Relevant Preaching

Preaching God's truth in a relevant way can be challenging to do week after week. Preaching the message of the Word is important so I ask myself "How might a particular truth apply to the specific congregation?"

Coming up with relevant ideas can be challenging. Sometimes I use mind maps to brainstorm ideas and have found it to be quite helpful. Below is an example (it is not stellar, I know, but it was quick and dirty from the sermon this week) The example is a mindmap done in the Mind Node software. (Windows users could try Freemind - but I don't know much about it) Do you have any windows-based mind mapping software you use? How else do you get creative in message preparation?