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JHerndon
Member



Joined: 2010/8/1
Posts: 92
Bonifay,Fl

 Help me grow

I want to get better at preaching. Please check out my latest sermon and give me some feed back. Thank you!

https://youtu.be/g6TTcZzFT3I


_________________
Joshua Herndon

 2017/11/21 14:04Profile
Gloryandgrace
Member



Joined: 2017/7/14
Posts: 1165
Snoqualmie, WA

 Re: Help me grow

Hi Joshua:

I have preached the gospel for about 40 years now in various roles inside and outside the Church.

I listened to the sermon. It is too bad the sound crew didn't sound check you properly before preaching. Missing the intro leaves you without the prep necessary to engage what is being said with clarity.

Content:
Pro's
1. You seem to understand the texts being read and you were not shy about confrontational statements as you sensed the prophet speak to Israel so you were bold toward your congregation.
2. I appreciate passion, you are passionate in your expressions of love toward Jesus and care for the lost.
3. I didn't red flag something off doctrinally though you articulate some things differently than I would.
Con's
Speaking 20 minutes is usually just enough time for a good speaker to get rolling and begin to develop his message. You need to end I guess according to your kind of service.
Because of this several things follow.
1. When you preach intermittently you do not develop the skills to front load a sermon with solid doctrinal statements for development and then exegete them. In your case this scenario permitted you to force the emphasis of a message into about 10 minutes. This hurts your ability to learn while speaking.
2. Your sermons will take on the...read the text...offer rebuke or correction...enter into reasons for repentance...make a plea to listen, repent, change...encourage an altar call. You will find a very stifling expression of the Spirit of God when this time constraint to force hit-and-run sermons when your passion and love can express far more. In short your learning in a situation that is built to keep Christians immature, uninformed and you untrained. Tell your leaders 20 minute sermons are fine when you preach short exhortations, but to train in righteousness...prioritize Jesus word not the expedient and rushed need to hit the buffet at noon.
3. In a conversational style like yours, you speak like a teen to teen agers...I would suggest keeping your passion and expression but learn how to speak as an adult in adult verbiage. Speaking like a youth group leader gives the impression you are unable to articulate your messages without all the slang, repetitious phrases and empty filler-words.
Style:
1. You are conversational in speaking that kind of speaking is current and trendy, but be aware its also susceptible to boring the hearers because with teens there is a seeming necessity to be "on their level" but with adults it falls flat unless you have a personality that masks it. You don't have that.
2. I love your boldness and directness. Bravo.
3. With a conversational style and it appeared extemporaneous from what I could see...that is great in some respects but can lead to ranting, moving to your favorite subject too often, failing to make your points.

Overall I though you did well for a young speaker, from the content and passion in your message you appear to express as right heart and right desire to minister truth and life to the congregation.

The best...your passion and directness
The worst...your verbiage can be better
The scenario...20 minute sermons are usually reserved for congregations that are so carnal they cannot sit still for the preaching of the word otherwise they get bored. I hope that is not the case for you.


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Marvin

 2017/11/21 19:22Profile
JHerndon
Member



Joined: 2010/8/1
Posts: 92
Bonifay,Fl

 Re:

Thank you for your feedback! Some of the things you said I know are true haha. I am actually the youth pastor at the church so it is different for me to switch from that setting to a Sunday morning. I really appreciate you taking the time to listen to the message and responding back to me! God Bless


_________________
Joshua Herndon

 2017/11/21 21:21Profile
Gloryandgrace
Member



Joined: 2017/7/14
Posts: 1165
Snoqualmie, WA

 Re:

Hi Joshua: I figured you were the youth leader.

I pray it helps, I'm glad you ask for scrutiny it will help you in the long run even the bad advice will help you to double check your doctrine, style and delivery.

The youth pastor in my old Church preached similarly as you, and now that he has his own Church plant and congregation; he has left behind the youth-leader mannerisms.

He also didn't know how to change-up his mannerism when he preached to the congregation either, but he did learn and is the better for it. God bless your life brother.


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Marvin

 2017/11/21 21:54Profile
twayneb
Member



Joined: 2009/4/5
Posts: 2256
Joplin, Missouri

 Re: Help me grow

Thought you did an awesome job. You communicated well, and that is the point. I honestly did not notice anything in your speech that was "young" that needed tweaked in order for your language to be more "adult". One thing that I did notice, and that I have learned is key to the whole process. You were personally transformed by the message you were delivering.

As I have grown and matured, I have realized that my most important preparation for teaching or preaching to others is the time I spend on my own, allowing God to transform my own life. I teach what God has taught me. I cannot bring anyone to a level of maturity that I have not been brought to by God. That is our entire purpose (Eph. 4). We are to mature the body. But we cannot do that unless God has taken us to that same place in our own lives. I saw you preach about what God had already done in your own heart. That, to me, is the single most important thing.

The mechanics will come as you continue to have opportunities to preach or teach. One attitude that I would strongly caution against. (I am not saying you are there as I have absolutely no way of knowing. I have just seen this fairly often.) Don't look to being a youth leader as somehow less than being a pastor, or the practice of speaking to or ministering to youth as being an inferior stepping stone to the superior practice of actually "preaching", as if there is a junior and senior Holy Spirit and preaching to adults is the big time, while preaching to youth is the training ground. Nothing could be further from the truth. The youth you minister to are capable, and in my experience actually hungry for, truth presented with passion and anointing of the Holy Spirit. They are wholly capable of lives transformed and set afire by the Holy Spirit and can understand deep truths in a greater way than most people think.

My two year old granddaughter was taken to the hospital recently because of a fever induced seizure. It was scary because she had turned blue and stopped breathing. My five year old grandson was there when this happened, and the whole family was pretty shaken. But my five year old grandson looked at my wife at the hospital and said this. "Nana, when Eliza quit breathing and had to go to the hospital in the ambulance, I had two thoughts. I thought that she might die. And, I thought that Jesus will heal her and she will be OK. I chose to believe the second thought." I almost fell over. What a powerful understanding of faith, and from a five year old. I CHOSE to believe the second thought.

What then can we expect of a teen?

Just keep seeking God in your closet. Continue to grow in intimacy with Him and the knowledge of His word. Continue to pour into those teens with passion. Preach to them every week out of the revelation that God has been giving you. Teach them the same transformation as you are experiencing. Take them along with you, because that is true leadership.

Loved your message.


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Travis

 2017/11/22 8:45Profile
JHerndon
Member



Joined: 2010/8/1
Posts: 92
Bonifay,Fl

 Re:

Great advice! Thank you so much!


_________________
Joshua Herndon

 2017/11/22 9:19Profile
JHerndon
Member



Joined: 2010/8/1
Posts: 92
Bonifay,Fl

 Re:

Gloryandgrace can I ask what I said that you would articulate differently?


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Joshua Herndon

 2017/11/27 16:29Profile
Gloryandgrace
Member



Joined: 2017/7/14
Posts: 1165
Snoqualmie, WA

 Re:

Joshua: I will have to go back over the sermon again to pin point verbiage. Give me another day or so and I will reply with specifics.

I will give what I believe can be helpful. But I must be careful, the Spirit of God speaking through you can and will articulate through you to the audience in front of you. I've never been in front of your audience. I do not want to pretend to be the Holy Spirit in this matter.

However, If I can offer a suggestion that might benefit you, I will do my best to challenge you for your good and the Churches benefit.




_________________
Marvin

 2017/11/27 19:16Profile
Gloryandgrace
Member



Joined: 2017/7/14
Posts: 1165
Snoqualmie, WA

 Re:

Hi Joshua:

Here is what I advise.
When you make your points ask probing convicting questions of our hearers.
"Is your life demonstrative of Isa 58? If not why not?
Is your prayer life self seeking or God seeking for his sake and for his glory?"
"We all know God calls us to love our neighbor, but ask yourself "what neighbors am I loving for Jesus sake"?
Do not move around, look intently at your hearers, ask solemnly, ask with seriousness, ask with the expectation that right there, right now they are at the bar of God.
Do not give in to joking when you sense conviction. Do not let them off the hook, do not lighten it up, do not shift to something funny or casual. Force them to consider what you are saying.
When you speak to teens as you have, you move from one point to another without confronting them. Adults need to be confronted. Do not let the ones you know are apathetic think they can sit through your sermon safely.
My intent is to challenge you to become very unsafe in the pulpit. When you speak its not the 'new preacher guy' who we can simply critique afterwards. Nonsense. Do not give them any luxury of dismissal or side-stepping your topic.
The topic you preached on is foundational to all genuine Christianity and make sure you demonstrate to them the seriousness of your meaning and the seriousness of the words that are said.
You are not their buddy when you are declaring the word of God, you are God's messenger. If you cannot be that, just what do you want to be while handling the word of God?

When they realize you are deadly serious they will not jostle around as they did during your sermon or raise their hand as if all you say is already accomplished in their lives and as good as gold. They are not, do not let them fool themselves.
When the congregation can hear a sermon like that and respond to it as though its an invitation to chicken after church...you know you didn't handle the word of God as the word of God, but as the suggestion of a religious man.
You are not 'merely' a religious man.

My challenge to you, pray to God to make you dangerous, serious, challenging, convicting. When you speak it is no longer "youth leader Josh trying to speak". It will be...
"becareful when Joshua comes to speak you may not like what you hear".
Be aware when you step into the role of a man of God, your own leaders and associates may take issue with you...because they are subject to the conviction and necessary obedience you spoke of. Men love to be above other men...and you will certainly find it in the case of a young preacher where most anyone can dismiss what he is saying because "he really doesn't mean me when he speaks".

God's grace and empowering be upon your life.


_________________
Marvin

 2017/11/28 19:49Profile
JHerndon
Member



Joined: 2010/8/1
Posts: 92
Bonifay,Fl

 Re:

Thank you!


_________________
Joshua Herndon

 2017/11/29 16:47Profile





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