If the Word of God is to come alive in the pulpit, it will necessitate the death of the preacher, according to Steven W. Smith in his new book
Dying to Preach (Kregel).
As Smith asserts, "The inestimable challenge of preaching is at once to grow in the development of the task while simultaneously giving it away—that is, being willing to die for people so they might live. This means a preacher will care deeply about preaching while at the same time surrendering his communication to God…The death to self that is demanded of the preacher works life in his people."
This is a powerful book that deserves to be read by any pastor as a reminder that "the greatest threat to the pulpit is the giftedness of its preachers." Smith does a valuable service in reminding us that only as we die can our preaching truly live.
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In his new book
Preaching from Memory to Hope (Westminster John Knox), Tom Long says, "What happens is that trusted structures and strategies of the pulpit suddenly seem to lose their potency; and worried preachers, their confidence shaken, begin to scramble for the next new thing."
Long is one of the most gifted homileticians in the mainline church today, and his insights will be read with interest by anyone serious about preaching. Among the topics Long addresses are the swing away from narrative preaching (a theme that has dominated preaching texts for the past two decades), dealing with the new spirituality (which he pegs—quite accurately, I think—as to a large extent just the old Gnosticism) and what he considers the neglected theme in preaching, eschatology.
Bryan Chapell's superb book
Christ-Centered Preaching (Baker) has become one of the standard texts on preaching in evangelical seminaries. Church leaders now can welcome a parallel volume in Chapell's newest contribution in his book
Christ-Centered Worship (Baker). In addition to exploring the church's various liturgical streams, Chapell also discusses the biblical patterns and emphases that should undergird and inform our worship practices.
In Christ-Centered Worship, Chapell has pressed the church to re-think its approach to worship and reminded us that worship is not about us and our preferences but about Christ and His glory.
According to T. David Gordon, "less than 30 percent of those who are ordained to the Christian ministry can preach an even mediocre sermon." That may be the nicest thing he has to say about today's preaching in his brief book Why Johnny Can't Preach (P&R).
Gordon's concern is not that there may or may not be "great" preachers around, but that "the average Christian family in the average pew in the average church on the average Sunday" is being starved. He observes, "If Jesus tests Peter's profession of love by the ministerial act of feeding his sheep, our sheep do not need gourmet meals. But they do need good, solid nourishment, and they are not ordinarily getting it."
