Cleophus LaRue edited a book entitled Preaching in the Pulpit: How America’s Most Effective Black Preachers Prepare Their Sermons.. In the book he gives 11 characteristics of the methodologies of these great preachers.
Category: blog
Are You Preaching a Sermon or Something Else?
Once again the Peter Mead from the Biblical Preaching blog provides a short post with a big punch. This time he quotes from Dwight Stevenson’s work A Reader on Preaching and asks, us to consider if we are truly preaching a sermon or something else.
Replacements for Sermons
Improving your Sermons – Importance of a Growing Preacher
Peter Mead at the Biblical Preaching Blog has a post up on how the preacher must be a perpetual student. In it he provides 5 ways to ensure continued growth in preaching. I think this is a good introduction to improving your preaching.
Mead’s Suggestions
The Preacher’s Bible Library
Deborah Hooper has written a book entitled Evangelist and Minister’s Handbook. Chapter 5 of the book provides a good introduction to the kinds of books a preacher should have in his or her library.
Bible
Frederick Haynes’ Stories – Improving Your Preaching
I make a habit of listening to Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III of Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas Texas. Dr. Haynes incorporates stories into his preaching very effectively. These stories are gleaned from various sources.
Finding Stories
Whitefield and Extemporaneous Preaching
The Exiled Preacher has a post up on George Whitefield and Expository Preaching. Guy Davis, the author, writes about how difficult it can be to use a manuscript effectively. Certainly many of us have left our manuscript for a second to “riff” on a theme or go down a different direction. However upon attempting to come back to our manuscript we find it difficult to find the correct place.
Michael Brown – African American Bible Scholar
Professor Michael Brown, author of The Blackening of the Bible has a website that includes audio sermons and syllabi of his courses.
Maurice Watson – Black Preaching Lectures
At this link you will find two lectures on Black Preaching and a sermon by Dr. Maurice Watson of Beulahland Bible Church in Macon Ga.
The lecture titles are as follows:
- Lecture: The Preaching of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
- Lecture: The Contribution of African-American Preaching to American Christianity
- Sermon: Great Preaching of the Gospel
Preaching Patterns – A Bible Theme
The next pattern in Ron Allen’s work, Patterns of Preaching is entitled Preaching on a Biblical Theme.
When To Preach a Theme?
God’s Story or Ours
Thanks to the TheoCentric Blog for a pointer to this article by Michael S. Horton entitled “Are you in God’s story or is God in Yours?”
Horton writes in part:
Ending the Sermon Series
How should you end a sermon series? That is the question that the Biblical Preaching blog deals with in its latest post. Pastor Mead provides three possibilities:
- Summarize the “end matter” in the last sermon.
- Dedicate a full sermon to the “end matter”
- Review the whole series in the final sermon.
Now Mead is explicitly speaking of preaching through an expository series based on a book of the Bible, but it can be helpful in any sermon series.
Preaching Patterns – Topical Preaching
The next preaching pattern is the topical sermon. The topical sermon is usually based on a doctrine, teaching, or contemporary issue affecting the congregation. The preacher attempts to help the congregation understand and interpret the topic from the perspective of the gospel.
Preaching Patterns – The Funeral Sermon
The next preaching pattern presented in Ronald Allen’s book is the Funeral Homily.
Preaching Patterns – The Wedding Homily
The next pattern that Ronald Allen speaks of is the Wedding Homily.