Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 Dear Partner in Preaching, Not too long ago, while preparing a sermon, I was reminded of linguistic philosopher J. L. Austin’s book How to Do Things With Words, where he expresses the conviction that you know the meaning of a word or sentence not by what it says (our usual assumption), but by why what it does, by what impact it has on you. For instance, imagine that I say, “The door is open.” Is that simply a statement of fact? Maybe. But what if you had just asked a question about why it was so warm inside even though the air-conditioning was on, and I said, “The door is open.” Then I’m not simply...

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 Dear Partner in Preaching, Four loosely connected thoughts on this passage that I hope will inspire your preaching this week. First, and mainly for you: you cannot do this alone. Notice that Jesus sent out the disciples in pairs. Why? With two, there is always someone to be encouraging if one of the pair is discouraged, to keep faith if one is dispirited, and to carry on when one feels tempted to quit. This discipleship thing can be hard, but it’s always easier with a companion. And the same is true with preaching! So if you have a healthy text study group available, go. If you don’t (or even if you do), try out a...