Book of the Week 15

I have just finished this great book thanks to the 8 hours afforded by a flight to East Africa at the start of a three week ministry safari in Rwanda and Kenya. I’m not sure how soon I’ll be able to post this review or the ones for the other titles I have brought with me and which I hope to find time to read while I’m on my travels.

Graeme Goldsworthy’s ‘Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture’ is truly a masterpiece and ought to be one of the foundational tltles in any preacher’s library. It is another of those books I wish had been around when I was starting out on my ministry and would have provided a great corrective to much of the fragmented, piecemeal preaching I fear too many of us are all too guilty of. By my own observation in recent months, Goldsworthy is right when he says, “My own impression of the modern literature is that it is predominantly weighted towards matters of effective communication and methods of sermon preparation. I find that questions regarding the nature of Scripture, which provide us with the principles of interpretation and application, are not so prominent.” (p7)”…apart from a few scattered references, there seems to be very little that takes up the function of biblical theology in the process of moving from the text to the hearer.” (pix). The result is that, even “by many evangelicals…Texts are taken out of context; and applications are made without due concern for what the biblical author, which is ultimately the Holy Spirit, is seeking to convey by the text. Problem-centred and topical preaching become the norm, and character studies treat the heroes and heroines of the Bible as isolated examples of how to live.” (pp15-16).

This is a book of two halves. In the first Goldsworthy asks and answers a number of questions such as ‘What is biblical theology?’, ‘Was Jesus a Biblical Theologican?’, ‘Can I Preach a Christian Sermon Without Mentioning Christ?’ and ‘How Does the Gospel Function in the Bible?’ He tackles head on some of the popular misconceptions about Bible texts and the meaning of such words as Gospel, all in the cause of demonstrating that the Bible actually has one great theme - Christ, and, “When done properly, preaching Christ from every part of the Bible need never degenerate into predictable platitudes about Jesus. The riches in Christ are inexhaustible, and biblical theology is the way to uncover them.” (p30)

For me personally the most helpful in this part of the book was the chapter, ‘What Kind of Unity Does the Bible Have?’ Recognising that biblical theology is a discipline that is based on both the unity and the diversity within the biblical texts Goldsworthy considers literary variety, historical progression and progressive revelation, warning against some of the errors that have arisen out of a false handling of these features and giving some very helpful advice on preaching progressive revelation, focussing on the three polarities of ‘Type-Antitype’, ‘Promise-Fulfilment’ and ‘Salvation History-Eschatological God’.

He includes some helpful diagrams which illustrate his theses but which also form the basis for the practical and detailed second half of the book. Here Goldsworthy works through the individual genres of Scripture, recalling where they fit into the unfolding drama of redemptive history, providing guidance as to how to preach form each of these genres in a way that is faithful to Scripture as a whole and concluding each section with some tips on planning sermons from that particular genre. I will certainly be referring to these pages each time I approach a new section of Scripture in my preaching preparation.

Goldsworthy closes with a call to Bible Teachers and Church Leaders to actually teach biblical theology to their congregations, either in specific teaching sessions or through the way they handle God’s Word. “it is one thing to recognise the place of biblical theology in the preparation of a sermon so that the way we explain a text and apply it is shaped by the way that text fits into the grand scheme of biblical revelation. It is another thing to actually preach a sermon that demonstrates the method of approaching the Bible in this way. This is really a matter of emphasis and not a complete separation of the two approaches. Every sermon without exception should contain the results of doing biblical theology. Sometimes we might want to demonstrate the way it is done. In other words, sermons can teach people how to read and understand the Bible. Every sermon should do that to some degree, but sometimes we should make it the main theme.” (p24
If you are a preacher who is concerned to be a faithful servant of God’s Word this is absolutely a ‘must read’ for you.

Book of the Week 14

After the somewhat lighter fare of last week, this week it has been back to solid food and I have greatly enjoyed and benefited from Derek Newton’s cleverly titled ‘And the Word became….a Sermon’. Derek, a lecturer at the International Christian College in Glasgow, has a wealth of preaching experience and served with OMF International in East Asia for more than 20 years, part of which was spent in theological education. The material for the book is teaching material he has used and enormously helpful as he leads you carefully from text to sermon.

He begins with a warning against some all too common but unhelpful styles of preaching which he labels the hobby horse, the rocket, the heart on the sleeve, the skyscraper and the grasshopper. I’ll leave you to read the definitions but you won’t have to think too hard to recall real-life examples.

There then follows two chapters in which he lays the Old Testament and New Testament foundations for expository preaching. Probably my only criticism of this book lies here, and this book is not alone in this. I don’t disagree with anything Newton says in these pages - he stresses the importance of the message of God’s Word in the lives of God’s people and the need for it to be heard by unbelievers and he demonstrates great confidence in the power of the Word of God. My slight complaint is that I was unconvinced that it was always, in a biblical context, actually an affirmation of expository preaching as such.

After chapters on the need for holiness in the life of the preacher and the nature of biblical expository preaching, comes the real meat of this book - the ten practical steps to get a sermon from your chosen text.

1. Reading and thinking
2. The themes of the passage
3. The contexts of the passage
4. Contents analysis
5. Issue of application to life
6. Method and outline
7. Write out the body of the sermon
8. Insert Illustrations
9. Prepare the introduction
10. Prepare the conclusion

And the emphasis is on the practical. Newton guides you step by step, sharing his thinking and reasoning and you feel you’re standing looking over his shoulder as he works on his own sermon preparation. Each small step is helpfully illustrated from specific texts and Bible passages and, perhaps most helpfully of all, he bases his whole material on an exegesis of Luke 4:1-3 - constructing his material for this passage as he progresses through the ten steps and, at the end of the book, culminating with a completed sermon outline with its main points and illustrations.

There is a final, really great chapter at the end of the book reminding the reader of the purpose, power and privilege of preaching.

This is a carefully researched and written book, emanating from years of practice and experience and it will provide a rich mine of resources and help for preachers, experienced and novice alike.

If you want to buy a copy click on the book cover - or indeed any of the books I review on this site - and it will take you straight to my own Amazon aStore.

Preachers Workshops

I’m really excited about a new development I have been working on with the leadership of my home church, Harper Memorial Baptist Church in Glasgow. Starting in the autumn of this year we are running preachers’ workshops to encourage and train men for expository preaching. Held monthly on Saturdays there will be two tracks to this venture. The morning session will be aimed at what you might call vocational preachers, those whose main ministry is preaching and who have some experience. By means of mutual encouragement we will seek to sharpen one another’s skills and by good example we will learn from others. Each month we are inviting a preacher whose ministry God has blessed to come and share their insights and experiences. In the afternoon, the focus will be on training and equipping and we will run a 2 or perhaps 3 year course aimed at the men in our churches who need some specific training and developing in preaching.

We have a designated website set up where you can get more details and information. Click here

I appreciate that this will only be of direct relevance to those living in probably the central Scotland area but can I commend it to others for your prayers and if you can promote it or link to it we would be delighted. If you have done something similar and we can learn from you, please share your experiences with us.

Book of the Week 13

Ok, so strictly speaking it’s not a book on preaching per se, but after several weeks of demanding and often very intensive reading, I needed something a little lighter but still profitable. I found it in Richard Bewes’ ‘Speaking in Public - Effectively’. Bewes who was, until recently, Senior Minister at the famous All Souls Church in London, is a gifted communicator and a frequent contributor to television and radio programmes in the UK.

He himself admits that this isn’t really about preaching but because of the nature of the subject there is a great deal here that applies in the pulpit as on any other platform. He undoubtedly has a high view of Scripture and of the place of preaching in the life of the church. “Without the Scriptures to give a conference or youth event its main yardstick, you can invite all the speakers you want, but the inner appetite will never be satisfied and no lives will be changed. There are, today, any number of Christian organisations that put on extremely impressive programmes, but because the vital Bible emphasis has been edged to the side in favour of music, dramatic presentations and interviews with personalities, their task becomes harder with every passing year. These alternative attractions can stimulate, but they cannot satisfy. Indeed the most superb oratory itself, if it lacks a substantial Bible content, can never carry a movement or a church any great distance.”

Like most books on preaching he dips into the area of the anatomy of what in this book he calls a talk but does so very briefly and in about 12 pages.

One theme I found here and which I’ve not so far found elsewhere in my reading was his chapter entitled ‘Your Unique Trademark - The Voice’ with comments and advice on how to make the best use of our breathing and vocal chords.

Also, unusually, he has some ‘personal debrief’ questions to ask after we have spoken, to help us evaluate what we have done. “Did you enrich them or did you short-change them? Did you respect them or did you despise them? Did you up-build them or did you exploit them? Did you inform them or did you confuse them? Did you refresh them or did you exhaust them?”

It’s not been the most substantial book I’ve read this year but it’s been refreshingly honest and personal and none the worse for that. The book is pleasantly anecdotal and I’ve gleaned a number of very useful quotes from it.