Ken Hensley DOT Com

As a young preacher, I learned one important truth: people will forget your main points but they will remember your stories.  In fact, I’ve become convinced that I could preach the same points multiple times and people wouldn’t notice — but tell the same story and it’s immediately familiar! That’s the power of a story. [...]

The Decker Communications blog has a wonderful summary of Andrew Stanton’s presentation at TED.  Stanton is an Oscar-winning writer who worked on Wall-E and all three Toy Stories.  His TED talk is called “The Clues to a Great Story.” It’s a must-watch for anyone who wants to stand up before an audience and communicate with [...]

Came across this great article on the Letters of Note blog.  It’s a letter C.S. Lewis wrote to a young fan, sharing Lewis’ advice on how to write.  This one applies whether you are writing or speaking: “Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.” As a writer or speaker, [...]

This past weekend, I spoke about how through Jesus we can approach God with confidence (Hebrews 4:14-16).  To open my message, I shared a story from my freshman year of high school. I was stopped in the hallway one day by a senior football player.  My first thought: he’s going to stuff me in a [...]

“Boredom is a preview of death if not itself a form of death.” – Fred Craddock A couple of times a year, I will go back and reread certain books on preaching.  Right now I’m working my way through Fred Craddock’s first book on preaching: “Overhearing the Gospel.”  It was originally delivered as part of [...]

At the Yale Lectures on Preaching in 1877, Phillips Brooks offered a definition of preaching that has stood the test of time.  He defined preaching as “the communication of truth through personality.” There are two parts to this definition. Preaching speaks truth. Preaching is delivered through a preacher. Assuming that the content of a sermon is [...]

Many people have a fear of public speaking.  They get nervous, clammy, and dread standing before a group of people.  Here’s one reason why: they are more concerned about themselves than their audience. Will I say this the right way? How do I look? What if they think I’m boring? As long as your focus [...]

In Proverbs 29:18, the King James Version of the Bible reads, “Where there is no vision, the people perish …” Everybody needs to have a living, breathing vision inside of them.  Your kids need your help to see their own potential.  Students need a teacher to birth a vision within them of what can be. [...]

Before I preach a sermon to others, I preach it first to myself.  It’s another reason I love preaching. To fully understand this, you have to peek inside how I go about sermon preparation.  And, no, it doesn’t involve high speed downloads from Max Lucado or Mark Driscoll. The first thing I do is settle [...]

When it comes to career advice, you’ve probably heard someone say: “Love what you do and do what you love.”  That’s good advice.  While there may be times that a job is difficult or unlovely, merely working for a paycheck is not enough to keep getting most of us out of bed every morning. I [...]