool.com/preach360/calendar?eid=ca6f3e70c6584bd1987315a579ae0416

In my seminary homiletics class this week, something came up that I found helpful. When selecting a keyword, do a biblical-theological study of that word. See where else in Scripture it appears. There may be some amazing connections that can be made by simply doing a study of the keyword and its usage throughout Scripture.