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Because of the horrifying tragedy in Myanmar (rescue officials think the death toll may climb as high as 100,000), many of us will probably want to lead our congregations through difficult issues like pain and suffering. We've gathered a few illustrations and tagged them as "Free" for the next 30 days to help you in your preaching. Most of these stories come from past tragedies—the tsunami that killed over 400,000 people, Hurricane Katrina, the attacks at Virginia Tech—and obviously speak to the heart of what we're watching unfold in Myanmar.

*Update: For some reason our audio player was streaming an older episode of PT Talk. The problem has now been fixed. Sorry about the inconvenience!

Sarah Baldwin, Preaching Today's editorial coordinator, recently ran an annotated bibliography on the theme of Relationships. For this episode of PT Talk, we talk about why you'll want to check this resource out (along with other bibliographies on Emotions, Money, and Spiritual Formation).

Click "Play" on the audio player below, and you can listen to PT Talk via an audio stream. If you'd rather download the audio file so you can have it on the run, there is a link just below the player.

To download this episode of PT Talk, click here.

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We thought that in light of the current news about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you might need some materials to work with in your church. Below are some book reviews and related stories that may help you find a way forward in addressing particular issues concerning Mormonism from the pulpit or in related pastoral settings. Please exercise caution, however, in relating all Mormon practice to the more fundamentalist branch that is being highlighted in Texas. Most of these resources speak to the Mormon faith in general with a few hints of insight into the FLDS.

Though I can't say I've read everything out there on the subject, I can say that Thomas Long's "Stolen Goods: Tempted to Plagiarize" is the best thing I've read so far about issues pertaining to preaching and plagiarism. Brian Larson, editor of PreachingToday.com, offered the same sentiments when he first received permission for us to run the article. If you haven't read it, take a moment to check it out. Also, we'd love for you to give a listen to the most recent episode of PT Talk to hear us discuss this controversial topic. This entry builds off of thoughts I briefly shared in that audio cast.

PreachingToday.com is currently running "Stolen Goods: Tempted to Plagiarize", an article by Thomas G. Long about the necessity of citation and the damage of deceit in preaching. The editors of Preaching Today wanted to use our new weekly audio feature - PT Talk - to chime in with a few thoughts on this controversial topic. Please use the comments section to share your own reflections.

Click "Play" on the audio player below, and you can listen to PT Talk via an audio stream. If you'd rather download the audio file so you can have it on the run, there is a link just below the player.

To download this episode of PT Talk, click here.

Here's what people are watching, reading, listening to, and learning about...

Top Five Movies (according to box office returns)
1. Street Kings (Rated R)
2. 21 (Rated PG-13)
3. Prom Night (Rated PG-13)
4. Nim's Island (Rated PG)
5. Leatherheads (Rated PG-13)

PreachingToday.com is currently running "Stolen Goods: Tempted to Plagiarize", an article by Thomas G. Long about the necessity of citation and the damage of deceit in preaching. If you're a member of Preaching Today, you can read it at any time by clicking on the link. Brian Larson (chief editor) and I will be discussing the article and its implications in the next episode of PT Talk (to be posted very soon). In the meantime, here are a few juicy quotes from Long's work:

Here's what people are watching, reading, listening to, and learning about...

Top Five Movies (according to box office returns)
1. 21 (Rated PG-13)
2. Leatherheads (Rated PG-13)
3. Nim's Island (Rated PG)
4. Horton Hears a Who (Rated G)
5. The Ruins (Rated R)

Here's what people are watching, reading, listening to, and learning about...

Top Five Movies (according to box office returns)
1. 21 (Rated PG-13)
2. Horton Hears a Who (Rated G)
3. Superhero Movie (Rated PG-13)
4. Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns (Rated PG-13)
5. Drillbit Taylor (Rated PG-13)

Scot McKnight recently reviewed Anthony Thiselton's The Hermeneutics of Doctrine for the folks at Christianity Today. McKnight offers this synopsis of Thiselton's thoughts on doctrine and belief:

Here's what people are watching, reading, listening to, and learning about...

Top Five Movies (according to box office returns)
1. Horton Hears a Who (Rated G)
2. Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns (Rated PG-13)
3. Shutter (Rated PG-13)
4. Drillbit Taylor (Rated PG-13)
5. 10,000 B.C. (Rated R)

PreachingToday.com has posted part three of a three-part article on dialogical preaching. In part three, Bob Hyatt, paints a picture of what a dialogical approach to the sermon event looks like at The Evergreen Community and offers a few ideas for any who would like to introduce dialogue into their preaching

At the National Pastors Conference in San Diego, PreachingToday.com's Brian Lowery got to interview N. T. Wright about his latest book—Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church—and how it relates to preaching. Since we are all in the midst of the Easter journey, his words are timely, challenging, and above all else, hopeful.

Preaching Today: In your book Surprised by Hope, you talk about a deeper understanding of hope "that provides a coherent and energizing basis for work in today's world." How has that deeper understanding influenced your preaching through the years?

Bishop N. T. Wright: [Studying] the Resurrection for an earlier book, Resurrection of the Son of God … ended up rubbing my nose in the New Testament theology of new creation, and the fact that the new creation has begun with Easter. I discovered that when we do new creation—when we encourage one another in the church to be active in projects of new creation, of healing, of hope for communities—we are standing on the ground that Jesus has won in his resurrection.

PreachingToday.com has posted part two of a three-part article on dialogical preaching. In part two, Bob Hyatt addresses some of the concerns people have with dialogical preaching. In part three—to be posted next Monday, March 24—Hyatt will paint a picture of what a dialogical approach to the sermon event looks like at The Evergreen Community and offers a few ideas for any who would like to introduce dialogue into their preaching

Every Friday, the PreachingToday blog is going to offer a pop culture roundup so you can see some of the things that are catching the eyes, ears, and hearts of your listeners...

Top Five Movies (according to box office returns)
1. 10,000 B.C. (Rated R)
2. College Road Trip (Rated G)
3. The Bank Job (Rated R)
4. Vantage Point (Rated PG-13)
5. Semi-Pro (Rated R)

PreachingToday.com has posted part one of a three-part article on dialogical preaching. For the first quarter of 2008, Preaching Today has focused on the idea of group sermon preparation. More and more preachers are putting together their messages in community, allowing for insightful, idea-producing dialogue with others. For more about this process, check out our interview with Dave Ferguson on "Group Sermon Preparation" (part one and part two) and an observational piece entitled "Loosening My Grip." For the final stretch of our quarter's theme, we decided to add a twist to the concept: What happens when a preacher engages in a similar type of dialogue—but during the Sunday sermon itself?

You really ought to take a look at Tim Keel's "An Efficient Gospel?" He challenges the reader/preacher with a number of provocative thoughts, including this:

In a modern world, we tend to reduce the complexity and diversity of the Scriptures to simple systems, even when our systems flatten the diversity and integrity of the biblical witness. We reduce our sermons to consumer messages that reduce God to a resource that helps the individual secure a reduced version of the "abundant life" Jesus promised (John 10:10).

How do we contend with the common reductions of the gospel that have come with modernism? In that contention, the over/under factor in championing the gospel's complexity and diversity runs awfully high—you can overwhelm your audience and just as quickly underwhelm them. How have you navigated that tension in your preaching? When was the last time you challenged the gospel presuppositions of your audience, and how did you do it? Any series ideas you'd like to share? Textual ideas? Thematic ideas? Illustrations? Helpful resources?

Leadership journal recently ran an interesting article about ministering in the age of Zoloft. In a study conducted in 2006, researchers found that over 190 million prescriptions were given for antidepressants. Another worldwide study found that America ranks at the top of a list of countries that suffer from immense depression. That means we preachers are preaching to a congregation whose faces are stained with tears.

Please take a moment to read through the Leadership article. Take a moment to think through your own pastoral situation and your congregational context. How does the current state of things affect our preaching?

I recently heard the most powerful sermon I've heard in a long time. In just a few minutes, the speaker filled an overly familiar phrase—Merry Christmas—with profound meaning and left me awestruck by the Word of God.

My refuge from the musical monotony of the Christmas season has been Sufjan Stevens' five-disc set, Songs for Christmas. I wanted to buy it when it came out last year because I think Sufjan is one of the more exciting artists out there these days. But a certain lack of cash snowed on my parade. This year I finally got my hands on it, and I'm not sure what else to say except that which is cliché: I can't stop listening to it.

In case you missed the article in the print edition of Leadership journal, Skye Jethani's "Glimpses of Glory" is now an abbreviated post on Out of Ur. I'd love for you to take a look at what he has to say and then make your way back to the PT Blog to leave a comment or two in reflection. Does Skye have a point about the difference between preaching and teaching? How does this challenge the dichotomy we've often created between visionary preaching and "regular" expository preaching? Is this something you've been wrestling with as a preacher? If not, how would you contest Skye's thoughts? If you have been, how has this challenged and even changed you as a preacher?

Hopefully you've been able to check out the Preaching Today interview with Kent Carlson and Mike Lueken on preaching for spiritual formation. Mark your calendars: the second part comes out this Friday. In the meantime here's something from the cutting room floor...

How did the topic of spiritual formation in preaching become important to you?

Kent: Our interest in preaching for spiritual formation is directly related to the story of our church. We were a seeker-targeted church that had experienced rather rapid growth in our area. We were having great fun and, in terms of attendance and decisions for Christ, were experiencing great success. By 2000, we were finally in our first permanent, large building, so we no longer had facility demands. This gave us flexibility to evaluate where we were and listen more carefully to what God was saying.

Another great article from our sister site, Leadership. Check it out and feel free to come on back to the PT Blog to share your reflections.

Clark Cothern, a regular contributor to our weekly batch of illustrations, shared this short, but intriguing story. Take a moment to read it, and I'd like to offer just a few words on the other side:

Would you consider yourself successful if you had written a novel a year for 52 straight years? Would you feel successful if you had written shelves of books on mythology, biography, folklore, theology, and travel? One man did all of the above—and in only one lifetime. I kid you not! This one man wrote 85 books in his 89 years on Earth. And get this: the same man even once rescued a young girl from drowning!

But I doubt seriously that you know his name.

Our cart was filled with red ink pens, file folders, scotch tape, and blocks of putty for hanging posters. That can only mean one thing for my wife the teacher: back to school. While I walked the aisles beside her, I spotted a family of four. The boy held his dad's hand while he stared back longingly at the bikes. The girl hung her head and walked slowly behind her mother, peeking up every now and then when asked what folder she liked best. I felt like I was watching a funeral. In a way, I was: summer, may she rest in peace.

The same scene is probably being played out right this very moment at your local Target or Wal-Mart. Shopping carts are banging into one another, and they're all filled to the brim with the usual array of school supplies. If two Boston fathers have it their way, there among the High School Musical folders and colored pencils you'll find a backpack—a bulletproof backpack. The long shadow cast by Columbine, Virginia Tech, and other assorted school shootings inspired the two men to design a $175 knapsack that is lined with a lightweight, bulletproof plate. Should a shooting occur, the student need only curl up behind the bag or wear it across their chest for protection ("Back-to-School Armor," TIME [8-27-07], p. 17).

Between the preacher and his goal of strengthening Christ's church stands a gauntlet of formidable obstacles. For example, life in a media-driven society pressures ministers to knead into their sermons equal parts content and entertainment, while short attention spans mean they have less than half an hour to strike the perfect balance. If the sermon's dull, the preacher will be called a bore; if it's too exciting, he'll be called a showman. No one should envy the preacher's vocation.

The good news is, you're in good company. I was encouraged by a little book published many years ago that confirmed for me that preachers have faced the same challenges since the very beginning. John Chrysostom's On the Priesthood, completed sometime before 386 AD, is the author's attempt to talk his superiors out of ordaining him for the ministry—John has read the job description, and he doesn't want anything to do with it. His reasons may sound familiar.

In Preaching to a Postmodern World, Graham Johnston writes (p. 79):

It's no longer enough just to know one's Bible. Preaching must demonstrate a working understanding of the issues, concerns, and the interaction of people's daily lives, helping listeners to interpret their world from a biblical standpoint.

Look at the apostle Paul's approach on Mars Hill in Acts 17. The apostle evidences some prior inquiry into the nature of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophies, which disregarded any belief in an afterlife.

The preacher in the twenty-first century will be one-part theologian, one-part sociologist, one-part evangelist, and one-part mystic.

In one of our recent brainstorming meetings for PT.com, Brandon O'Brien (our new editorial assistant) mentioned how the American public is being overrun with remakes, do-overs, and variations of older themes. We all agreed with his assessment of culture. How could we not? All you have to do is go to the movies this summer, and you're going to feel a bit of de ja  vu. The Bourne Ultimatum, starring Matt Damon, sees its theatrical release tomorrow. It's the third part of a trilogy of films that started with The Bourne Identity. The Bourne Identity is a remake of a television miniseries of the same name, starring Richard Chamberlain. All the films are based on a series of books that Robert Ludlum wrote back in the 1980s. Or ponder Ocean's Thirteen. There would be no Thirteen if there hadn't been an Ocean's Eleven two movies prior. And Eleven was a remake of a Rat Pack classic from many years ago. All this and one of the biggest moneymakers of the summer is Transformers - a variation on a cartoon from my youth.

FaithVisuals has just posted a provocative interview with Shane Hipps (author of The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Faith, the Gospel, and Church). The conversation is guided by this centering question: "Is video technology in church manipulative?" At the midway point, Hipps – who has a history in the world of marketing and advertising – makes this observation about the use of media:

Visual multimedia are probably the favorite medium of the greatest manipulators in world history: advertisers. And I know because I was one! One of the things we discovered was that the absolute best way to move people against their better judgment was through emotion, not reason. Everything we did was to try and give emotional experiences, evoke emotional impressions, and basically ignore the nuts and bolts of the superiority of our product.

In our two-part interview with Wayne Shaw, "The Dire Need for Doctrine" (Part 1 and Part 2), Shaw shared his concern over today's preaching being void of doctrine. Near the end of part one, Shaw offered this interesting insight:

If we're going to form a Christian community into what the Bible calls the church, we're going to have to deal with the major tenets biblically—what we're to believe and what we're to do. In other words, "What marks us as Christians? What marks us as a community of faith?" If we don't know that faith, then we're just joining another organization. That's how serious it is to me.

I returned to my comfort zone last Sunday as I did a final sermon on the full section in Ephesians 4:1–6. (I really do love preaching by sections. I feel there is more balance to my sermons and more rich content to break open.) And this message brought the extra excitement of a doctrinal riff in verses 4 to 6 that offers the life-giving knowledge of God and his kingdom. Nothing gives a sermon greater power and weight than talking about God.

There's a new study out on narcissism among college students.

"We need to stop endlessly repeating 'You're special' and having children repeat that back," said the study's lead author, Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University. "Kids are self-centered enough already."