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Studying Case Histories, Elmer A. Kettner

Concordia Theological Monthly

A New Approach to Self-Improvement in Ministering to tlle Individual

Ministering to a congregation is not only preaching. I entered the ministry laboring under the false impression that it is. Didn't all my friends urge me to study for the ministry because I had won the county oratorical contest two years in succession? Didn't I learn from the Apology itself that "there is nothing which holds people with the church more effectively than a good sermon"? Didn't Luther have so many hearers because he was a good preacher? I would develop my preaching and build up a congregation by "compelling …

Teaching Situations, Outlines, And Lesson Plans, P. E. Kretzmann

Concordia Theological Monthly

One of the strangest distinction which is observed when men are being trained for the ministry and, for that matter, when men are in the ministry, is that which prompts ministers to lay just about the exclusive emphasis of their office on preaching, that is, on delivering the sermons and addresses in public gatherings of the Christian congregation. No doubt this is the most conspicuous part of the ministry and one upon which success depends in a very vital way. We are prone to quote the statement from our Lutheran Confessions "Es ist kein Ding, das die Leute mehr bei …