Last week we offered John Stott's first message from the Three Village Church on Long Island from almost 20 years ago. This week Stott shares his heart for the church in his sermon "Four Marks of a Renewed Church." If you want to watch a master preacher-teacher walk through a text and stay focused on one big idea, then read, study, pray your way through this sermon. It's filled with warm and challenging lines—like this one: "When I go to some churches, I think I've gone to a funeral by mistake …. Nobody smiles. Nobody laughs. Nobody talks …. If I could overcome my English or Anglo-Saxon reserve, I would want to shout out, 'Cheer up!'"

We're also kicking off an exciting new series of skills articles called the "Big Ideas" series. Over the next year, we're asking homiletics professors to share one (or maybe two) Big Ideas about preaching—the one thing that they can't wait to share with our PreachingToday.com community. This week we feature Dr. Jeffrey Arthur's interview—"Big Idea: Let's Get Back to the Text." I think you're going to love this series.

This week we also feature:

• Editor's Choice Illustration: Boys Need Mentors More than Ever
• Video: Our Good Shepherd: The Life of Christ

In Christ,

Matt Woodley
Managing Editor, PreachingToday.com
mwoodley@christianitytoday.com

Matt Woodley is the pastor of compassion ministries at Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton, Illinois.