Web gems

When i originally gave my preaching playbook, the final preparation point before putting pen to paper (or more accurately, fingers to keyboard) was to check out a bunch of websites to see what others have said about the passage i am preaching on.

A few years ago i would have a bank of about 50 sites that i would look at, to varying degrees of usefulness and quality.

Now i have about 4-5 that i will look at.

Keep in mind, the aim is to see what others have said and the structure they have used, not go on a plagiarist pilgrimage. 95% of my sermon has already been written. Usually, the benefits arise out of discovering opinions that i didn't even consider or disagree with.

The sites i normally check out, and why, are...

biblegateway.com - Useful, if nothing else, to copy the passage or any other quoted verses into the sermon transcript.

Two sites that have a stack of sermons and, more importantly, commentaries (I only wish that my bookshelves could contain many of these volumes!)... preceptaustin.org/tool_commentary.htm and searchgodsword.org/com

Three church websites, all with different slants. One from a well known, conservative - desiringgod.org - One a local church that i like the preaching of in the US - unionchurch.com - and an Aussie Uniting church (which is useful to get both a national and denominational angle) - peterjblackburn.net

Sure, if a passage is an especially tricky one or quite obscure (like the year of Jubilee!) then i may also take a glance at sermoncentral.com, but the influx of 100's of sermons on Ephesians 3 can be overwhelming.

Finally, i also check out biblical-art.com for PowerPoint backgrounds.