Proclaimer Blog
Long passage preaching
I'm just writing this off the back of a preach on Zechariah 10-11. Too long a passage, really, but there were reasons….
At the other extreme, in this month's Banner of Truth magazine, Iain Murray writes about Andrew Bonar. There's some really good stuff about prayer there and some provocative and thought provoking stuff on preaching from texts rather than passages, especially when it comes to evangelism:
Of course, this is not to argue that God does not bless the consecutive method, or that preachers cannot be led of God if they follow that practice. Referring to these two different methods of preaching, Charles Bridges said wisely, 'It is far better to combine the advantages of both than to set either plan in opposition to the other, or to adopt either exclusively.' All I am arguing is that the single-text method ought to be taken far more seriously that is often done today. And one added reason for that method is that commonly it lends itself better to direct evangelistic preaching…There are great, pointed and searching texts that have been used repeatedly of God and they need to be a staple part of effective preaching.
I guess that will be how many of us approach Christmas evangelistic preaching. Peter Mead of Cor Deo has also been writing about length of passage and has some useful stuff here.
When we have the freedom to pick a passage on which to preach, the decision can end up taking an inordinate amount of time. Which book? Which bit? Typically my suggestion is fairly simple – “Pray, consider what the listeners might need, what they have been hearing lately and what you want to preach. Oh, and don’t waste 80% of your preparation time making your decision.”