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

Washington, DC – High profile cases of pastors and priests both perpetuating sexual violence or covering up domestic violence have dominated the media in recent months. As a nation we have witnessed a rush to silence or blame women by individuals claiming to represent entire denominations. This harsh reality inspired the call to faith leaders to submit sermons about domestic and sexual violence and resulted in over 150 submissions from 28 states, 3 countries, and 20 different faith traditions. Sojourners has launched an interactive website featuring 100 sermons and resources on making churches safer sanctuaries for survivors. The sermons can be searched by location, scripture, or denomination.

Jenna Barnett, Women and Girls Campaign Coordinator for Sojourners, stated, “The church has much to lament. We must acknowledge the harmful messages we’ve sent to victims and survivors: to stay in dangerous marriages at all costs, to shame women for the sexual violence someone else inflicted. But we also work to provide a new message from our pulpits: that Jesus wants your liberation, not your suffering. That Jesus prioritizes the vulnerable, not those who abuse their power to harm the vulnerable. We need more faith leaders to break the silence on domestic and sexual violence from within the walls of their own sanctuaries.”

In a recent survey commissioned by Sojourners, IMA World Health, the We Will Speak Out coalition and conducted by LifeWay Research, there was a significant increase in the number of pastors speaking about domestic and sexual violence, with 51 percent of pastors in 2018 claiming to speak with their church about the topic several times a year or more, as opposed to 34 percent in 2014.

According to Jenna Barnett, “Sermons announce a church’s priorities. By preaching from the pulpit on domestic and sexual violence, pastors send a message to survivors that they are seen, believed, and that the church is working to be a trauma-informed space that can nurture your healing and connect you to other experts in your community.”

Image: Grant Whitty

“Sojourners is spotlighting these 100 sermons because we want to resource and inspire other faith leaders to follow the bold example of pastors all across the country and all across the theological spectrum who are breaking the silence on domestic and sexual violence. Sermons alone cannot end this violence or the pain left in its wake. But sermons can announce a church’s decision to prioritize victims and survivors over perpetrators. These are not easy sermons to preach, but we worship a savior who never shied away from tough conversations,” said Jim Wallis, President and Founder of Sojourners.

Resources Referenced: 100 Sermons Website: https://sojo.net/100sermons

2018 survey: Broken Silence 2.0: Pastors’ Attitudes & Actions Around Domestic & Sexual Violence in the #MeToo Era https://wewillspeakout.us/broken-silence/

Tim Keel, “Naked in the Pulpit: How my preaching became an act of intimacy” Leadership Journal (Winter 2005).

What a scary thought: being vulnerable to your congregation. Yet, this is the approach that Tim Keel suggests we pastors should take—a valuable suggestion indeed. Too often I find myself being more concerned with the passing of information than I am transferring life change to the people I minister to.

I will never forget the story my new boss and Sr. Minister told of the church he had come from. There was a Sunday school teacher who had taught for over a decade at the church who finally came to realize—after a convicting sermon—that his primary role in that class was not the passing of information. Discipleship was about growth, it was about change. This was life transformation using the avenue of information for the greater purpose of being different for and by Jesus Christ.

Keel says, “For me preaching has become an integrated, intimate behavior, far more than just an exercise of transferring information to other people’s heads.”

“Just transferring” information is a common trap for us to fall into as preachers. Perhaps we have set the trap by allowing ourselves to be immersed in our consumer culture. Keel reminds us how to express the information about God and the Christian life in the balance of how we live our lives. “Preaching is an act of intimacy because it is the unfolding publicly of Christ in me.”

A good illustration to help us understand the danger of passing information without being changed by that information is to look at two people groups who spent time with Jesus.

“I have a structured mind, so I tend to think in outlines. But the more I do outlining, the more I find I’m over-killing my sermon. I can crowd out my ability to respond to God or to the people before me.”

The legalism of the Pharisees was the simple but dangerous activity of crowding out their own ability to respond to the God of the universe who was standing before them in tangible form. That happens to us pastors today, too. Too often we are focused on the passing of information and we miss the opportunities ourselves to connect with God, and therefore fail to pass on life change to the very people we minister to.

The Disciples: These guys got it. Well, there were many times they struggled to get it but that is how an authentic relationship works. The disciples experienced Jesus Christ in a fresh way. They ate with him. They talked with him. He rescued them from the scary forces of nature. They believed in him. They performed miracles in His name. They even died for him. What a difference.

Knowledge is scary stuff. “Naked in the Pulpit” is a valuable reminder to us pastors to use the knowledge in the Word to change lives. It is not good enough just to throw knowledge out into the air, like many of the Pharisees, who often cared more about doctrine and appearance.

Too much of an emphasis on information and preparation will keep us from being honest about how God has changed us. The end result is an ineffective Christianity. If we do not practice “Naked in the Pulpit” we will become like those today who, to the letter of the law, can provide exhaustive Scriptural support for whether or not the Trinity really is biblical yet cannot seem to offer anyone a cup of cold water in Jesus name. Knowledge alone is dangerous.

As Keel states knowledge needs to be mixed with the meditating, reflecting, and the living out of God’s Word. Being naked in the pulpit will enable us to do that more effectively. This is simply what the Apostles did throughout the book of Acts. They allowed the Holy Spirit to move them. They had no 3-point sermon. They did not spew fact and law to justify behavior. They talked and lived a public life changed by Jesus Christ. That is what we must do.

Reviewed by John Datema

At the time of this writing, “Naked in the Pulpit” was accessible online: http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2005/001/1.78.html