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Articles by Haddon Robinson
When Good Snakes Become Bad Snakes
Introduction At the risk of ruining your political correctness, I wonder if you are prejudiced. Are you prejudiced against snakes? If a group of snakes moved in next door and inhabited your back yard, do you think it would lower your property values? Suppose your daughter brought a snake home for dinner. Would your family be comfortable with that? Chances are you are prejudiced against snakes.
Interrupted Life
I have a dog named Rev. She is my constant companion and an ever-present nuisance in times of trouble, or anytime really. Rev is always with me and she almost always wants something from me. I work from home. Once, in a disagreement about family duties caring for our little labradoodle, my wife said to me, “Well, I don’t stay at home during the week.” I was quick to correct her.
What Biblical Preaching Is and Isn’t
[Editor’s Note: Haddon Robinson passed away in 2017.] Some questions people ponder all their lives. Einstein wrestled with the question of gravity till his dying day. On the subject of preaching, one of the elemental questions is "What is biblical preaching?" Everyone who takes Scripture seriously says we need to preach the Bible, but even the most ardent disagree widely about what that means exactly.
Creative Doorways into a Psalm and Sermon
Creative Doorways into a Psalm and Sermon It takes imagination, not just analysis, to recreate the impact of a Psalm. Image: Noorulabdeen Ahmad / Unsplash How can we preach psalms in a way that recreates some of the meditative, emotional, imaginative, and collaborative effects the poets built into their hymns? Preachers need look no further than the communication strategies of the text. Some of those strategies can be incorporated directly into our sermons.
Goldilocks and the Streets of Gold
Goldilocks and the Streets of Gold The difficulty of preaching about heaven. Image: JasonDoiy / Getty Remember Goldilocks? Remember how terrified she was when she awakened staring into the teeth of three angry bears? What you don’t know is that Goldie’s near-death experience later got her to think about eternity. Never much of a church goer before her brush with the bears, she ultimately decided to visit three churches in her neighborhood, attending each one for a full year.
The Homiletic Incline
“What’s the difference between textual and expository preaching?” It’s one of my students’ most frequently asked questions. The subject came up again the other day during a conversation I had with a seminary professor. We agreed that the fundamental distinction between textual and expository preaching is one that’s routinely overlooked by students and their instructors alike.
Do You Love People?
Introduction Soon after I graduated from seminary one of my first ministries was as an assistant pastor of First Baptist Church in Medford, Oregon. During those three years I attended a number of ordination exams. In our denomination, ordination exams are about the same as the baseballs at Fenway Park, all of them are pretty much alike. But there was one that I do remember. A young man was being examined for ministry, and as I remember, he was a graduate of a Bible college.
How's Your Soul, Preacher?
Sabbath reconnects us with God, community connects Scripture to our hearer’s lives, and preaching is more than an encouraging word. Jason Esposito, pastor of Crossway Church in Milwaukee, WI, sums up the state of preachers right now: “The practices I had in place need to be the same, but they haven’t been. So many other things have been demanding my time.
What Preachers Can Learn from Sportswriters
What Preachers Can Learn from Sportswriters How to find the back story, put the picture in a frame, and stick the landing. Image: fotosipsak / Getty I can picture you, and I can picture him, and there is no resemblance. You stand behind a pulpit or lectern in your Sunday best, business casual, or dressed-down look, according to your church’s fashion. But he (and it was almost always a “he”), that famed sportswriter of the 1950s, wore an overcoat and a fedora on chilly nights in the press box.
2019 Preaching Today Biblical Preaching Award Winners
We are excited to announce the winners of the 2019 Preaching Today Biblical Preaching Award! For the past two years Preaching Today has partnered with five seminaries across the United States. We are thankful for this partnership and excited to see the rise of the next generation of preachers. This award is given to students who best exhibit Biblical preaching applied to everyday life.
Preaching as Fussing
Introduction While talking with a colleague who teaches preaching, the concept of preaching as fussing came up. I had not thought of this concept before. Fussing tends to have a negative sense about it. We all know that to make a fuss over someone or something may seem to be over the top—too much excitement or focus on one person or thing.
Haddon Robinson's Not-So-Blatant Big Idea
Sometimes it's better to hold your big idea until the end. Throughout my 27-years of preaching and five years of coaching other preachers I return to one key element of effective preaching over and over: the big idea. Working on your big idea can markedly sharpen the effectiveness of your weekly preaching. The concept was popularized by Haddon Robinson, the giant of biblical preaching who passed away in July 2017.
Question-Oriented Preaching
The value of asking questions before, during, and after our sermon to help people engage with the text and God. Along the banks of the Schuylkill River, just north of the famous Philadelphia Art Museum is an oft-unnoticed small plaza consisting of four twelve-foot high granite statues. One of the four statues is jolting because it is strikingly counter-intuitive.
Honoring Billy Graham
Editor’s Note: On February 21, 2018, Billy Graham passed away at the age of 99. We reached out to some of Preaching Today’s contributors and asked them to share how Graham inspired them as preachers and teachers. We'll be updating this page with new responses throughout the week. There is no longer shadow that has been cast, there are no larger shoes to be filled. No one defined and united the evangelical world for half a century and more the way that he did.
Preaching on Grace
Editor's Note: This is part two of an interview Kyle Rohane, Managing Editor for CT Pastors, and Andrew Finch, Associate Editor for Preaching Today, had with Kyle Idleman. You can find part one here. What are some of the misunderstandings of grace that our people enter church with?
The Color of Preaching
The benefits of preaching with aesthetic value. “They that walked in darkness sang songs in the olden days—Sorrow Songs—for they were weary at heart … a haunting echo of these weird old songs in which the soul of the black slave spoke to men. Ever since I was a child these songs have stirred me strangely. They came out of the South unknown to me, one by one, and yet at once I knew them as of me and of mine.
What Makes You Happy?
In John's first letter of correspondence to the churches, there are some troublesome verses. First John 4:9-10 is not difficult: "This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." I was trying to think back over my life, and I'm not sure I ever heard those verses quoted except in an application for the gospel.
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