Plain Preaching — Puritan Evangelism

Although evangelism differs to some degree from generation to generation according to gifts, culture, style, and language, the primary methods of Puritan evangelism—plain preaching and catechetical teaching—can show us much about how to present the gospel to sinners. This week we will consider plain preaching.

The Puritan “plain style of preaching” avoided all that was not clear or perspicuous to an ordinary listener. The greatest teacher of this preaching style was Perkins. Perkins, often called the father of Puritanism, wrote that preaching “must be plain, perspicuous, and evident…. It is a by-word among us: It was a very plaine Sermon: And I say again, the plainer, the better.” And Cotton Mather wrote succinctly in his eulogy for John Eliot, a great Puritan missionary to the Indians, that his “way of preaching was very plain; so that the very lambs might wade into his discourses on those texts and themes, wherein elephants might swim.” The Puritans used the plain style of preaching because they were evangelistic to the core—they wanted to reach everyone so that all might know the way of salvation. Read more

Read also: Catechetical Evangelism — Puritan Evangelism