Tuesday is for Preaching
Years ago, before I taught Church Planting at one seminary, I taught preaching at another. One of the things I encouraged my students to do was to “drink the week into every message.”
It really was a rather simple idea (most of my ideas are). I wanted them to study their texts hard, (dig into the language, parse every verb, decline every noun, look at the grammatical relationships, understand the clauses, study the cultural setting of the text, know the historical background of what was going on as best you can, look at relevant antecedent theology, themes and images …).
But I also wanted them to meditate on the text all week. I wanted them to pour the text into their experiences and let their experiences be informed, impacted and transformed by the text. And then I wanted them to come back in and tell how the text shaped their week.
I want to recommend three books that will help show how to learn this process. Two are older and by preachers. One is newer and by a woman.
The first book is by Donald Grey Barnhouse, legendary preacher from 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. It is called Let Me Illustrate. I’m not overly excited about illustration books in general, but this one is an exception. It is a study in how to see. My recommendation would be to read the introduction and any 15 illustrations in the more than 400 illustrations in contains. It is an education in developing “eyes to see.” We need to learn from the masters who have gone before and you can’t do much better than Barnhouse.
The second book Preaching with Freshness is also by a preacher, Bruce Mawhinney, and it so happens, another Presbyterian. (Do Bible-loving Presbyterians see better than the rest of us?) This one is written creatively; a pastor finds a day off unexpectedly when an appointment cancels and ends up at his old seminary. There he runs into his aging, retired, homiletics prof who begins to disciple him out of the doldrums that have enveloped the young preachers habits. Great insight into how to do what I am calling “Drinking the Week into Every Message.”
The third book is not by a preacher at all, but by a gifted writer and lover of God who happens to be a woman. Ann Voskamp has written a treasure of a book in One Thousand Gifts, currently on the New York Times best seller list for something like 11 weeks. Ann is an artist who knows how to make words do what they are supposed to do. Like darts to the soul, each of her reflections will give you a greater wonder for the God you love. Her book and the meditations are like a primer on seeing and hearing and tasting more of God in the routines of life. Trust me, you will enjoy everything she writes, even if occasionally (rarely) she stretches a text beyond its bounds.
Solomon said that “The Preacher sought to find beautiful words and to write words of truth correctly.” (Eccl. 12:10) Too often we spend all our time on the latter (words of truth correctly) and no time in finding beautiful words and phrases, with which to express the wonders of God. Don’t make that mistake. These books will help you.
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