Preaching

Christian Alexander

What is a good book for preachers and orators to read? 

Olli-Pekka Ylisuutari

Here are two:

Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon, 3rd ed. | Logos Bible Software

Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages, 3rd ed. | Logos Bible Software

Kathleen Marie

I was really interested to see which titles Logos chose to include in the Preaching Suites.

For the more advanced members here, if Logos had put you in charge of choosing the resources for these packages, what would you have done differently? Are there books/resources that you would or would not have included?

Essentials

https://www.logos.com/product/206564/preaching-suite-essentials

Standard

https://www.logos.com/product/206617/preaching-suite-standard

Premium

https://www.logos.com/product/206565/preaching-suite-premium

Olli-Pekka Ylisuutari

I just finished this one:

Inductive Preaching: Helping People Listen | Logos Bible Software

I must heartily recommend it!

The Lewises critizice the way many preachers use only deductive logic and assume authority, announcing the proposition they are going to defend – at the outset of the sermon. This may work in small rural congregations, where everybody at church is a Christian and the preacher/pastor/priest is an authority figure. But the problem is, once you announce your proposition at the beginning, there really are no surprises left after that. The authority figure becomes boring.

Inductive preaching works the other way around: you start with (many times the mundane and the banal) observations of induction, assuming no authority, but rather build up your authority as you preach. You do this by finding a common ground with your audience. The audience may be quite critical (not necessarily). Works in urban settings and with the the more sceptical and the youth, they claim. The figure with no assumed authority becomes interesting, so they say...

Olli-Pekka Ylisuutari

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1185066#Comment_1185066

Here are two skeleton sermons I made using the Gospel reading of the last Sunday of the Church Year (Matthew 25: 31-46; the Final Judgment) using the inductive method – I haven’t still decided, which one to use, but I have a pulpit shift coming on 21^st of November:

Sermon 1, “Unfair”: Life seems unfair, doesn’t it? (Insert lot’s of examples of unfairness both from personal life, family life, church life, community life, the world of nature and biology, politics, here; also insert how different religions and philosophies of life relate to the unfairness of life; the law of karma of eastern religions, cultural relativism, atheism and nihilism offer some answers to the unfairness experience). Many people also feel God is unfair (the problem of suffering). Bridge to deduction: “We believe in the Almighty God”; could God allow something he doesn’t want? We believe in Christ “coming to judge the living and the dead.”(The Gospel, Matt. 25). What if there is final justice?

Sermon 2: “Puffed up with pride?” Have you ever helped anyone without realizing how much of help you were to him/her? Have you ever come across inadvertent help? When help hasn’t gone to the right address? Or when those helped didn’t know that somebody else was getting help, also? Examples from life: Musk promised to sell Tesla stocks, if somebody told him how to stop hunger from the world. Examples from mundane life: “blessings in disguise” in real life; charity organizations that use too big a proportion to their own expenses? The child who was helped when his alcoholic mother was helped. Helping a competitor in sports? Sir Alexander Fleming inventing penicillin while doing art! Help “by accident”. In psychology (Johari window): open, blind, hidden, unknown. Bridge to deduction: Sometimes you help without knowing; then how can you take pride in helping? Example: the Gospel of Judgment Sunday: “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you…?” Help going not just to the right address but to even better address: “I {the Lord] was hungry!” Could it be 1) most miserable to know and not to help? 2) miserable to not know and not help? 3) Happy to help knowingly? 4) Happy (and lucky!) to help without knowing? End of sermon: “Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law” (Romans 3:27-28)

See how induction leads to deduction? Thanks, Lewises!

David Ames

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1185067#Comment_1185067

Here are two skeleton sermons 

See how induction leads to deduction?

Thanks for the lesson on how to start planning a sermon!

Olli-Pekka Ylisuutari

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1185098#Comment_1185098

Thanks for the lesson on how to start planning a sermon!

[Y] My pleasure! This method seems highly usable, and I like how it makes you (and your listeners) to deal with ordinary life experiences.

I myself have come to recognize too much theorizing as my pet peeve! This prevents it from happening, or, at least diminishes it to a degree! [:)]

1Cor10 31

Preaching & Preachers by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

If I am not mistaken, John Piper recommended the above book in his own book on preaching. So I picked it up even though I have no intentions of becoming a preacher (but would like to blog one day).

I like what I've read so far (100 pages or so). He talks about the various aspects of being a preacher and the act of preaching (the call, the content of a sermon, the delivery of the sermon etc.).

As with any book, you will find things that you disagree given your own experience. His writing style is smooth, so you will be reading fast. There is lots of repetition, but that's ok.

Bill Shewmaker

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1185133#Comment_1185133

Books on Preaching:

One of my favorite books on Preaching is entitled "The Sermon Doctor." It is written as a novel that focuses on three preachers that are having difficulties staying "excited" about the preaching event. The "Sermon Doctor" encourages them to encourage each other and others, by recalling the reason that they preach. He goes through the various steps to creating a meaningful sermon, background material, exegesis, form and structure, etc.

As the book draws to a close he encourages one of them to become the next "Sermon Doctor".

It is a delightful read that can be read straight through in a few hours OR it can be read one chapter at a time allowing you time to implement the principles reviewed in that chapter. This is the process that I prefer...and I try to read this book at least once every other year or so, just to stay fresh.