LaRue’s next element of great preaching is the significance of the waiting Congregation. In this element, the congregation is involved in the entire preparation process.
Category: Preaching
Napoleon Harris – My First Preaching Experience and Suggstions for new Preachers
My first experience was “all good.” HA HA…yeah right I was as nervous as hell on judgment day! I fasted the week of the sermon by eating only fruits and vegetables until the day before which I ate nothing. I was sooooo focused on delivering that message John 10 the Good Shepherd. I had no title, I still 4 years later and with a MDiv in sight don’t title most sermons!
Praying for the Moment
Wrestling with the Text
The next characteristic of great preaching that the preachers described in Preaching with Power is “The Importance of Wrestling with the Text.”
Waiting on God in the Sermonic Process
The Second characteristic that Cleophus LaRue speaks of in his book Preaching With Power is a “Sense of Divine Encounter.” Here the preacher must wait until God speaks to the preacher before the sermonic process can begin. This encounter is between the divine and human, thus it is more than human generated.
Preaching as Oral/Aural Event
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.
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.
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: