The Call for Great Preaching

[Pastor Z. M. D. McGregor]

What makes for good preaching? Serious preachers want to know. In a season where homiletical gimmickry is welcomed, and topical sermons are now the norm, healthy, sound preaching is both wanted and needed now more than ever.

If the preaching clergyman insist on being effective then the following elements must be exercised in the sermonic preparation and experience:

1. Clarity - The message must be clear from the introduction to the conclusion. If the text that you have taken deals with grace then the sermon should conclude with grace.

2. Coherency - The sermon cannot be clear if it isn't coherent. A coherent sermon is a harmonious sermon. It is a mass message, well thoughtout, that makes a clear argument and thus persuading the listener.

3. Continuity - No sermon can have clarity or coherency without having continuity. It is the continuity of a sermon that makes it palletable for all to digest. The continuity is made up of the movements that make the message. Continuity brings order, for example the following outline is including but not limited to: introduction, background/set-up, verse-by-verse exposition, points argued, application, recapitualtion, and challenge. By preparing your sermon compartmentally you increase the overall continuity of the sermon and you will sustain the listeners ear longer.

With that said, I am always on the look out for the next great 'Biblical Preacher'. That is the clergyman who has pre-determined to make the Holy Bible his foundation and the message Christocentric with the people in mind. I have included on my page for all to hear and see, the power of this kind of preaching.

Be A Blessing - Matt. 5:16

[Pastor Trevor Ducreay]

"What the novice and non-committed need upfront is a clear presentation of the gospel, early and often, using the Holy Bible with a clear passage in the process...Why? You want to set a precedence with the Holy Bible, this is very important. You want to establish the Holy Bible as the authority of the House and in the life of the believer."

Since it could not be said any better I echo. Well said!

I also agree (and it is my practice) that topical presentations are most appropriate for teaching settings.
Some reasons I think verse by verse is superior for the preaching enterprise:
1. Verse by verse allows the natural rhythm of Scripture to be the baseline to our presentation.
2. It helps guard against contextual airlifting.
3. It forces the preacher to reckon with difficulties in the text (a la Bruegemmann)
4. It engages the text as the Spirit originally gave it

Topical sermons are ideally suited to passing fads within Christianity.

[Pastor Z. M. D. McGregor]

In the course of my study and practice, and speaking from the African American familiar, I have applied the 'verse with verse' approach but only in teaching settings. Rick Warren and I studied under the same professor Dr. Al Fasol, 'Steps to the Sermon' (Summer, Northcutt, Fasol), and so we share the same mechanical background. However, our application is different. Where Warren uses a topical method, which is very popular right now in most predominantly white evangelical churches, I employ it exclusively in a teaching context; never on a Sunday morning.

The reason? I disagree fundamentally that a topical approach works best in a preaching context for the unsaved. What the novice and non-committed need upfront is a clear presentation of the gospel, early and often, using the Holy Bible with a clear passage in the process. Secondly, there is a cultural and intuitive difference in how African Americans receive and process the word.

Why? You want to set a precedence with the Holy Bible, this is very important. You want to establish the Holy Bible as the authority of the House and in the life of the believer, this makes correction, direction, vision casting, reconciliation, and followship, easier. Let me be clear, there is NO substitute for verse by verse biblical exposition.

I do use the topical approach in teaching settings, workshops, seminars, and retreats. Why? Concentrated learning. Every pastor ought to use the mid-week meeting for the purpose of relevant discipleship. For example, the Black community is suffering with regards to marriage and family, how do you undermine this at your local church? Do a teaching series on marriage and family. Take 6 wks. and teach on the biblical basis of marriage, its origin, its purpose, its value, how God is glorified by it and how you are edified by in it. And make this a steady teaching twice a year. This is how topical teaching to restore the Christian African American community across denominational lines.

Be a blessing ~ Matt. 5:16

[Dr. Robert E. Baines, Jr.]

Z, thank you for your post. I believe that preaching must be Bible based and application oriented. This can be accomplished via expository, textual, and topical preaching. Rick Warren suggests that especially for the unchurched or underchurched that verse with verse (i.e., topical) is more effective, until they grow to appreciate Bible studies that are more verse by verse (i.e., expository). After 19 years of Pastoring Black Baptists, I have found that textual is my norm, but the text and my context often have great sway. How would you respond to these thoughts. Keep up the good work.

www.RobertBaines.com

[Pastor Trevor Ducreay]

Z, I strongly agree with your 3 points. What is great about them is that they are not formulaic--they are the natural requirements of good communication, not exclusive to preaching.

I do think we have exercised ourselves too much over homiletical technic, so that the manner and method of preaching takes precedence over the Message and Matter of our preaching. On the other hand, where technic is eschewed what is left is lots of emotion and shouting, generating lots of heat and no light.

Two succinct statements about preaching have stuck with me after all the seminary classes, books, seminars, continuing ed etc
Dr Barry Black: "head for the cross (Calvary) as early as possible."
Paul, "We preach Christ."

[Pastor Rodrick Sweet,ThM]

Excellent, post my friend. Not only are these a must for good biblical preaching but, we must also add to that the condition of the heart! If we just look at Ezra 7:10 the verse states that Ezra set his heart to study the law of the Lord. We as the preacher/pastors must too set our hearts to study the Word of God and to practice it and then and only then can we teach it to others.