Why don’t we just quit preaching?
“Considering the widespread popularity of engaging anecdotes and vivid vignettes, wouldn’t it be more effective to simply tell a few captivating stories on Sunday Morning? And why think specifically about expositional preaching — that brand so often associated with excruciating boredom and half-empty pews? In our fast paced society of sports tickers and sound bite infotainment, can we really expect anyone to have the patience for a serious exposition of an ancient text?”
– The NineMarks website has some excellent resources for expository preaching. It’s the first the ‘nine marks’of a healthy church as promoted by Mark Dever.
Thinking about preaching
Colin Adams in Edinburgh shares what he finds helpful about his senior pastor’s preaching…
“Peter Grainger is the current Senior Pastor of Charlotte Baptist Chapel, the 18th in its history. It has been an immense blessing for me to work under him for almost six years. Peter’s preaching has not only taught me many biblical truths. Sitting under his expository messages has probably been more influential in developing my own preaching style than anything else.…”
– Read it at Unashamed Workman.
Root Not Fruit
“The news that the prominent Atheist Richard Dawkins is now claiming to be a cultural Christian, should not surprise.
Many of us know parents who send children to Christian schools because they like the product of such schools, yet insist they don’t want their children to be religious.
In my first parish I would meet C.E. Christians. I was told I could only expect to see them at Christmas (C) and Easter (E). So called ‘cultural Christians’ see no need to believe the supernatural elements of the Faith, they are Christians without the C and the E. …”
– At The Expository Preaching Trust, David Cook reminds us why we must keep on preaching the Word.
Photo: David Cook preaching at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in 2022.
Reality
“We have just come back from a few days on the Gold Coast, which has one of the largest film production studios in Australia.
One of our sons is filming a series for TV called, ‘Good Cop, Bad Cop’. During our visit we went on set and saw the incredible expertise and equipment required to produce such a series.
The series is set in a place called Eden Vale in Washington DC and yet it was filmed in a little town called Canungra, Qld; the community hall, shops, the local park even the litter bins all had to be re labelled, ‘Eden Vale’. …”
– At The Expository Preaching Trust, David Cook points us to what it real.
It’s in the Fridge!
“‘The sauce is on the middle shelf of the fridge’, so says my wife, but for the life me, I can’t see it.
My wife goes to the fridge and finds the sauce immediately.
Is it a man thing, an age thing or just a human thing?
Recently, I have been working on Luke 7:36-50, Jesus, Simon the Pharisee and the sinful woman.
I went through the whole process of sermon preparation and wrote out the sermon manuscript, but I knew I had not cracked the passage. I preached the sermon to my preaching club and knew it still was not right, so did they.
I prayed over it, I read and reread the passage, there was something I was not seeing…”
– At The Expository Preaching Trust, David Cook encourages us to look for what may be staring us in the face.
See also:
Church Matters from 9Marks: Vol 4, Evangelism
The latest issue of Church Matters from 9Marks focusses on the question of evangelism –
What is a biblical understanding of evangelism?
Is every Christian expected to evangelise?
Does expository preaching speak to unbelievers as well as believers?
This and much more in the latest edition, available from 9Marks.
Remembering Broughton Knox after 30 years
David Broughton Knox, Principal of Moore College 1959–1985, was called home 30 years ago, on January 14th 1994.
Who was Broughton Knox? Take the time to read these two tributes:
“There were many strands in Broughton’s complex make-up as husband and father, teacher and friend. But all who knew him know that his life was ruled by a profound faith in God. That life was to span just a shade over seventy seven years from the time of his birth. And they were years crowded with quiet achievement as well as moments of high drama.
It was a life rich in friendship, in world-wide contacts, and in special fields of service. And it has left a mark for God that will endure in and beyond his own generation. …”
And Donald Robinson, Archbishop of Sydney 1982–1993, wrote a tribute for ACL News in 1994:
“It is no doubt too soon to estimate Broughton’s full contribution to the Australian Church. We can note something of its character, its thrust, and its scope, and we can voice our gratitude where we have personally been its beneficiaries.
Broughton was a theological person, whose mind and heart was focussed on the living God as He has made himself known. …”
See also:
Broughton Knox: servant of Christ Jesus – Dr Mark Thompson, May 15, 2017.
The Legacy of David Broughton Knox – October 24th 2018.
Expository Preaching on the wane? — David Cook, August 20th 2020.
Man articles by D B Knox – at Matthias Media’s The Briefing website.
A quote from Dr Knox’s address at the Annual General Meeting of the Anglican Church League in July 1993:
“We mustn’t limit the gospel to the feudalism of the past. Our present territorial boundaries, like a diocese or a parish, are feudal. … where the gospel is needed to be preached, we ought to be preaching it.”
Shortly before he and Ailsa left to help establish George Whitefield College in Cape Town in 1989, he spoke at Moore College on “What is a Christian?” – and prefaced his address with some comments on what he hoped to do in South Africa. (While the Vimeo page has the date as 12/10/1980, the year is almost certainly 1988.)
Thanks to Moore College’s Donald Robinson Library for making this available.
Are You Listening to Yourself?
“A verse that encourages me greatly, in preaching, is Jesus’ words in John 10:27:
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
When we communicate God’s word, it gathers the sheep, the sheep come to listen, they recognise Jesus voice.
Its encouraging, because God’s truth attracts God’s people, so when I am discouraged by small numbers, this verse reminds me – God’s people listen to God’s voice, and want to hear Him speak to them through His word, and faithful preaching. …”
– At The Expository Preaching Trust, Jim Mobbs encourages preachers to listen to their own sermons.
Picture: Detail from “The Evangelist”, a painting of Arthur Stace preaching in the open air, by artist David Lever.
The Key
“In my opinion, this is the KEY.
In 1976, having spent 3 years of formative theological training at Moore College, I moved to my first parish, Wee Waa, in the north west of NSW.
I was to be the church’s second minister, the first was a faithful man, an excellent communicator. …
My sermons were very different to the previous minister, I preached for longer, I had been trained to always expound, and, I wasn’t the communicator he had been.
It was not going well, I knew that the congregation were switching off…”
– At The Expository Preaching Trust, David Cook shares The Key.
Preachers should be great storytellers
“Stories are captivating, inspiring, and memorable. Perhaps some of our greatest childhood memories are having stories read to us, and the privilege of parents, and grandparents to read stories to our children, to curl up with them, and do funny voices, and laugh along with them at the silly ones.
The Bible, is, in effect, a story.
Jesus told stories, he was the master story teller, bar none. …”
– At The Expository Preaching Trust, Jim Mobbs has encouragement for preachers.
Charles Simeon: a model for preachers
“Charles Simeon was the pastor of Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Cambridge from 1782 to his death in 1836 – a period of 54 years. It is difficult to find anyone before Charles Simeon who set about so systematically to teach people to preach.
By 1832 Simeon had published what he called a ‘skeleton’ or sermon outline on the entire bible – over 2,500 in all! They are quite detailed – a lot more flesh and blood than you might expect on a skeleton. But the skeletons were perhaps an outworking of his own experience as a preacher where for the first 7 years he said he ‘did not know the head from the tail of a sermon’.
JI Packer says that the genius of the skeletons was that they showed the preacher how to make sure that it was the text that did the talking throughout the sermon, rather than the preacher loading up the text with his own ideas. They also encouraged the preacher to find and stick to the one big idea of the text. …”
– Encouragement for preachers from Stuart Coulton at The Expository Preaching Trust.
Discipling
“Making disciples is the central direction of the great commission of Matthew 28.
I have lived long enough to see this endeavour go through some name changes. …
Many Christians of my vintage can testify to the value of the Navigator’s 2:7 course and to the Navigator’s emphasis on Scripture memorisation. …
I am not sure what it is being called today but I notice a growing emphasis for those in ministry to make ourselves more accountable by having a mentor.”
– At The Expository Preaching Trust, David Cook writes to encourage ministers to take advantage of several opportunities for discipling / mentoring / help in preaching.
Sydney Church History — repost
We first posted this link in August 2020. As CMS Summer School at Katoomba concludes for 2023, here are even more reasons to give thanks to God:
“In 1965 John Stott, the Rector of All Souls Langham Place in London, visited Sydney to preach on 2 Corinthians at the CMS Summer School.
‘I heard only one of those Bible studies but I was so taken by the way he stuck to the text and stayed with it. He could show you the logic of the argument in the Scriptures, prior to that I had tended to get an idea from the passage and to leap all over the Bible supporting the idea from other parts, so that the people I taught knew the ‘idea’ but not the passage from which it came or how that passage fitted into some overall argument from the Scriptures. It is to John Stott I owe what ability I have to expound the Bible.’
Those were the words of the esteemed Sydney evangelist and preacher, the late John Chapman…”
– David Cook writes to remind us of our history, and how God works. At The Expository Preaching Trust.
(David Cook has served in parish ministry, as the Principal of SMBC, and as the Moderator-General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia.)
Put on your glasses
“On our recent trip to the UK we went on two Christian Heritage walking tours, one in Edinburgh and one in London. Both were excellent.
In Edinburgh we followed the path of the Reformation and the brutal treatment of the faithful Covenanters.
In London we visited John Newton’s church, St. Mary, Woolnoth, as well as many other significant evangelical centres in the square mile which makes up the city of London.
I was struck at the value of having a guide who can give so much extra background information. …”
– At The Expository Preaching Trust, David Cook draws attention to the importance of knowing history.
(David mentions this book.)
David Cook — Letters to the Editor
“I am a mostly frustrated letter writer to the Editor of the Australian newspaper, about 1 in 5 of my letters get published and then sometimes, with unacceptable editing!
Recently I wrote a letter in response to a column by Tony Abbott in which the former PM quoted Margaret Thatcher as saying that, ‘reality will always trump ideology’.
Abbott’s 3 examples of ideology were the virus hysteria, the emissions obsession and cultural self loathing …”
– At The Expository Preaching Trust, David Cook reminds us how the Scriptures bring us back to reality.
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…