Thursday, March 31, 2011

What makes good preaching?


We know it when we hear it, but what makes good preaching? Why does one person think preaching is good while another doesn’t?

Preaching is

David Jackman, to founding principal of the Cornhill Preaching College in London has just left Australia and taught at Cornhill Sydney and at Moore College. His summary of preaching is very helpful.

Quoting John Piper, Jackman says that ‘the aim and purpose of preaching is to restore the throne and dominion of God in the souls of men and women’. David Jackman goers on to say that God is the perfect communicator through his Word, and so when we preach to an audience he asks ‘where is the Bible?’ He says that in many of our pulpits the Bible is behind the head of the preacher who is facing the congregation. That is, the preacher reads the Bible and preaches himself. Jackman would rather have the Bible figuratively positioned between the preacher and the congregation, so that the congregation sees and hears the Word of God; because it is the Word of God in the hands of God that produces the work of God.

So the first element of good preaching comes from the God who speaks. We must preach the truth spoken by the true and living God made known to us through the Scriptures.

To read more, click here.

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