I was blessed to have SEBTS professor/pastor/author Tony Merida and pastor/author Jared Wilson on my blog for a discussion on preaching.
Here is an excerpt:
TONY: My main focus is that that I want to take the listeners for a swim in the text. I want us to immerse ourselves in Scripture, and my desire is particularly to exalt Jesus as the hero of the Bible – and by extension as the hero of every sermon. I want people to walk away every week and say, “What a great Savior” not “What a great sermon.”
JARED: Preaching ought to be exultational, an act of worship on the preacher’s part. Many preachers have already discovered that their congregations don’t get excited about what their preacher tells them to get excited about but instead about what their preacher is evidently and obviously himself excited about. Our people will start to see how God’s proclamational initiative in saving us through Jesus Christ provokes doxological astonishment.
For the full discussion, click HERE.
I think from reading this post that these men, Tony and Jared, might have come across this beautiful description of preaching from John Crysostom: . . . . . “but when a man is speaking from heaven, and utters a voice plainer than thunder? For he has pervaded the whole earth with the sound; and occupied and filled it, not by the loudness of the cry, but by moving his tongue with the grace of God. And what is wonderful, this sound, great as it is, is neither a harsh nor an unpleasant one, but sweeter and more delightful than… Read more »
The original doctrine of the Baptists on ministerial qualifications is that God calls and qualifies a person for the ministry by illumination and/or education. Illumination is the gift of understanding with the power to proclaim. Perhaps, it would be bet to state that it is an “and” stituation rather than an “or” as education without the divine help manifested in illumination is a polarized position that must inevitably fail. Likewise, illumination is practically doomed from the start as God requires reding of Scripture with understanding of what its said there. Even so there is a spiritual aspect to understanding that… Read more »