For more than a quarter-century, Adrian Rogers has been pastor of the historic Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. A church that had become a major force in the Southern Baptist Convention, the congregation had been in decline for two decades before Rogers' arrival. Today it is one of the largest churches in the nation, and its pastor is heard daily on radio and television around the world. Preaching editor Michael Duduit recently sat with Dr. Rogers' in his study and talked about the role preaching plays in building a great church.

Preaching: Obviously God has blessed this church in an incredible way. It was a great church when you came here, but what an amazing growth it has had in reaching thousands of people. What do you see as the place of preaching in the process of growing a great church?

Rogers: I think it is central, and not because I happen to be the preacher. I believe that the message, preaching, is the stackpole around which everything else is built. My psychology is always: if I develop the message, God develops the ministry. All that we see here, all that has happened here, I think is a response to a message. I'm not necessarily talking about homiletical structure or oratory, but truth and conviction. I believe that your zeal is never any greater than your conviction over a long period of time. I think that conviction comes out of truth and that the pastor and the pulpit articulate that truth.

Preaching: You've been here now 27 years. Has your preaching changed?

Rogers: Hopefully it has gotten better! I look back at some of my sermons that I preached prior to coming here and some in my early days here. The structure was simpler. That may have been better as I analyze it, but the structure was simpler. I think my messages today are a little more packed with illustrations and information than they were in the earlier days.

Somebody asked me the other day if preaching has gotten easier though the years. If anything, it is a little harder because I take sermon preparation a little more seriously. I have not changed in doctrine. I build upon my basic theological presuppositions and underpinnings, but I have not changed in doctrine since I began preaching as a nineteen-year-old boy. I have strengthened some beliefs, understood some things. But there have been no radical changes or paradigm shifts, so I have been on a steady continuum there.

I really have not changed the style of preaching much. I hope that my preaching has been enriched but not necessarily changed. I am a prepositional preacher and I preach a pretty structured message. I use an old fashioned alliterative form a lot. That is the way I started preaching and I don't think I'll change in these days. But I have not changed structure that much from the old thing of having a proposition to begin with -- I may not state the proposition in the beginning of the message, but I may. I have a proposition, I take a passage of scripture, analyze it, organize it, illustrate it, apply it and preach it, driving toward a conclusion that implies a decision. I have done it for so long I wouldn't know how to do anything else.