The Born Again Preacher: George Whitefield on the New Birth

This little book is full of thoughts for our reflections. It begins with drawing our attention to the God of the gospel, followed by delving into various themes on the gospel, and ends with pondering how to share this gospel in a pluralistic society. I find its contents relevant and thought-provoking, and strongly encourage all to not only read but to reflect on its call and challenge to us as recipients and stewards of the gospel.

Preaching wields a place of primacy in the life of the church. The proclamation of God"s word in the ecclesial context should not be assumed, minimized, or relegated to something that is merely tolerated. Rather, preaching has a glorious tradition and ongoing function which has enduring relevance in the world. The goal of this study is to assess the role and nature of preaching with a view to encouraging its fresh appreciation in the context of the believing community and in the hearts of preachers themselves.

Doctoral Dissertation - Asbury Theological Seminary, 2018

This study evaluates the effectiveness of a ministry intervention which the researcher designed in order to influence preachers toward a Christ-centered approach to preaching rather than Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. The impetus for the study came from the researcher’s initial observations that much of so-called Christian preaching falls short of actually proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. Instead, it offers the listener good advice, moral exhortations, or therapeutic words for coping with life’s problems. In 2005, sociologist Christian Smith published the initial results of his National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) in which he explored the religious beliefs and attitudes of American teenagers from a wide range of socio-ethnic and religious backgrounds. In the summary of his findings, he described their predominant beliefs as Moralist Therapeutic Deism (MTD). MTD is essentially a religion of “niceness” which imagines a God who stays out of the way unless he is summoned to intervene in a personal crisis. It also affirms the existence of a generic moral code which is found in the Bible and in all world religions. This world view is also found among Christian teens who come from both mainline and conservative Protestant traditions. Using the five tenets of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism and the five solas of the Protestant Reformation as an evaluative rubric, the researcher analyzed questionnaire and interview data collected from a purposive sampling of fifty-one pastors and pastoral trainees in the Philippines, in order to measure the relative changes in their levels of knowledge, disposition, and practice with regard to preaching as Christ-centered proclamation and not Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.

Journal of Youngsan Theology, 2018

Along with the threefold blessings, the fivefold gospel represents Young-san Yonggi Cho's unique understanding of the gospel, and has been his ministerial tool for acknowledging the Bible and the congregation. The contents of the fivefold gospel are the gospel of regeneration, the gospel of fullness of the Holy Spirit, the gospel of divine healing, the gospel of blessings, and the gospel of the second coming of Jesus Christ. The main purpose of this article is to explore the homiletical implications of Youngsan's gospel, arguing that (1) it demonstrates many dimensions of the gospel; (2) it shows us the gospel of hope; (3) it can be an interpretative tool for preachers; (4) it displays key doctrines of Christianity; and (5) it underlines the importance of the work of the Holy Spirit in preaching. Although formulated more than fifty years ago, the fivefold gospel is still an effective tool for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in the contemporary world.

The debate on the relevance, need, and method of Christ-centered preaching is one which may never end. Such debate is good for the field of homiletics, but there are some shortcomings of the current debate. One such shortcoming is the lack of any conversation on the relationship between Christ, the Scriptures, and the Holy Spirit. In this paper, I examine the relationship between the Word (both Incarnate and written) and the Holy Spirit. I will survey Reformed and Lutheran understandings of the relationship between written Word and Spirit. I then note where Baptists differ. Were this difference fully developed it might look something like the coinherence of Scripture and Spirit found in the theology of Pilgram Marpeck. Marpeck's understanding of coinherence of Scripture and Word has implications for homiletics. First, coinherence supplies a fine-tuned rationale for Christ-centered preaching-to preach the text is to preach Christ because all of the text proceeds from him. Second, coinherence provides further justification for the conception of the preacher as a herald, an image that often seems undercut in modern literature in homiletics.

In a contemporary postmodern world, biblical theology is finding itself coming under the twin scrutiny of both validity and relevance. Whereas there is always the danger of responding to criticism by way of appeasement, P. Adam argues against this compromised route by stating, 'Only biblical theology can save us from misusing the Bible.' 1 Adam's reasoning for this conclusive statement is that without biblical theology, it is impossible to understand the Bible as it was intended to be understood, which, he suggests, is the basis for preaching in order to both 'convert people and to build up the body of Christ to maturity.' 2 Therefore, the importance of biblical theology encompasses not only a basis of interpreted belief, but also a need for contextual applicationmaking the message of the Bible relevant to a contemporary world and church. In other words, true biblical theology equips the theologian to transmit a biblically considered message, shaped to reach the cultural context he or she finds himself / herself in. B. Chapell concurs, writing, 'Theological discernment enables the preacher to make good cultural assessments.' 3 Biblical theology is therefore essential to the study of theology itself, and also to the outworking of all forms of theo-praxis.

Rediscovering Expository Preaching, 1992

The Master's Seminary Biblical preaching's authenticity is significantly tarnished by contemporary communicators' being more concerned with personal relevance than God's revelation. Scripture unmistakably requires a proclamation focused on God's will and mankind's obligation to obey. With men wholly committed to God's Word, the expository method commends itself as preaching that is true to the Bible. The method presupposes an exegetical process to extract the God-intended meaning of Scripture and an explanation of that meaning in a contemporary understandable way. The biblical essence and apostolic spirit of expository preaching needs to be recaptured in the training of men newly committed to "preaching the Word."