Book of the Week No.7

I have had ‘Expounding God’s Word‘ by Alan Stibbs on my shelves for some time, having picked it up at a second hand book shop some years ago. First published in 1960 it’s a small volume (just 112 pages) but packed with insightful comments, observations and teaching.

As I work my way through these books on preaching I am increasingly asking myself what is different and distinctive about this book compared to the others and with Stibbs it has been how in a very few pages he has crammed a great deal of very helpful examples of different ways of handling passages.

He has a chapter on ‘Expounding Narrative’, one on ‘Expounding Short Statements’ and another one entitled ‘Expounding Longer Passages’, and within each he takes several relevant portions of Scripture and in each case makes some general notes about the passage and then gives a helpful suggested exposition with outline and headings.

One particularly unusual feature of this little volume is in the chapter called ‘Getting to Grips with the Task’. Stibbs takes John’s account of Jesus’ first miraculous sign given at Cana and shows how important it is for the preacher to “not only undertake the preparatory work already indicated as necessary, but….to discern what is - for the occasion of ministry which he has in mind - the main thrust or obvious message from God in the passage at which he is working.” (p40) There then follows example sermon outlines showing how that one text could be helpfully preached in 6 different contexts - at a wedding, at a women’s meeting, at a meeting for prayer, at an address to (potential) workers for Christ, preaching to a local congregation or at an evangelistic service.

Stibbs wrote at least two other books on preaching related themes and evidently had a passion for faithful expository ministry and a high view of the calling of the preacher as can be seen in these quotes - “Is there not some dearth in our land of preachers who speak as men who have received words from God which must be declared?” (p23), “The only way for a man fully to get hold of a passage or to get into a passage, is for him to dwell on it long enough for it to get a deep hold on him, and a deep entrance into his being. This involves toil and sweat, thought and prayer, faith and good works, patience and perseverance.” (p36)

Having recently been involved in an ongoing discussion about the irrelevance and unhelpful nature of a great deal of contemporary training for pastoral and preaching ministry in our theological colleges, I was encouraged by these comments by Stibbs, then the Vice Principal of what is now the leading evangelical Anglican training College in England, written nearly 50 years ago. “men being trained as preachers in the theological colleges need to be set free from absorption in the study of the prevailing scientific and historical criticism of the Old Testament (which is for them not only so largely profitless but also so grievously deadening) and encouraged to study the Old Testament with its Christian application and use fully in view.” (p21)

Yesterday I was browsing around some interesting websites and visited the Proclamation Trust website for the first time in a while. I discovered two particular treasures I wanted to share with others. There is a great deal on this site worth exploring but if you click on the link entitled Free Resources it will take you to some material well worth getting your hands on. Proc Trust produce a series of Media Papers which you can download here and I would especially commend to you William Philip’s ‘Concerning Preaching’. Willie is currently the Minister of the famous St George’s Tron in the center of Glasgow. Proc Trust are also now making available on line a whole collection of written sermons by Dick Lucas who has been such an inspiration and example to many.

Now that my study leave is over and I’m back to the day job, I’m a little behind with posting my weekly book review, but here it is, better late than never.

Book of the Week No 6 is from another author I confess I hadn’t been aware of until fairly recently – David L Larsen – but if the number of highlights you make in a book is an indication of its impact on you, then this one rates quite highly. Larsen’s ‘The Anatomy of Preaching: Identifying the issues in Preaching Today’ covers some of the same areas that other books on preaching seem to address but what I found refreshing was his inclusion of some topics I haven’t yet seen in anyone else’s works, especially analysing the place of preaching in today’s culture (the book was first published in 1992) and the chapter entitled ‘How Can We Be More Imaginative In Our Preaching – The Issue of Creativity’.

Larsen’s diagnosis of the anti-preaching culture (my phrase) in which we operate is perceptive and helpful and he bases his answer on a brief and succinct overview of the history of preaching, concluding with the words, “we may be confident of the viability of true biblical preaching, wherever or whenever we may be. Preach the Word!” (p21)

He sums up our present culture’s characteristics as overstimulation, desensitisation, enervation, depersonalisation, preference for the nonverbal and confusion (pp39-40), all of which make the challenge of faithful Biblical preaching all the greater. He recognises the difficulty of the preacher’s task - preaching in a culture which has lost awareness of the Bible as a point of reference. “It is amusing to here”, he says, “of the person who thought libido was the devil and that neurosis and psychosis were two women in the Bible, but it is distressing that increasing ignorance and disuse of the Bible are in evidence among those who profess to believe the Bible. Half of the Protestants polled could list four or fewer of the Ten Commandments. Five hundred million Bibles are in circulation but 40 percent of Protestants read it “never or hardly ever”. One study found that 63 percent of church-going Protestants surveyed could not note a difference between Old and New Testaments, few knew a single thing about the prophets, and few could apply the story of the good Samaritan to life.” (p3 There is a lot of good, thoughtful material here on making the Bible relevant in our preaching to today’s world.

Larsen’s brief but stimulating chapter on using imagination in our preaching has opened up new lines of thinking for me. “Loyalty to the totality of biblical Christianity is no excuse for great meaningless sentences which unwind like gold-plated spaghetti.” (p10 “We have too much argument – discourse stripped of its mystery – in our sermons and not enough drama. Violin music has been described as the scraping of horses’ tails over cat’s bowels. That definition has literal truthfulness, but it does scant justice to a violin concerto. For models of creative minds rich in images and metaphors consider our Lord and the Biblical writers.” (pp108-9)

You will have realised from these brief excerpts that Larsen has a gift with words and some of his turns of phrase are memorable. Yet another highly commended book for the preacher.

I’ve just discovered Google Book Search and this title is available there for a limited preview - click here

Christianity Today’s Leadership Blog, ‘Out of Ur‘ has recently posted ‘The Ten Deadly Sins of Preaching’, a synopsis of John Ortberg’s contribution to the National Pastor’s Conference. He lists them as:

1. The temptation to be inauthentic
2. The temptation to live for recognition
3. The temptation to live in fear
4. The temptation to compare
5. The temptation to exaggerate
6. The temptation feel chronically inadequate
7. The temptation of pride
8. The temptation to manipulate
9. The temptation of envy
10. The temptation of anger

If I wanted to be pedantic I might question the listing of temptations as sins, but this is well worth a read. In the comments on this post one or two people have added to the list. Any suggestions?

The other day I came across Justin Buzzard’s preaching blog and discovered he is also touting for the most recommended books on preaching. With his permission I am listing his personal favourite seven which have slightly altered the list in the sidebar.

1 Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture by Graeme Goldsworthy
2 Between Two Worlds by John Stott
3 Christ-Centred Preaching by Bryan Chappell
4 Biblical Preaching by Haddon Robinson
5 Lectures to my Students by Charles Spurgeon
6 The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching by Robinson and Larson
7 The Supremacy of God in Preaching by John Piper

Last week I drew your attention to Craig Dyer’s powerful sermon on 2 Timothy 3vv1-9 : ‘Impostors v Pastors’. I have now moved this to a permanent link and, if you have not already listened to it, I commend it to you. Access here

Yesterday Craig preached the sequel, covering verses 10-16 of 2 Timothy 3 and this was a penetrating and biblically based analysis of teaching and training for ministry. I urge you to listen. Access here

Book of the Week 5

My fifth book of the week is as different as you could have from last week’s and is one I am certain I will be returning to again and again.

‘Rediscovering Expository Preaching‘ is by John MacArthur and members of the Master’s Seminary Faculty. (Thanks to www.monergism.com for the great cartoon drawing!) That alone ought to be enough to commend this excellent book. Here a a team of men passionate about and committed to God’s Word and the faithful preaching of it and the whole book echoes that commitment.

The book is divided into 5 sections:
1. Proving the Priority of Expository Preaching
2. Preparing the Expositor
3. Processing and Principlizing the Biblical Text
4. Pulling the Expository Message Together
5. Preaching the Exposition

Within each of these sections there are several chapters written by different Faculty Staff, each reflecting different personalities and approaches, and all based on great wisdom and experience.

The book abounds with quotations, something I love, and endless references to other good books on preaching and related subjects. Indeed, in the middle of the book is a list of what they call ‘the essential 750 books for an Expositor’s Library’. My only problem with such a section is that it has a tendency to lead folk like me into serious temptation!

Let me give you two great quotes from this section - which is, by the way, far more than a list of 750 books. John Fletcher Hurst said “That the library of the Christian layman and of the minister of the Gospel is poor beyond words, is a lamentable fact. Many of the books are of such inferior authorship as to unfit them for even storage in any home of people either intelligent or hoping to be intelligent. Such books have drifted in because they are radiant with glaring and realistic pictures, or are bound in captivating sheep or calf, or are presented by well meaning friends, or have been bought in lots at auction under the hallucination of cheapness, or because of some other apology for the existence of the trash. If two thirds of the shelves of the typical domestic library were emptied of their burden, and choice books put in their stead, there would be reformation in intelligence and throughout the civilized world. A poor book is dear, and a good one cheap, at any cost.”

Charles Spurgeon opined, “In order to be able to expound the Scriptures, and as an aid to your pulpit studies, you will need to be familiar with the commentators; a glorious army, let me tell you, whose acquaintance will be your delight and profit. Of course, you are not such wiseacres as to think or say that you can expound Scripture without assistance from the works of divines and learned men who have laboured before you in the field of exposition. If you are of that opinion, pray remain so, for you are not worth the trouble of conversion, and like a little coterie who think with you, would resent the attempt as an insult to your infallibility. It seems odd, that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves, should think so little of what he has revealed to others.”

The book is helpfully littered with example texts and passages where MacArthur and his colleagues demonstrate methods of exposition or highlight difficulties. This is a real treasure trove.

At the end of the book is a copy of a set of MacArthur’s handwritten sermon notes which you can then compare with the preached message which you can get from ‘Grace to You’.

As well as hugely profitable and stimulating to anyone serious about expository preaching, this book would make a great basis for a group of preachers to digest and discuss on a regular basis, or could act as a course manual for a course on preaching run, for example by a local church.

If you are not already familiar with this book, I encourage you to get hold of a copy.

Sermons On-Line

At the suggestion of a number of friends I have uploaded a number of recordings of my ministry. If you are interested, this link will take you to the downlaod page of our family website where you will see what is currently available. I will gradually add more.

Top 10 Preaching Books

A Pastor from Vermont, who didn’t give me his name, has just sent me his list of favourite preaching related books. He says that as he spent eleven years in Germany he missed out on a lot of the books of the nineties but these are the books that have had the most influence on his preaching.

1. “Walking With The Giants” by Warren Wiersbe. I’ve had my copy over twenty years and still enjoy browsing in it regularly. The rest of my list has been influenced by this book.
2. “The Purpose Driven Church” by Rick Warren. Don’t stone me but the mental interaction with his ideas has really helped me as I’ve tried to evaluate his philosophy of ministry, of preaching, and of Christian education in the local church context.
3. “Lectures on Preaching” by Phillips Brooks. This one really stretched me when I read it for the first time. I only read it once since I borrowed it from a library but I really made me think about preaching in a different way for the first time in my life.
4. The biography of R.A. Torrey by Dr. Roger Martin. The introduction it gave me to that time period of religious history and preaching has influenced the way I view ministry in the 21st century. I could throw in a number of other biographical books - David Brainerd’s Journal, Edward’s writings describing the Great Awakening, D.L. Moody, Spurgeon, Whyte, etc.
5. “Communicating Christ Cross-Culturally” by Hesselgrave along with a couple of other missions books. Missionaries preach also and if communicating Christ is not the purpose of preaching, I’m in the wrong business.
6 & 7. “Inductive Bible Study” by Irving Jensen and “How to Read the Bible For All Its Worth” by Fee and Stuart. Not strictly about preachers and preaching (which is why they are # 6 & 7 on the list but no other books have had a bigger influence on my preaching than those two.

The current top favourites are now in the side bar on the left of the website and I’ll keep this updated as I get more lists.

Top 10 Books for Preachers

So far I have only had three contributions to my search for the top 10 recommended books for preachers - but would warmly welcome more!

Based on submissions so far, the top 6 are as follows

• Christ-Centred Preaching by Bryan Chappell
• The Supremacy of God in Preaching by John Piper
• Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture by Graeme Goldsworthy
• Preaching and Preachers by Martyn Lloyd-Jones
• Lectures to My Students by Charles Spurgeon
• George Whitefield by Arnold Dallimore