worship - The Practical Disciple

Posts Tagged Under: worship

Eight Simple Things You Can Do to Get More Out of Every Sermon [Episode 40]

Every sermon is an opportunity to learn and grow. Unfortunately, most people do not avail themselves of this opportunity. You can be the exception by exercising a few simple steps of intentional listening and application.

 

 

While the sermon is delivered…

 

Step 1: Bring a Bible.

When I say bring a Bible, I mean an honest to goodness old fashion paper and print bible. Not a Bible on your phone, iPad, or other electronic device. Why paper? Research has shown that when you study from a printed resource you have great retention. Plus, you’re going to need it for the next step.
 

Step 2: Follow the readings.

As the passage is being read, following along in your Bible. Reading

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ACTS Prayer Method, A Simple Key to Greater Breadth and Depth in Prayer [Episode 9]

Do you ever get in a dry spell with God?

You know…those times when you’re praying the same things over and over again? Or you’ve stopped praying altogether.

Or, do you find yourself at a loss for words only minutes into praying? Does your mind wander away?

All too often it takes a crisis to pull someone out the pit of these problem to they can come back to God with undivided attention. That’s a shame because waiting for a crisis is so unnecessary.

You have a better choice. Adopt a prayer model as a tried and true ladder to get you out of the pit. The ACTS prayer model is one of my favorites.

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Bible Study and Worship Tips: What to Look for in a Sermon or Passage

I have encouraged readers in recent posts to take notes when listening to a sermon and to set goals for responding. I thought it may be helpful though if I offered some suggestions as to what to look or listen for. When I am either doing bible study or listening to a sermon I listen for what I call three basic callings. They are principles, tasks and changes.

  • Principles or life lessons are instructions for how we should live as disciples. For example, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is a general guiding principle that we should seek to be mature in all the time.
  • Tasks are measurable commitments that you believe God is calling you to accomplish. For example, you might

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3 More Tips to Give You An Exceptional Experience of Sunday Morning

If you went to worship yesterday, do you remember what was preached? How much of the sermon can you recall today? Last week I posted an article on 6 ways to bring a sermon home.  Those tips were things to do during worship to help you get more out of worship.  If you really want to take a sermon home, you don’t want to stop there.  Here are three tips to practice on Monday that are sure to literally make your experience exceptional, because the average person is failing to do them.
 

PRACTICE RECALL

Seriously, how much of the sermon can you recall?  I mentioned in my prior post taking a moment to recall the sermon during worship.  Do it again the next day.  If you

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6 Ways To Take a Sermon Home

This past Sunday I got to be in the pew for a change.   I see a lot of people being passive in worship.  Here are 6 strategies I use when I am priviledged to be in the pews to insure that I am responsive to what is preached.

  1. BYOB. Bring your own Bible. Follow the readings and when appropriate underline, mark or otherwise annotate the text. If you read the Bible with a pencil in hand you will pay more attention to the text.
  2. Take Note.  Bring a pad or scribble on your bulletin the thought flow of the sermon. This past Sunday when I was in worship I made a mind map of the sermon on the back of my bulletin. Mind mapping is a graphical method for taking notes.
  3. Rehearse your notes. 

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Prayer Mobile–Keeping the Sabbath Holy on the Road

As a pastor, I don’t get too many Sunday to be on the pew side of worship. So, when I am on vacation I love taking advantage of the opportunity to check out worship in another church. This past Sunday my kids and I hit the road for vacation and had hoped to stop at a colleague’s church for vacation. As is our tradition though, we left much later than we intended and I quickly realized arriving on time to the church wasn’t going to happen. Quickly leaning on a teaching maxim, “monitor and adjust” we improvised and had worship while going down the road.

At 11 o’clock when our service would normally start I announced from the front of the van, “Good morning and welcome to

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