Author Archives

Jeff Randleman

Jeff Randleman is a husband of one, a father of six, a minister and a writer. He spends most of his days working with the church or spending time with his family.

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Book Review – Invitation To Philippians by Donald R. Sunukjian

Invitation To Philippians As a minister, I am always on the lookout for great preaching resources. Sometimes I find some incredible tools and helpful books that enable me to improve my preaching abilities. Other times, the books I find are not all that great. This book lands somewhere in the middle of that spectrum.

Invitation To Philippians, by Donald R. Sunukjian, is a part of the Biblical Preaching For The Contemporary Church series. This is a series that provides resources for the church of today, and for ministers as they strive to be relevant.

The struggle to be relevant has always been a difficult one. If you become to culturally relevant, you run the risk of compromising the message. Or you miss the chance to relevant entirely. That was my feeling as I read this book. Really, each chapter is a sermon, and it covers the entire letter of Paul to the Philippians. But in my opinion, they are bland. They lack something that would give them the power needed to be great sermons.

As I read through this book, I decided that this is much more useful in a illustrative role, rather than as sermons, or even as commentary on the passages.

Don’t get me wrong. There are some useful gems hidden in these pages. But as a preaching resource, this is mediocre, at best. I’m sure that the author is much more engaging in person, since he is a professor of preaching. However, this resource leaves something to be desired.

There are better resources out there.

Question: If you preach, what passages are your favorites to preach on? Is Philippians one of them? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

If you are interested in reading Invitation To Philippians, from the Biblical Preaching For The Contemporary Church, by Donald R. Sunukjian, you can purchase it at Amazon.com in print or for Kindle.

I received this book free from Cross Focused Media as part of their Cross Focused Reviews blogger review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

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Book Review – Persuasive Preaching by R. Larry Overstreet

Persuasive PreachingAbout a year and a half ago, I entered the preaching ministry full time. The previous two decades, and more, were spent in youth ministry, primarily to teens. In that capacity, I taught a lot. But I really didn’t have much of an opportunity to preach frequently. In all, I only filled the pulpit to preach a handful of times each year.

All that changed when I accepted the position as lead minister at my current church. In this new role, part of my primary priorities include preaching on a weekly basis. I was a bit nervous about making that change, since this isn’t something I was all that familiar with. But the change has been just what was needed, and it was obviously God’s leading for this change in ministry to occur.

However, I immediately realized my need to study more on the subject of preaching. It has been years since my homiletics courses in Bible college, and though I was adept at teaching teenagers, preaching to the whole church seemed to be a whole new league of its own. I immediately pulled out many of my old preaching books from those college courses and brushed up on style, preparation, and delivery, knowing that much of the content in these books, while helpful, was dated. So I began looking for other, newer material.

And I had a hard time finding anything really good, until I picked up a copy of Persuasive Preaching by R. Larry Overstreet. Persuasive Preaching was the shot in the arm that I needed to read to help me focus my attention on the areas of preaching that are the priority.

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Book Review – The Woman Who Would Be King by Kara Cooney

The Woman Who Would Be KingI don’t know all that much about Egyptian history. The subject has always intrigued me, since much of the Bible’s early history is affected by Egypt. I even went so far as to purchase a few DVD courses a few years ago on Egyptian history, but haven’t studied them completely. It has always been an interest of mine, but never a passion.

That may have just changed.

Over the weekend, I read The Woman Who Would Be King, by Egyptologist Kara Cooney. I was hooked and couldn’t put the book down.

Written in an almost biographical format, The Woman Who Would Be King is about Hatshepsut and her reign as king of Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty.

Against all odds, and against early civilization’s strictures against women in power, Hatshepsut took firm control of the leadership of Egypt when her dynastic line was in trouble. Her powerful father, Thutmose I was dead, leaving a sickly heir, her husband and brother, Thutmose II. Shortly after this, he died as well, and the new heir to the throne was a young child.

Hatshepsut quickly stepped in as regent and co-ruler, taking the reigns of the nation in hand and leading firmly. As she consolidated her power, she built a legacy that few other kings could match. She expanded trade with several new regions in Africa and around the Mediterranean, and even into Asia. She pushed her military strength south into Africa, bringing home much wealth from Nubia. And she instituted a building frenzy of temples, obelisks, and other Egyptian structures that is unparalleled in much of Egypt’s history.

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Coffee Break – 11.17.2014

Coffee Break Banner

Starbucks Cup Art – I am not a fan of Starbucks coffee. I find it over-roasted, and over-priced. One of my favorite phrases is, “Friends don’t let friends drink Starbucks.” However, some people have created some pretty cool works of art out of a Starbucks cup. Check out the Pinterest page too.

Common MythConceptions – Snopes.com is one of the places I turn to to debunk myths on the Internet. But this infographic shows several common and persistent myths that we believe.

Don’t Waste Your Two Most Productive Hours – The past few years, I’ve discovered that my more productive time of day has shifted to the mornings, and particularly the early morning hours. But I still struggle with checking email and doing other mindless tasks during this time.

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Memorize Scripture: Titus 2:1-2

Paul shifts his focus to Titus as the second chapter in this brief letter begins. In chapter one, he discussed elders and their need to address false teaching. Now, he shifts to the true doctrine that Titus is to instruct the churches, and breaks it down for various groups.

He begins with older men in Titus 2:1-2:

Titus 2:1-2

In contrast to the false teachers and their intent to lead people astray, Paul encourages Titus to focus on teaching solid and sound doctrine to the people in the churches in Crete. This section is organized similarly to 1 Timothy 5:1-2, where Paul breaks things down by gender and age for Timothy as well. Here, however, his focus is less on how to relate to each of these divisions, and more on how they are to behave. Their behavior, in accordance with sound doctrine, will allow them to lives lives that shine a light into the darkness in Crete.

Paul begins by changing his focus a bit. In the previous passages, his instructions were to the elders of the churches. But now, he shifts to speak directly to Titus. This is what he is to teach, this chapter gives Titus the direction he is to fix his focus as he leads these churches.

In comparison, his instruction is to be solid in sound teaching, or healthy teaching. This stands in stark contrast to the unhealthy teachings of the false teachers.