Posted in Christianity, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion, Review, tagged Authentic, Authentic Books, Making of a mentor, Ron Jenson, Ted Engstrom on July 6, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Subtitle: 9 Essential Characteristics of Influential Christian Leaders, 2005.
A decade ago I took a class on mentoring and had to read Howard Hendricks (As Iron Sharpens Iron) and Ted Engstrom (The Fine Art of Mentoring) among other books. They convinced me of the critical importance of this subject. From my experience in life and ministry, [...]
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Review, tagged Explosive Preaching, Ron Boyd-MacMillan on May 28, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Subtitle: Letters on Detonating the Gospel in the 21st Century.
Published in 2006 by Paternoster.
I partially reviewed this book several weeks ago. Please take a look at that “pre-review” (click here). My opinion of the book has not changed as I’ve finished it. It is creative, insightful, humorous, challenging and helpful. There are small moments where [...]
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Review on April 17, 2009 | 4 Comments »
Subtitle: Letters on Detonating the Gospel in the 21st Century.
Published in 2006 by Paternoster.
I was urged to get this book in a brief lunch-time encounter last month. Based on the enjoyable nature of our conversation, I trusted the advice of this new friend and bought the book. I’m glad I did. This book is comprehensive [...]
Posted in Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Review, Stage 2 - Passage Study, tagged Bible Software, Bibleworks, Libronix, Logos, Software on February 7, 2009 | 7 Comments »
I’ve had Bibleworks for many years (since the Hermeneutika days!), but I’ve had Bibleworks 8 for just a couple of weeks. Is it worth upgrading from an older version? Is it worth buying Bibleworks for the first time? Yes and a qualified yes. The qualified yes is that it is worth buying Bibleworks for the [...]
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Review, tagged Church History, Michael Pasquarello, Pasquarello, Sacred Rhetoric on January 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Subtitle: Preaching as a Theological and Pastoral Practice of the Church (2006)
Pasquarello is concerned by modern approaches to preaching. He sees contemporary approaches as being obsessed with “how-to’s” at the cost of having lost the divine-human conversation – we’ve mistakenly traded in communion for consumption. The field of homiletics, by establishing itself in distinction from [...]
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Review, tagged Baptism Sermon, evangelistic preaching, Funeral Sermon, Haddon Robinson, Scott Gibson, Wedding Sermon on January 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. In this case I think you shouldn’t judge a book by its size. This short one-hundred page book is well worth having for several reasons that I will list below. Honestly, I only picked it up in order to scan it and make space for [...]
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Review, tagged Bruce Winter, Crossway, David Jackman, Duane Litfin, JI Packer, John MacArthur, Kent Hughes, Leland Ryken, Paul House, Peter Jensen, Phillip Jensen, Preach the Word, Proclamation Trust, Wayne Grudem, Wheaton, Wheaton College on December 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Subtitle: Essays on Expository Preaching in Honor of R. Kent Hughes (2007)
Kent Hughes is a name I have been aware of for many years, but honestly I have never heard him preach or read any of his books. Still, this book of essays written in his honor caught my attention. Collections of essays in honor [...]
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Review, Uncategorized, tagged Kent Hughes, Leland Ryken, Preach the Word on December 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Subtitle: Essays on Expository Preaching in Honor of R. Kent Hughes
This recent volume from Crossway just landed on my doorstep. I have not read it, hence this is a “pre-review.” However, since I’ve not added a review for a while, and since Christmas is fast approaching, I thought I’d highlight this book’s existence just in [...]
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, Preaching, Review on September 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Subtitle: The Urgent Task of Homiletics (1982)
Jay Adams is generally known as the Biblical or Nouthetic Counselling author of Competent to Counsel. Yet he would point out also his personal focus and study in the area of preaching. Years of thought in this field went into this accessible book. Still today, a quarter of a [...]
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Review, tagged Christian Focus Publishing, Dale Ralph Davis, Mentor Books, Old Testament Narrative on September 19, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Subtitle: How to Preach from Old Testament Narrative Texts (2006)
Davis is a respected Old Testament scholar and pastor. Puzzled by the prevalent view that the Old Testament is a “problem” (caused, he asserts, by a skeptical brand of Old Testament criticism during the last two centuries), he sets out to show that preaching from the [...]
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Review, tagged Calvin, Godly Men, John Calvin, John MacArthur, Lawson, Ligonier, Reformed Theological Seminary, Reformed Theology, Steven J. Lawson on July 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Steven Lawson is a pastor who works closely with John MacArthur at the Expositor’s Institute. He was trained at Dallas and Reformed Theological Seminaries. This book is the first in a series of Long Line of Godly Men Profiles published by Reformation Trust of Ligonier Ministries.
This is an attractively presented little hardback (133pp). In it [...]
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Review, tagged Koessler, Moody on June 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
It’s been a while since I added a book review to the site, so here’s a fresh book worthy of your consideration. This new work from Moody Press recently dropped through my door. I have not read it all, but I have read enough. I have read enough to recognize that this is [...]
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion, Review on May 23, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I’ll be honest, I don’t read too many autobiographies. But this week I picked up Dr R.T. Kendall’s In Pursuit of His Glory: My 25 Years at Westminster Chapel. Unable to sleep last night, I read maybe a fourth of this book. 1977-2002 was a fascinating and often highly controversial chunk of history at this [...]
Posted in Genre, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Review, Stage 2 - Passage Study on February 27, 2008 | 2 Comments »
One of my preaching instructors at seminary once mentioned a handful of books that he keeps within easy reach of his desk for sermon preparation. I’ve done the same ever since and find myself referring to them often.
To preach the text effectively we have to do more than dissect the text and preach the parts. [...]
Posted in Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Review, tagged Craddock, Lowry, New Homiletic on February 8, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Eugene Lowry’s work sits under the broad umbrella of the New Homiletic. His work overlaps considerably with Fred Craddock. Other New Homiletic writers have been criticized for writing well, but failing to provide a clear model of what they are suggesting. This charge cannot be leveled at Lowry. The Homiletic Plot [...]
Posted in Homiletics, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Review on December 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Subtitle: Dynamic Insights from Twenty Top Pastors (2006)
As editor of Preaching Magazine, Michael Duduit is able to take good content from that magazine and publish it in book form. This is exactly what this book is. Twenty interviews with top preachers that have appeared in Preaching Magazine and now appear in this book [...]
Posted in Homiletics, Preaching, Review on December 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Since every book review posted on this site can be found by clicking on the Review category in the list to the right, there is really no need to have a page of the same reviews sitting on the site too. This profound insight has spurred me to change the Books page to Top [...]
Posted in Genre, Homiletics, Preaching, Review, Stage 2 - Passage Study, tagged Gospels, Johannine, Synoptics on December 16, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
This book is far more a book on the Gospels than it is on preaching. It would serve well as a reference tool for the gospels, having an accessible scripture index included. Yet while not addressing homiletics very much, what it does is share a fundamental conviction that the gospels were written out of preaching, [...]
Posted in Delivery, Homiletics, Preaching, Review on November 27, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Let me be honest. I love studying the subject of preaching. I want to be a lifelong student of the subject. But if I’m honest, a lot of books about preaching are somewhat dull, tedious, repetitive and unengaging. Not this book. Engaging. Compelling. Motivating. Intriguing. [...]
Posted in Homiletics, Preaching, Review on November 2, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
This is neither a how-to manual, nor a full theology of preaching, but it does make a definite contribution to the field. The book is divided in two parts. The first part is a series of lectures Piper gave at Gordon-Conwell Seminary on the subject of preaching. The second part is a series of lectures [...]
Posted in Homiletics, Preaching, Review on October 17, 2007 | 1 Comment »
This morning I’d like to point you to a helpful new resource for us as preachers. The Preaching faculty at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary have recently begun a weekly podcast for preachers entitled “Preaching Points.” It is free and it is well worth a listen. At this point there are already four brief [...]
Posted in Delivery, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Review on October 6, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
This is a college text focusing on speech communication, rather than homiletics. The main reason it may be worth reading is because it is built on the Haddon Robinson “Big Idea” preaching model. Robinson’s influence is evident throughout, not only conceptually, but also in specifics.
Since Litfin’s work is not primarily focused on preaching, he [...]
Posted in Homiletics, Preaching, Review on October 1, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Subtitle: How to Prepare and Deliver Expository Sermons
Power in the Pulpit is a lengthy three-section textbook. At times it may feel like the goal in writing was exhaustive explanation, rather than reasonable length. Although not in the same league as Robinson or Sunukjian, the book is worth reading. It is especially targeted at the minister [...]
Posted in Homiletics, Preaching, Review on September 28, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Subtitle: Preaching First-Person Expository Messages.
This book, by Robinson and son, has a clear target. The sleek and well prepared script of the book flies effortlessly to hit that target. Unhindered by extraneous information, disconnected asides or time-consuming tangents, the book achieves its purpose. Preaching first-person expository messages.
The first major thrust [...]
Posted in Homiletics, Preaching, Review on August 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Subtitle: Proclaiming Truth With Clarity and Relevance
Donald Sunukjian studied under Haddon Robinson at Dallas Seminary, then also taught there. He now teaches at Talbot Seminary in LA. Sunukjian has an ability to think through elements of preaching in minute detail, yet has a communication style that is clear and accessible – both in [...]
Posted in Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Review on July 29, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Sub-title: A Seven-Step Method for Biblical Preaching
Sub-sub-title: The Scripture Sculpture Method
Ramesh Richard teaches preaching at Dallas Seminary as well as around the world in a noteworthy international ministry. His cross-cultural training and ministry experience gives his book a good level of sensitivity to preaching in various settings and cultures.
As a student and successor of [...]
Posted in Homiletics, Preaching, Review on July 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
I was surprised by this book. I am not sure what I was expecting, but I was both blessed and challenged by it. The focus of the book is on listening, both to God and to people, by the preacher and the congregation. Perhaps the strongest lasting impression left is the notion of the preacher [...]
Posted in Homiletics, Old Testament, Preaching, Review on July 15, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
There are many preaching books, but only a handful I recommend wholeheartedly. This is one of them. Mathewson’s passion for the many narrative passages in the Old Testament is contagious. His passion for the effective preaching of these passages is greatly needed today. This is especially the case while significant preachers continue to view Old [...]
Posted in Homiletics, Preaching, Review on July 8, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Subtitle: Using Journalistic Techniques to Add Impact
Both authors are journalistic editors (Christianity Today and PreachingToday.com respectively). Both are also preachers. They wrote this book to show how the skills of journalism can help the effectiveness of preaching.
The book is short, but a worthwhile read. A dozen brief chapters deal with the following [...]
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Commentaries – The Golden Ones
Posted in Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Review, Stage 2 - Passage Study, tagged BEC, BST, Commentaries, Glynn, NAC, NIGTC, Tyndale, WBC on February 26, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Since we’re talking commentaries, here’s another thought. How are we supposed to know which ones to buy? As a preacher I often note a common problem in commentaries – they tend to be atomistic. That is to say that many of them seem to deal only with the word or phrase at hand. As a [...]
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