Faithful Preaching – Tony Merida

© 2009 B&H, Nashville

A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to attend a short retreat for pastors in Indiana. It was a pleasant weekend with a group of mostly young, hungry preachers. I think I was one of the four over the age of 35 (including the leaders and presenters). Our key speaker for the event was another young preacher who serves a growing congregation in Raleigh, North Carolina, while teaching preaching on the side at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. No, he didn’t look like a preacher or a preaching professor—at least not one from our day (maybe more the camel’s hair clothes and locust diet variety), but he knew what he was talking about. Not only that, but he was personable with all of the participants in the weekend. His name was Tony Merida.

 

I’ll admit that I’m a little long in the tooth to be reading fresh books that teach preachers how to craft and present their sermons, but I find that it always helps to be refreshed in what you know. So, I’ve picked up a stack of preaching texts and am slowly working my way through them.

Merida offers up a book with a fresh look at preaching that (while it hearkens back to the preparation texts of yesteryear) is unique in its presentation. Designed to be used by the student of preaching, the book takes the reader through a step by step process that should lead to solid biblical preaching. The author insists that the Gospel preacher must remain faithful to the text of the Scripture in order to present the message from God. (I’ll agree with this assessment with a hearty “Amen!”)

Throughout the book as a closing to each chapter, Merida leads his readers through this step by step process in preparing messages based on the books of 1 and 2 Timothy. This is helpful for the young preacher in order to set strong study and preparation disciplines as he is learning to preach.

The early chapters setting the foundation for expository sermon preparation are the most helpful in the book. The reading slows down as Merida turns to the actual delivery and character of the preacher. He leaves a lot of room in delivery understanding that all preachers are different and are to be themselves in the pulpit. These aspects of delivery and lifestyle are often omitted from typical texts dedicated to sermon preparation. And even if the reading does slow down, the necessity for addressing these matters in a sermon prep book are utterly welcome. Many preachers do really well in their study time and pulling together the right  connections when writing their sermons, but fall apart when trying to present these nuggets of knowledge to their audience.

Every young preacher needs to start his education with this book. And I would daresay that many old preachers would benefit from using this textbook as well. I give it four and one-half reading glasses out of five.

—Benjamin Potter, August 9, 2013

I'm Behind on My Reviews

Since Christmas, I've continued to read, but haven't found the time to do much reviewing, so here's a sampling of what I've read, and if I get a chance to get back to reviews, maybe I'll catch up.

Bill Crider's latest Dan Rhodes book Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen (2012, St. Martin's). Fans of small-town murder mysteries and Crider's characters and writing style will be well-pleased with this new installment. (5 out of 5 reading glasses).

Reckless Faith by Kevin Harney (2012, Baker). This book seems to be challenging, but has some struggles along the way (I really do need to get a review done of this work). (3.5 out of 5 reading glasses)

Calico Joe by John Grisham (2012, DoubleDay). I've read Grisham's efforts at writing fiction about football and enjoyed them enough. Here's one set on the baseball diamond. Baseball fans will like it - I did. (4 out of 5 reading glasses)

The Names of God by Ken Hemphill (2001, B&H). This is an excellent devotional read based on a series that Dr. Hemphill has preached a number of times. Read it for the devotional content. (4 out of 5 reading glasses).

Preaching – Calvin Miller

 

© 2006, Baker Books, Grand Rapids

It’s no secret that I like Calvin Miller. The couple of times that I have had opportunity to meet him in person, I have found him to be a personable person. Consequently, I also like to read Miller’s writing. Being who I am, I prefer his fiction to his poetry (but like both). I also prefer the fiction to the allegory since the allegory makes me look too closely at my short-comings. So when I finally got a chance to read Miller’s “textbook” on narrative sermonizing (creatively titled Preaching), I knew I was in for an interesting journey.

As a preacher, I don’t read much on preaching. I like to excuse myself with the thought that I have too much on my plate to spend much time on reading about preaching (and yes, I know that it’s an excuse). As a student, I didn’t much like my preaching classes. Not that they weren’t helpful, nor did it have much to do with the personality of the instructor and other students. No, the reason I don’t like to read on preaching or study the art is that whenever I do so I begin to feel utterly inadequate. (This, by the way, can be a good thing.)

I was not disappointed in reading Miller’s book. He challenged my study habits, my sermon-construction rituals, and my delivery style. Time after time as I chewed on a passage here and there I found myself muttering, “How does anyone have time to do this for three sermons a week (well, a main sermon—Sunday morning, a runner-up—Sunday evening, and a mid-week ‘Bible study’) AND be out being the pastor?” Even so, Miller builds an excellent case for the preacher to do all the required study—know yourself, know your audience, know your passage, know your message—and to craft a sermon that your audience will actually listen and respond to.

Included are three major sections: (1) Preparing for the sermon (“Exegesis of All Things"); (2) Writing the sermon; and (3) Preaching the sermon. Section after section, chapter after chapter, page after page, the preacher will find helpful information if not challenging. Along with the challenge comes a gentle chastisement for not handling the task of preaching as carefully as we ought. Finally, in all of this is the reminder that there is something otherworldly about the sermon. Keeping this in mind, the preacher can realize that the only way to adequately and rightly completing the task at hand is to rely on the Spirit of God (not as a cop-out for doing a bad job, but as a handle to hold onto as we lay our pale sacrifice on the altar of sermon).

For me the most useful section of this useful book is the appendix (how do we get along without appendixes?). Here Miller presents a list of ten mentors whose writing can help the preacher to better develop a sound preaching routine (even though there is nothing routine about the task of preaching). What this means for me is that I’ve more reading about preaching to do (ugh!). I already have one of the books recommended—thought I had another, but can’t find it on the shelf. So, I’m off to my task. If you stand week in and week out in a pulpit where preaching is your activity, I suggest you start your task by reading this book.

5 out of 5 reading glasses.

—Benjamin Potter, November 30, 2011

Preaching the Cross – Mark Dever, J. Ligon Duncan III, R. Albert Mohler Jr., & C.J. Mehaney

©2007 Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL

This is a collection of addresses that were delivered at the first (2006) Together for the Gospel conference. The catalysts for the conference are a group of Christian thinkers who have become friends over the years and their desire for their friendship to benefit other church leaders/pastors. The group includes two Baptists (Dever and Mohler), a Presbyterian (Duncan), and a non-denominational leader (Mehaney) who set aside their differences to focus on the main agenda—Christ and the Cross. Also appearing at the conference (and consequently in the book) are other popular preachers of our day—John MacArthur, John Piper, and R.C. Sproul.

Dever pens the introduction, speaking for the group, which outlines the history and make-up of the Together for the Gospel ideology. And then each person contributes a chapter dealing with a variety of aspects pertinent to genuine gospel preaching—Old Testament connections, Cultural responsibility, expository preaching, and the like.

Some of the addresses are exceptionally helpful, while others tend to drag. I found Dever’s treatment of I Corinthians 4, inspiring as a pastor, and Duncan’s highlight of preaching Christ from the Old Testament was certainly refreshing. Piper, who has a tendency to lose me after the first paragraph, continued to do so (perhaps I’m just not as intellectual as he is).

Altogether, this is a sound book for any preacher to have in his library. I would hesitate to recommend it to a larger audience out of simple interest appeal, though. Therefore I give it a rating of 3 out of 5 reading glasses.

—Benjamin Potter, November 13, 2010

The Sermon Maker – Calvin Miller

© 2002, Zondervan, Grand Rapids

At a recent conference I had opportunity to rub elbows with one of my favorite Christian authors—Calvin Miller. A long time pastor, educator and writer, Miller embodies many of the characteristics I want when I grow up to be a real preacher. One of the best things that Miller does is communicate. And he has a desire to see all preachers do that better and better. And so he has created some short volumes to inspire the pastor to be the best pastor he can be. This is the first of those volumes.

One of the great things about reading Miller is that you never know what you’re going to get—much like Forest Gump’s proverbial box of chocolates. Within the 150 or so pages of this book you will encounter the fictional story of Sam, the beleaguered pastor who is rediscovering how his call to preach can take him beyond the typical mundanity (I know, I know: not a word) of three points and a poem cleverly alliterated for ease in memorization. Sam inspires the minister to re-visit his calling and so refresh his exposition.

The story of Sam is worth the price of admission in and of itself, especially as he interacts with Sermoniel the Angel of Homiletics. But Miller throws in commentary that allows the reader to dive deeper into the why of preaching via the story pattern. And the author puts a cherry on top of his sweet volume by including scholarly endnotes, if only to prove that he did his homework in the writing.

I must admit, I almost passed up this book because of the unorthodox packaging – story on the right-hand page, commentary on the left, with notes at the end of the book – but once I got into the reading, I found it wasn’t distracting at all. I also found that this design allowed to read just the story for continuity’s sake; just the commentary for clarification; or combine the reading to see how each relates to the other.

My recommendation for this book goes out to pastors who are caught in the grind of weekly cranking out lackluster sermons, to those who are looking for a new take on the old art of sermon-writing that will bring life back to their pulpit ministry, or to ministers who find themselves being weighed down by the monotony of taking on their own “Emma Johnsons” week after week. If you’d like to see your pastor revive the life in his sermons, you might consider gifting him this book.

5 out of 5 reading glasses.

—Benjamin Potter, May 25, 2010