Josh Fenska

Sep 21, 2023 | preachingtoday.com | Sean Palmer |Josh Fenska |Jay Kim

“That can’t possibly be true,” was the best comment I ever heard after a sermon. What was the sermon text? The parable of the laborers in the vineyard. Perhaps no teaching of Jesus has resulted in more theological gymnastics than Jesus’ simple story about a landowner who hires workers in three stages throughout the day. At the end of the workday, the landowner pays all three groups—regardless of how long they labored—the same wage.

May 22, 2023 | preachingtoday.com | Sean Palmer |Josh Fenska |Geoff Chang

Rookie preachers do a lot of standing in line. They stand in line to be listened to. They stand in line for credibility. They stand in line to be paid attention to at all outside of their local church context. There’s a lot of waiting for your name to be called. But the giants of preaching, the women and men many of us come to know because of their churches or preaching or books, those folks don’t stand in line. Unless you’re Tim Keller. I was a baby preacher at the time.

May 18, 2023 | preachingtoday.com | Jay Kim |Josh Fenska |Scott Wenig

The first sermon I ever preached was as a youth ministry intern, more than twenty years and a thousand teachings ago. The text was from Matthew 14, the story of Jesus walking on water. But I didn’t talk much about that. I spent most of my time relating my own life experiences to Peter’s walking/sinking episode. I revealed a lot about myself, explored a bit about Peter, and can’t recall if I mentioned Jesus much at all.