Preaching

Pastor Herman Bavinck Many know Herman Bavinck as a reputable Dutch theologian, whose Reformed Dogmatics continues to shape the thoughts of theologians, pastors, and lay Christians alike. What is largely unknown is that Bavinck was also a devout and heartfelt preacher. To bridge the gap between...
I recently wasted four of five minutes of my life watching a clip of a segment of a sermon by a well known mega-church preacher. Over the past five years, this individual has reinvented his preaching style. Once a more relaxed speaker, he now effectively works the crowd over with high energy, moral...
Shortly before college I read Mortimer Adler's little classic How to Read a Book . That may sound like an odd title. After all, how could somebody read the book unless they already knew how to read? And if they did know how to read, then why would they need to read it at all? How to Read a Book...
I arrived on Faculty at Westminster in the summer of 2001. I had only been on campus for a couple of months before a group of students approached me one lunchtime and tried to recruit me to a most sinister and dangerous cult. `What?', I hear you cry, `Are the Moonies, the Children of God, and the...
Every Christian needs to understand the theology of preaching in Scripture because Christ designed every Christian to sit under sermons. Yet are there ways for all believers to participate in sermons? All Christians, and not the preacher only, should participate actively in the preparation,...
Preaching Christ is part of the definition of preaching, but it is not the only task of preachers. Warning every man and teaching every man in order to present every man perfect in Christ (Col. 1:28) requires wise and specific application. What should sermon application look like? If I tell my...
Most preaching that self-identifies as expository is simply not expository enough. The basic etymological definition of expository is to expose the meaning of the biblical text.1 What is key to fleshing out that definition is rightly reckoning what one means by the word text . Can a particular text...
As children learn by watching their parents, so preachers and hearers learn much by looking at the Apostles. The principles taught in the preceding nine post risk resembling a shapeless cloud instead of a face reflected in a mirror without adding concrete examples. This post provides an example of...
Every pastor has encountered them. Every member of the congregation has wondered after reading the title of the sermon and the accompanying text, "I wonder what he is going to say about this text?" Let's face it some texts are difficult and when a preacher preaches through a book, well, he has no...
When a man and a woman are engaged to be married they can hardly talk about anything else. In fact, we might suspect that something is wrong if they don't express excitement about the wedding. The church is espoused to Christ and looks forward to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:6-9)...