I just read a fascinating article by Fast Co. Design where it challenges the typical approach to brainstorming. The typical approach involves getting people together and having them throw ideas up on the board–or whatever medium you’re writing on. The idea was that this type of “group” approach helps people to be more creative and get more ideas flowing. Studies going back to the fifties, though, seem to dispute this notion. The article suggests that there’s several factors that lead to creativity:

1. Design of a work space. Creativity often happens when people, who don’t normally cross paths, have the ability to mingle and share ideas. The author mentions the famed Building 20–a building on the campus of MIT that is famous for churning out many great ideas and inventions. And the implication is that, because the scientist worked in such cramped and close quarters, that it allowed the free exchange of different kinds of ideas.

This concept is talked about in the Steve Jobs bio. The story goes that, when he became the CEO of Pixar, he commission a complete redesign of the entire building. He sought to create open space where people would be forced to mingle at different times, and thereby–or hopefully–share different ideas. Did it work?

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There’s something quite satisfying about reading a short book chapter. It’s not because I don’t like to read. If I had the money I would probably buy one every few days. There’s so much to read about! Here’s the reason why I like short chapters, though: they’re usually clear in their focus and aim.

If there’s something that frustrates me above anything else in the realm of communication, it’s lack of clarity.

-What are you writing about?

-What are you speaking about?

What are you teaching about?

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If you’re a pastor, one of the most important things you can do in your congregation is to be intentional about your preaching. You’ll never have more time to influence your people than when you stand before them every week at the pulpit. Part of this, is learning to plan and develop a preaching calendar. Imagine having sermons planned out for months (or a whole year) at a time. Imagine how much less stress you’d have and the blessing that your church leaders would receive by being able to intentionally plan the service around the series that’s coming up.

A few months ago I wrote an article for Ministry Magazine called “Planning a Preaching Calendar for a Multi-Church District.” In that article I share the entire process I went through to develop a preaching calendar. If you have one, or many churches, you can use the same process to help you. Out of everything that you could do as a pastor, I believe that learning to plan a preaching calendar is in the top three in terms of importance.

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I’ll admit it. I don’t like to practice my sermons after I write them.

But I do.

I walk through it. I practice. I time myself. I will actually preach through it (in a whisper to save my voice). I go through the introduction several times. I go through transitions, and as I go through it, I make adjustments to words or phrases that I find are not flowing well. I’ve been preaching now for about 7 years and have probably preached a few hundred sermons in my time. So why would I still go through the trouble of practicing every sermon before I preach?

Because it matters and it makes a difference. If I don’t present things clearly, people will be confused, and the message will be diluted. Preaching, of all messages, really matter.

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Perhaps you’ve seen the iPodium from Littlemountain.tv.

In some of their advertising they refer to it also as the iPulpit. It looks really slick. They have several different models which you’ll see below, but they now have a competitor by the name of Churchium that is selling a similar product.

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Do you ever run out of ideas on what to speak about? Do you wish you could have some main ideas to get you started?

Well on 9-22-10 Pastor Steven Furtick finished a 24 hour preaching marathon. He did this to coincide with the release of his new book Sun Stand Still. What he also shared with everyone on his blog were all of the main ideas of the sermons he presented within that 24 hour period, which is quite valuable and interesting stuff.

So if you ever need some ideas to help start a sermon or a devotional, here you go. These are the main ideas, and everyone of them can be used to develop a sermon. You can view them in their original place here, or you can view them below.

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Recently, one of our readers asked the following question:

“I want to incorporate more illustrations in my sermons (i.e., more stories), i admire people who can dig out of their rich experience, but my experience is a bit limited, so where would you suggest i go for relevant, truthful stories illustrating how the gospel can impact our lives?”

I have my own ideas, but I’d like to open it up to the community here. So this is your time.

How do you find illustrations for different messages that you give and present? Please click here to leave a comment.

[image by helloromeo]