Comments on: Simplicity in Preaching https://reformedforum.org/simplicity-in-preaching/ Reformed Theological Resources Fri, 01 Mar 2013 17:11:20 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7 By: Camden Bucey https://reformedforum.org/simplicity-in-preaching/#comment-1385756 Fri, 01 Mar 2013 17:11:20 +0000 http://reformedforum.wpengine.com/?p=2589#comment-1385756 In reply to Bill Snodgrass.

Some of his quotes are strange, because he uses several words in an older way. For instance, Dabney speaks about spontaneity throughout the chapter, but he means something more akin to “natural.” It’s the opposite of “artifice” rather than “planned.” I gather the same is happening with his use of “eloquence.”

]]> By: Michael M. Rico https://reformedforum.org/simplicity-in-preaching/#comment-1385539 Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:25:25 +0000 http://reformedforum.wpengine.com/?p=2589#comment-1385539 It appears that William Strunk may have read Dabney. Dabney’s advice applies to all writing.

]]> By: Bill Snodgrass https://reformedforum.org/simplicity-in-preaching/#comment-1385000 Fri, 01 Mar 2013 10:43:10 +0000 http://reformedforum.wpengine.com/?p=2589#comment-1385000 Agreed, Adam. Thanks, Camden !! I am still struggling with the quote from p. 81. Perhaps I need to read more of the context…

]]> By: Adam York https://reformedforum.org/simplicity-in-preaching/#comment-1382234 Wed, 27 Feb 2013 14:55:36 +0000 http://reformedforum.wpengine.com/?p=2589#comment-1382234 This is spot on Camden. I share your concern that there is far too much artifice in much preaching. I fear that ministers shy away from going directly to Scripture in their sermon prep and delivery, and instead try and spend lots of time building elaborate on-ramps (cultural and otherwise) into the passage. Though these on-ramps might be of some listening aid for their hearers, they often place the preacher and the hearer on a trajectory that doesn’t line up with the text they are preaching and then that trajectory carries the rest of the sermon. I think this is so common that the minister fresh out of seminary feels that he must preach this way. He simply doesn’t know how to do it any other way because this is the methodology of so many others. It’s a real problem. I think the church need to pray fervently that ministers will see that they are called to be masters of Scripture first and foremost. I truly believe that if a minister can step into the pulpit on Sunday morning with a sense that his preparation has led him to deeply penetrate the text before him, his sermons will inevitably tend to be simpler (less artifice and a greater awareness of the main point of the passage) and more passionate. There is nothing that will drive passion in the pulpit like confidence (not arrogance – but confident conviction based on study, meditation, and prayer) that he really knows (maybe for the first time) what the God of heaven and earth would say to his people through that text. Let’s pray and work for that in the church!

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