This powerful warning from John Angell James in his valuable book, An Earnest Ministry, still applies today: “The prevailing disposition, therefore, to do such homage to talent, rather than to moral excellence, is only another species of idolatry, more refined and subtle than the worship of stocks and stones, but scarcely less guilty…” But when …
“[John Chrysostom’s] excellence we appreciate today from an exegetical point of view, from an ethical point of view, and from a literary point of view. The preaching of this master centers in his series of exegetical sermons on individual books of the Bible. . . . . his great authority as a preacher rested in …
On Thursday, April 29, Greg Thornbury and I will be the speakers for a one day Bible conference with the theme, “Communicating Familiar Bible Stories in Unfamiliar Ways,” hosted by Union University, Hendersonville. We will be considering the familiar pastoral struggle of preaching texts which you feel like the people already know very well. Pastors …
At the MidWest Founders Conference this week I recommended Lee Tankersley’s sermons as good examples of preaching Christ from the Old Testament. For anyone following up, you can find those sermons here. You could begin with the sermon from this past Sunday on 1 Kings 1-2. Lee does a good job of noting some of …
This year’s article surveying new study Bibles and Bible reference works for Preaching Magazine has just gone online.As with previous articles I have focused on study Bibles and commentaries though I also comment on surveys, dictionaries, and some works of biblical theology, biblical languages and church history. By necessity the comments are brief.I hope that …
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One danger for preachers who understand the value of doctrine, is that we can lose touch with the practical focus of preaching. We do not want to be like many whose preaching is shallow and lacking in any biblical substance. This desire is correct, but it can then be easy to fall off the other …
Today in chapel at Union we had a great message from Jonathan Newman, a great friend whom I have been privileged to know since our student days here at Union.Jonathan planted and pastors Koinos Christian Fellowship in Troy, OH. Jonathan challenged us with the necessity of dealing with conflict in the church lest we suggest …
I think God is really teaching and growing me in the realm of grace and much of it is tied to the book of Galatians. Eric Smith who is preaching through Galatians has commented on this (here and here) and has helped me in conversation. At our church, we have been walking through Galatians as …
Many of you have probably already read Spurgeon’s little classic, All of Grace. I have had a copy for years but never read it. Then fairly recently I got an audio copy of someone reading it (from Christian Audio as their free download one month). My soul as soared as I have listened to this …