Category Archives: Preaching

Apt Alliteration’s Artful Aid – Arrgh!

Walking With Giants Posted on by

It is good for written and spoken outlines to be striking and memorable.  One technique that some writers and preachers use is alliteration – using key words that begin with the same letter.

Used sensibly, alliteration is a handy device.  John Stott was not greatly given to its use, but I think it was he who noted from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 that the apostle writes about (a) revelation, v15; (b) return, v14; (c) resurrection, v16; (d) rapture, v17; (e) reunion, v17; and (f) reassurance, v18. …

Moses the preacher

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Moses was the first great preacher of the word of God of whom we have any detailed knowledge.

Moses speaks the words of God

Moses’ call is recorded in Ex 4:10-16.  When Moses protests his inability to speak for God, the reply he receives is that God will teach what to say and how to say it.  He is to be God’s mouthpiece.  He is to act as intermediary between God and the people.  He spoke on God’s behalf to the people, and the people accepted his words as the Lord’s, Ex 24:3. …

Speak clearly, preacher

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Clarity of speech is not not just about enuciating your words carefully, although some preachers would benefit from a visit to a voice coach, or even a Speech and Language Therapist.  Nor is it the same as clarity of writing, although many speakers seem to think that their task is to write an essay and then read it out in public.

Don Sunukjian has written a helpful article on ‘Skills of Oral Clarity’, in which he spells out some rules that will help the preacher to keep the attention and interest of his hearers.…

On preaching the theology of Tom Wright

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Chris Tilling has a high regard for the writings of Tom Wright.  It is of interest, therefore, that he thinks that many who attempt to reflect Wright’s teaching in their preaching end up saying either of two things:-

1.  “You thought this text means this…but you are wrong!  It is not about going to heaven when you die.  Understood in terms of exile and restoration, it means…”  Tilling remarks that this iconoclastic habit has a tendency to undermine hearers’ confidence in Scripture. …

That’s not what I call preaching 3

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Joel Osteen is senior pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas.  He preaches to thousands who attend services at the church, as well as to millions more across 100 different countries via television.

Osteen is a mild-mannered man who is never seen in public without a smile.  As far as I can tell, he is unlike most other television preachers in that he does not go out of his way to ask for money.  When challenged, as he often is, about why his preaching is devoid of biblical content, he disarmingly replies that others are better than he at explaining the Bible.  …

That’s not what I call preaching 2

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Willow Creek Community Church is one of the largest and most influential churches in the world.  Its senior pastor, Bill Hybels, travels globally, teaching church leaders how to manage their congregations more effectively.

The following Issues Etc. podcast drew my attention to a recent sermon of Hybel’s:-

Review of ‘Jeremiah’s Tough Assignment’

The sermon itself can be accessed here, but you have to pay up to $10.50 for it.

Hybel’s message can easily be summarised: when Jeremiah was given tough assignments by God, he never gave up. …

That’s not what I call preaching 1

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Solomon’s Porch, Minneapolis, is a well-known ’emergent’ church, and Tony Jones one of the best-known leaders of the emergent movement/conversation.

So, we might assume that a recent sermon by Jones at Solomon’s Porch might provide a fair sample of how emergent people set about ‘improving’ the evangelical preaching they so despise.

The example in question is on John 4, a passage which features the account of Jesus’ interaction with the woman at the well.  You can read Jones’ own comments on this experience here.…

Preacher: butcher or cook?

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Jay Adams puts it well, I think:-

‘Whitehead said, “A merely well-informed man is the most useless bore on God’s earth.”  All of us know how desperately dull preachers can become at imes when they try to teach.  But the transmission of information certainly doesn’t need to be dull.  Rather, it can be exciting and interesting.  Preachers must not become Bible butchers, chopping out great chunks of scriptural meat and throwing them raw and bloody to their congregations as if they were feeding tigers. 

…

Puritan preaching priorities

Walking With Giants Posted on by

In a recent article reprinted in The Banner of Truth, Johann Odendaal sets out some of the principle priorities of Puritan preaching.  These help to explain why these men should be regarded as ‘God’s giants’:-

1. Good preaching to them was the primary means of God’s grace to man. It was the highlight of public worship. Through the preaching the Holy Spirit would apply the Word in power to save people from their sins. It is primarily through the preaching of the Word that believers are built up in their faith.…

The teacher

Walking With Giants Posted on by

When, recently, I was asked to give a very short account of the role of the teacher of the word of God, this was the outline I came up with:-

  1. The teacher’s conviction – 2 Tim 3:16 ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.’
  2. The teacher’s vocation – Eph 4:11 ‘It was [Christ] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers.’
…