No matter how many homiletic courses taken and sermons delivered, preachers are always looking to improve their sermons. Many times the pastor leaves the pulpit on Sunday and although many hours of prayer and study went into sermon preparation, he or she is not satisfied with the results.

One pastor commented, “We pray and study all week then when we stand behind the pulpit to proclaim God’s Holy Word we fumble and bumble.”

Although the minister’s library has many preaching titles they are always on the lookout for newly published books on the subject.

Preaching Points: 55 Tips For Improving Your Pulpit Ministry will be a welcome addition to a pastor’s already voluminous library.

This book contains nuggets of wonderful insights that will help the pastor in sermon preparation.

Preaching Points is written by professors of homiletics at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and the Haddon W. Robinson Center for Preaching at the seminary.

The contributors are respected professors of preaching including, The late Haddon W. Robinson, Jeffrey D. Arthurs, Patricia M. Batten, Scott M. Gibson (editor), and Matthew D. Kim.

Regarding clarity, Gibson writes, “The preacher has the responsibility to be clear to his or her listeners. If there were to be an eleventh commandment given to preachers it probably would be “Be clear”! (p.1)

The late Dr. Howard Hendricks, who taught at Dallas Theological Seminary supports this point about being clear by saying, “A mist in the pulpit puts a fog in the pews.”[1]

Obviously, it is important to be clear, but what is the Big Idea?

Professor Robinson states the following:

We talk about the Big Idea at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. The Big Idea is the dominant idea in your sermon. It’s made up by asking two questions: First, what is the author talking about? And second, what is the author saying about what he is talking about? (p. 3)

In his book, Biblical Preaching, Robinson devotes an entire chapter to the Big Idea. Clearly, this is an important part of sermon preparation and it behooves the pastor to heed his advice.

The Preaching Points listed in the book will certainly help the preacher to stay on track and keep the attention of his or her listeners. Outstanding chapters of note are: Sermon preparation is twenty hours of prayer; Feed my lambs, not my giraffes; In our preaching, less is more; Praise your listeners before correcting them; and Strengthen yourself in the Lord.

Although the preacher may be very familiar with the text and may have preached from it many times before, they should still soak themselves in the text.

One pastor who knows the importance of soaking oneself in the text shared that he reads his text 100 times.

The book does not provide notes or a bibliography, however, the experience of these leading scholars make up for it. Several books on preaching have been written by the contributors to this book.

The material shared is invaluable for sermon preparation. They are a fountain of information to assist the pastor in fulfilling Paul’s exhortation to pastors to “Preach the Word.”

This book may not be mentioned on lists of the best books for preachers, however, it will benefit the preacher to purchase a copy. It is a very easy read and very well-written. Grab your highlighter, you will want to return here many times to be refreshed.

Reviewed by Larry Russi

Publisher’s page: https://lexhampress.com/product/153980/preaching-points-55-tips-for-improving-your-pulpit-ministry

Notes

[1] “A Fog in the Pews” Moreland First Baptist Church

I enjoyed reading this book. It is written for teachers of homiletics, but pastors would also benefit from reading it. It is written by some of the leading homileticians from the Academy of Homiletics. Thomas Long who is one of the editors said, “the focal point of the book is on the substance of preaching”. It builds on the past and present literature of preaching and pin-points that preaching as an art that can be learned.

The field of homiletics is extensive and the editors must have had a difficult time in deciding what subjects should be addressed and by whom. However, all the writers believe in the importance of preaching. The first section deals with “preaching as a Christian practice”. The second section deals with the “various components of preaching”. The third section deals with “assessment and formation of preaching,” and the last section deals with “teaching a first year course in preaching, and places to find further help on the study of preaching.” I found the last two sections most helpful in assessing students of preaching, and the help that is offered from the Academy of Homiletics and the support that is offered from various schools and denominations. Assessing students of preaching is very difficult and the guidance provided by leading teachers and their various approaches to this challenging subject can help teachers to be more proficient. There is further need by senior homileticians to publish further works that provides more guidance for younger teachers of preaching.

Reviewed by Aldwin Ragoonath

Originally published on the Pneuma Foundation (parent organization of PneumaReview.com) website. Later included in the Summer 2025 issue.

Ben Witherington III is a Professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary, as well as St. Andrews University. In this text, Witherington addresses the issue that every pastor – whether knowingly or not – has a great stake in: the art of persuasion. The mastery of rhetoric by a pastor is not simply an option, but is a necessity instead. After all, all preachers desire to influence their followers to move from where they are to where God wants them to be. It would be wise, then, to peer into what Witherington has to offer us within this text, and we shall do so in what follows.

This brief guidebook explores rhetorical analysis with reference to various parts of the NT and is composed of eight chapters. In the first, Witherington reviews the oral cultures of the biblical world. Interestingly, he notes the power of speech – and of rhetoric – in this culture, especially in light of the fact the less than 20% of the congregants composing any given church were literate. Additionally, he highlights five elements of rhetorical discourse: first, the exordium, which makes the audience more open to the material that follows; second, the narratio, which is an explanation of the content of the discussion; third, the proposition – i.e. the thesis statement; fourth, the probatio, which is the enumeration of the arguments in favor of the proposition; and fifth, the peroration – i.e. the summary of the major arguments.

Cover from the 2022 Second Edition.

Chapter two seeks to define the craft of persuasion, which may singularly be the most important chapter in this title. Chapters three through seven explore the art of rhetoric within the NT, addressing in turn the Gospels of Mark and Luke (which he identifies as gospels of persuasion), Acts (deliberative rhetoric), Paul in general (borrowing much from a previous title of his, The Paul Quest), and then explicates Paul’s method of rhetoric in the pastoral (law-like rhetoric) and general epistles (deliberative rhetoric), respectively. The final chapter accentuates the import of rhetoric in all of the NT, with particular reference to the contemporary art of interpretation.

All in all, this title gives a good unifying thread with which to examine the individual socio-rhetorical commentaries of various NT books that Witherington has previously produced. While probably highly useful for academic courses in NT exegesis, one would also be wise to have this text on their desk when preparing both sermonic material, as well as various teaching units.

Reviewed by Bradford McCall

Publisher’s page for the 2022 Second Edition.

This review of the First Edition was originally published on the Pneuma Foundation (parent organization of PneumaReview.com) website. Later included in the Fall 2022 issue.

Aldwin Ragoonath, a Canadian pastor and homiletician in the Pentecostal tradition and a participant in the Academy of Homiletics, has written a book that is shaped as a basic preaching textbook but that also serves as an apologetic for a distinctively Pentecostal approach to homiletics. Ragoonath, who is informed by the standard works in the field (e.g. Craddock, Lowry, and Buttrick), nevertheless insists that “Pentecostal and Charismatic preaching is …different from all other forms of preaching.” As such, he desires to wean his approach away from contemporary homiletical and rhetorical theory and to base it essentially on what he understands to be biblical principles and on preaching models provided by Jesus and the apostles.

Ragoonath winds his way through all the basic loci—exegesis, form, delivery, etc.—putting his own Pentecostal stamp on each. He calls for preachers to be prepared to spend much time in prayer and fasting, for a process of biblical interpretation “not encumbered by higher criticism” that seeks to re-experience both the “truths and the feeling” of a text, and for a preaching of the “full gospel,” namely that “Jesus saves, sanctifies, heals, baptizes in the Spirit and is coming back to this world—soon.”

Even for readers unpersuaded by Ragoonath’s approach to homiletics or his Adventist theology, this book provides a fascinating glimpse into Pentecostal practice. He provides a concise guide to the history of Pentecostal preaching and discusses such matters as dress codes (“It’s always safe to have a suit with you in case you have to use it.”), the logistics of “healing and deliverance” services, the practice of “tarrying” (a prayer-like waiting for divine action), and signs that a preacher is truly anointed by the Holy Spirit (e.g. the preacher preaches with boldness; the sermon is accompanied by “signs, wonders, and miracles,” and the preacher often speaks in “a higher pitched voice” and “his facial expression begins to glow”).

Reviewed by Thomas G. Long.