by Soo-Inn Tan | Jun 8, 2011 | 2011, Articles, Church, Preaching & Teaching
I just got back from a retreat with some of my church members. We went to an Indonesian island retreat centre called Telunas. Had a great time except for the second day when I had diarrhoea. No need for a blow by blow description of how that day went for me. As a...
by Soo-Inn Tan | Oct 6, 2010 | 2010, Articles, Church, Preaching & Teaching
All of us who preach on a regular basis have experienced this: There are times when a sermon you preach is just perfect. You were calm and focused. You did everything you were taught in homiletics class, good eye contact, appropriate hand movements, etc. The...
by Soo-Inn Tan | Jul 27, 2010 | 2010, Articles, Church, Preaching & Teaching
The talk was going well. People were engaged. Many were jotting notes. I was looking around trying to make eye contact with the different people in the room. And then something strange happened. The audience stopped looking at me. They began to look at something...
by Soo-Inn Tan | Sep 11, 2009 | 2009, Articles, Church, Leadership, Preaching & Teaching
Think of a few leaders you admire. How many of them were effective leaders as a result of some formal leadership training they received? Ruth A. Tucker has this to say about leadership training: Enrolling in a seminar to learn how to be a leader is as unfeasible as...
by Soo-Inn Tan | Sep 1, 2009 | 2009, Articles, Church, Preaching & Teaching
I have the privilege of teaching a course on Christian Spirituality in a major seminary in town. For three hours every Tuesday, nineteen students and myself grapple with issues that pertain to our relationship with God. The last forty minutes or so of every class, I...
by Soo-Inn Tan | Jan 23, 2009 | 2009, Articles, Christian Living, Church, Mentoring, Preaching & Teaching
Later in the year I will be running a one day seminar on preaching for a church I am working with. I look forward to running these seminars for lay preachers. I believe preaching should not be confined to the clergy guild. Mature church members who are gifted in this...