What’s Wrong With Gospel-Centered Preaching Today?
Your Church Needs Preaching
4 Reflections After Listening to 18 Hours of Sermons in America’s Biggest Churches
by Colton Corter
Why Even Mature Christians Need Gospel-Centered Preaching
by Jeramie Rinne
I Was a Gospel-Believing Preacher Who Didn’t Preach the Gospel
by Ed Moore
The Easy Application Your Sermon Is Probably Missing
by Keith Collier
Preaching in the Bible
Reflections on 2 Timothy 4:1
by Ligon Duncan
Reflections on 1 Peter 1:10–12
by Tim Cantrell
Reflections on 1 Thessalonians 2:13
by Ryan Fullerton
Reflections on 1 Corinthians 2:1–5
by Sinclair Ferguson
How (Not) to Preach
“Thou Shalt Not Steal” and Other Sermon Points I Didn’t Make Up: Some Thoughts on Pastoral Plagiarism
by Jared C. Wilson
How (Not) to Preach the Pentateuch
by David King
How (Not) to Preach Historical Narrative
by Sam Emadi
How (Not) to Preach the Psalms
by Jim Hamilton
How (Not) to Preach the Old Testament Prophets
by Nick Roark
How (Not) to Preach Wisdom Literature
by Juan Sanchez
How (Not) to Preach the Gospels
by Aubrey Sequeira
How (Not) to Preach the Epistles
by Bobby Scott
Bad Biblical Theology Leads to Bad Sermons
by Sam Emadi
Should You Preach Moral Lessons from Biblical Stories?
by Jason Hood
Allegorical Interpretation: Finding the Line Before You Cross It
How to Preach
What Would the Puritans Say to Us Now? Learning from Puritan Prescriptions on Preaching
by Matt Haste
Three Most Important Words I Learned in Seminary: “Textual, Epochal, Canonical”
by David Schrock
Must You Share the Gospel in Every Sermon? Invitation Without the Altar Call
by Aaron Menikoff
Gospel-Centered Preaching in Hard Places
by Andy Prime
Preaching to Different Types of Hearers
by Jonathan Leeman
Discipling and Developing Leaders Through a Sermon Application Team
by Mark Vroegop
How Long Should a Sermon Be?
by Jonathan Leeman
Editor’s Note:
A few years ago, I was enjoying dinner with David Helm, author of Expositional Preaching and the founder of The Charles Simeon Trust, probably the best preacher training ministry out there. He mentioned that he was concerned about the growing popularity of gospel-centered preaching.
What?! Why? Isn’t gospel-centered preaching a good thing?
He answered, “Because the tail is going to start wagging the dog.” Helm was worried that young preachers would get lazy, not pay close attention to their texts, and move toward Christ too quickly. They wouldn’t do careful exegetical work; or preach the point of their particular texts; or take canonically responsible ways of moving toward the gospel. To put it another way, they would allegorize.
Of course, that’s not the only problem with preaching out there. Some preachers don’t preach the gospel at all. Others fail to apply the text to their whole church. And still others fail to respect the rules of their particular genre, have bad biblical theology, or preach without exemplars. For all this start with Colton Colter’s overview of preaching today. He listened to nearly 20 hours of preaching from America’s biggest evangelical churches, and then wrote about what he heard. It’s both discouraging and important. Then look at the articles by Ed Moore, Keith Collier, Jason Hood, and Sam Emadi.
We’ve taken the photographic negative (remember those?) approach to preaching genres—“How Not to Preach . . .”—by focusing on mistakes that seem pretty common among preachers today. Our goal is not to be overly critical, but to offer a guide for identifying the pitfalls any of us might fall into unawares.
The 9Marks Journal concludes with some constructive advice on preaching well, including a dense but absolutely crucial piece by David Schrock as well as typically helpful and wise articles by Mark Vroegop, Aaron Menikoff, Matt Haste, and Andy Prime. Also, don’t miss the encouraging reflections on several well-known preaching texts by Ligon Duncan, Tim Cantrell, and Ryan Fullerton.
Brother pastors, we must give careful attention to our preaching. God’s preached Word, working through God’s Spirit, is God’s primary instrument for growing God’s church. In fact, God’s Word is the most powerful force in the universe. God created the universe through his Word, and he is recreating it through his Word (Gen. 1:3; 2 Cor. 4:6).
God grows us as individuals and as local churches through our ears. That’s why the apostles in Jerusalem asked others to care for the needs of the widows and address the unity problem in the church—two crucial matters! They knew they had to attend to the ministry of the Word and prayer.
If you’re the main preaching pastor in your church, do your priorities match theirs?
—Jonathan Leeman
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