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The Challenge of Preaching
This book strongly challenges the notion that there is no place for preaching in the contemporary world. It sets out the theological case for preaching and then goes on to describe what constitutes good preaching. It does not focus on techniques to be used but on the nature of the task and the character of the one who preaches. The good preacher works to build a bridge between the listeners and the truth being proclaimed. To be able to do this, the preacher must study both the Scriptures and the today's world.
The book offers some suggestions on how to go about preparing a sermon and calls for preaching delivered with sincerity, earnestness, courage and humility.
John Stott’s thoughtful and practical advice given at some length in I Believe in Preaching has here been abridged by eliminating quotations and examples that spoke more directly to readers in the UK and the US in the 1980s. Greg Scharf has retained the core of the original book but made it more accessible to contemporary readers.
The book offers some suggestions on how to go about preparing a sermon and calls for preaching delivered with sincerity, earnestness, courage and humility.
John Stott’s thoughtful and practical advice given at some length in I Believe in Preaching has here been abridged by eliminating quotations and examples that spoke more directly to readers in the UK and the US in the 1980s. Greg Scharf has retained the core of the original book but made it more accessible to contemporary readers.
- GenresChristian
125 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 27, 2011
26 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
About the author
John R.W. Stott
305 books552 followersJohn R. W. Stott is known worldwide as a preacher, evangelist, and communicator of Scripture. For many years he served as rector of All Souls Church in London, where he carried out an effective urban pastoral ministry. A leader among evangelicals in Britain, the United States and around the world, Stott was a principal framer of the landmark Lausanne Covenant (1974). His many books, including Why I Am a Christian and The Cross of Christ, have sold millions of copies around the world and in dozens of languages. Whether in the West or in the Two-Thirds World, a hallmark of Stott's ministry has been expository preaching that addresses the hearts and minds of contemporary men and women. Stott was honored by Time magazine in 2005 as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World."
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 15, 2021
Beautiful treatise on the challenging task of preaching! If you want to understand what faithful preaching is like, John Stott explains his biblical defense of expository preaching.
November 7, 2015
John Stott is one of the better known Evangelical figures, or at least he was back when I was coming through seminary. He was British and Anglican - the kind of evangelicals we liked at Fuller. That is, despite his conservative evangelical credentials he seemed fairly moderate. I haven't read too much of his work, but did get to hear him speak when he visited Santa Barbara. Interestingly, for a conservative evangelical, the venue was a relatively progressive Presbyterian church.
I remember when his book Between Two Worlds: The Art of Preaching in the Twentieth Century appeared in 1982, while I was beginning my seminary career. I don't remember reading it, but I'm sure I leafed through it (I was working in a Christian bookstore at the time). Now an abridged and updated version of that book has appeared. The person responsible for the abridging and updating of the book written by the late John R. W. Stott is Greg Scharf, a professor of pastoral theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. We are told that Scharf worked with Stott at both All Soul's Church in London and at TEDS.
This is a book on preaching, though the focus is not on methodology. There is some discussion of method, but it is more theoretical than that. Stott/Scharf focus on the challenges of preaching in the modern era. The methodology shared here is fairly old school -- expository/deductive. The calling is to make a clear point that will teach or convict. The vision here is very different from that of Fred Craddock, who exemplified an inductive model of preaching. Whereas Craddock encouraged preachers to recognize their lack of authority, Stott believes that the preacher is a figure of authority (though humble). Indeed one of the primary challenges to preachers today (1982?) is that there is a hostility to authority. While I would agree that the consumerist vision many bring to the church is a problem, I'm not sure that railing against those who won't recognize the authority of the Bible and its expositor will be of help.
Stott/Scharf write that the issue isn't technique but convictions. Theology/doctrine is foundational. And, it is expository. This shouldn't surprise us too much, for Stott is committed to biblical inerrancy. It isn't that he neglects the issue of genre or teaches proof-texting. But it is assumed that whatever the form, it is superintended by God. So, the task of the preacher is to reveal the content of Scripture to the hearers. He writes: "The expositor opens what seems to be closed, makes plain what is confusing, unravels what is knotted, and unfolds what is tightly packed" (p. 25). True preaching is expository, but the preacher doesn't leave the listener in the ancient world. The challenge here is to bring that word into the present -- to build the bridge from then to now. He points to the premise espoused by Barth and Spurgeon that the preacher should have the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.
It should not surprise us that Stott would emphasize the importance of study -- biblical and theological. This is most important, it would seem. Indeed the most important job of the preacher is to engage in study. It is more important than administration and other tasks. Leave those to others. Focus on study! That's not difficult for me to hear. I enjoy studying, but I don't have a large church or a large staff who can attend to such things. What is interesting is that while study is central, they used an interesting formula for sermon preparation. I had always heard it said that the proper ratio should be one hour of study to one minute of preaching. Being that I tend to preach between fifteen and twenty minutes, that would be somewhere around fifteen hours. But they use a formula of one hour per five minutes of preaching. That's three or four hours. That doesn't sound doable to me!
There is a chapter on preparing sermons, but little said about delivery. More important is character, and much of the book is focused on that. Be authoritative but humble. Courageous but recognize limits. Most of all be biblical.
So, what do I make of the book? Well at points it seems dated. At the same time it could be a good word to those who think that a sermon is either a TED talk or a stand up routine. While he seems to have an expanded sense of what it means to be expository, it is still very deductive in format. Let's just call it old school.
There is one aspect of the book that gnawed at me. I'm not sure that the attempts at updating the book worked. I can understand the value of abridging a much longer book so it could focus on the key point of the book. The issue is the updating. What is Scharf and what is Stott. At points it was fairly easy to tell. I doubt that Stott wrote about electronic media and PowerPoint in 1982. That is most assuredly Scharf, but I'm not really sure those more explicit additions were necessary. But where does Stott end and Scharf begin. I think for my part I would have preferred simply an abridgment without the updates, which I don't think added to the book. But that's me.
If you're evangelical and like old school deductive preaching this likely will have some meaning. But for the rest or us, perhaps not.
I remember when his book Between Two Worlds: The Art of Preaching in the Twentieth Century appeared in 1982, while I was beginning my seminary career. I don't remember reading it, but I'm sure I leafed through it (I was working in a Christian bookstore at the time). Now an abridged and updated version of that book has appeared. The person responsible for the abridging and updating of the book written by the late John R. W. Stott is Greg Scharf, a professor of pastoral theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. We are told that Scharf worked with Stott at both All Soul's Church in London and at TEDS.
This is a book on preaching, though the focus is not on methodology. There is some discussion of method, but it is more theoretical than that. Stott/Scharf focus on the challenges of preaching in the modern era. The methodology shared here is fairly old school -- expository/deductive. The calling is to make a clear point that will teach or convict. The vision here is very different from that of Fred Craddock, who exemplified an inductive model of preaching. Whereas Craddock encouraged preachers to recognize their lack of authority, Stott believes that the preacher is a figure of authority (though humble). Indeed one of the primary challenges to preachers today (1982?) is that there is a hostility to authority. While I would agree that the consumerist vision many bring to the church is a problem, I'm not sure that railing against those who won't recognize the authority of the Bible and its expositor will be of help.
Stott/Scharf write that the issue isn't technique but convictions. Theology/doctrine is foundational. And, it is expository. This shouldn't surprise us too much, for Stott is committed to biblical inerrancy. It isn't that he neglects the issue of genre or teaches proof-texting. But it is assumed that whatever the form, it is superintended by God. So, the task of the preacher is to reveal the content of Scripture to the hearers. He writes: "The expositor opens what seems to be closed, makes plain what is confusing, unravels what is knotted, and unfolds what is tightly packed" (p. 25). True preaching is expository, but the preacher doesn't leave the listener in the ancient world. The challenge here is to bring that word into the present -- to build the bridge from then to now. He points to the premise espoused by Barth and Spurgeon that the preacher should have the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.
It should not surprise us that Stott would emphasize the importance of study -- biblical and theological. This is most important, it would seem. Indeed the most important job of the preacher is to engage in study. It is more important than administration and other tasks. Leave those to others. Focus on study! That's not difficult for me to hear. I enjoy studying, but I don't have a large church or a large staff who can attend to such things. What is interesting is that while study is central, they used an interesting formula for sermon preparation. I had always heard it said that the proper ratio should be one hour of study to one minute of preaching. Being that I tend to preach between fifteen and twenty minutes, that would be somewhere around fifteen hours. But they use a formula of one hour per five minutes of preaching. That's three or four hours. That doesn't sound doable to me!
There is a chapter on preparing sermons, but little said about delivery. More important is character, and much of the book is focused on that. Be authoritative but humble. Courageous but recognize limits. Most of all be biblical.
So, what do I make of the book? Well at points it seems dated. At the same time it could be a good word to those who think that a sermon is either a TED talk or a stand up routine. While he seems to have an expanded sense of what it means to be expository, it is still very deductive in format. Let's just call it old school.
There is one aspect of the book that gnawed at me. I'm not sure that the attempts at updating the book worked. I can understand the value of abridging a much longer book so it could focus on the key point of the book. The issue is the updating. What is Scharf and what is Stott. At points it was fairly easy to tell. I doubt that Stott wrote about electronic media and PowerPoint in 1982. That is most assuredly Scharf, but I'm not really sure those more explicit additions were necessary. But where does Stott end and Scharf begin. I think for my part I would have preferred simply an abridgment without the updates, which I don't think added to the book. But that's me.
If you're evangelical and like old school deductive preaching this likely will have some meaning. But for the rest or us, perhaps not.
May 30, 2019
A deep exploration of the theme of preaching drawing from a study, on one hand of the major attacks against it and on the other, diving in the wide and rich web of interlaced practices of studying and presenting the Scriptures in the 21st century. A delightful opportunity to meditate on the traditional convictions toward Scriptures. A fresh and thought-provoking reading!
July 17, 2019
Although there is a plethora of books on preaching, John Stott’s version modernized and abridged is a refreshing read and great reminder of the heart behind preaching and the necessity of it in our times. Full of fantastic quotes, references to other preachers, and littered with practical application, it is a recommended read for sure.
October 7, 2015
John Stott, The Challenge of Preaching, abridged and updated by Greg Scharf (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2015).
Paperback
Preaching is not the only thing pastors do, but it is one of the most important things—if not the most important thing. Pastors thus need to work at perfecting their craft through constant attention to proper exegesis and hermeneutics, effective introductions and conclusions, and helpful outlines and illustrations. Because it is so useful in all these regards, John Stott’s The Challenge of Preaching should find a prominent place in every pastor’s library.
First published in 1982 as Between Two Worlds, The Challenge of Preaching now appears in a third edition, abridged and updated by Greg Scharf, and published by Eerdmans. In many ways, it is a primer on preaching, an introduction to the craft. But like the best primers, it is a touchstone that helps experienced preachers test the quality of their preaching.
Chapter 1 identifies three challenges to preaching: “Distrust of authority makes people unwilling to listen,” Stott writes. “Electronic advances have changed the expectations of both listeners and preachers. The atmosphere of doubt makes many preachers too tentative.” Despite these challenges, Stott believes preaching is a theologically necessary task, and in Chapter 2, he outlines its theological foundations focusing on God’s revelation, Scripture’s authority, the Church’s need of biblical renewal, the pastoral role of teaching and preaching, and preaching’s expository character.
Chapter 3 identifies the essential task of preaching as building a bridge between “the biblical world and the modern world.” Theological conservatives typically focus on the former, while theological liberals on the latter, but Stott insists we must keep eyes on both. “We must struggle to relate God’s unchanging word to our ever-changing world without sacrificing truth or despising relevance.”
Stott next turns to how preachers prepare themselves through personal study (Chapter 4) and their sermons through careful organization (Chapter 5). Chapter 4 struck me with particular force. It is easy for many activities to fill pastors’ calendars. Time for study becomes a luxury. If preaching is as important as Stott says it is, however—and I believe he’s on track biblically—failing to schedule regular time for reading and reflection is failing to do one’s job with adequate preparation. In the short term, this can be managed, but in the long term, one’s ministry becomes spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually weak.
Chapter 5 talks about writing one’s sermon. This is a nuts-and-bolts chapter that focuses on selecting the text, isolating the main thought, arranging your material, adding your conclusion, and then—when everything is in place—planning an introduction that draws the congregation in and prepares them to hear the Word of God.
Preaching cannot be reduced to the mechanics of sermon-writing, however. Who preaches is as important as what is preached. In short, the pastor’s life itself preaches the gospel and gives credibility to the sermon. Chapter 6 focuses on sincerity and earnestness. Stott writes: “To be sincere is to mean what we say and to do what we say; to be earnest is also to feel what we say.”
Chapter 7 focuses on courage and humility. “Preachers, like prophets, believe they bring a word from God, and are not free to change it,” Stott notes. “Therefore all preachers have at various times to choose between truth with unpopularity and falsehood with popularity.” This requires courage. But speaking unpopular truths can render us “stubborn or arrogant.” Like Elijah, we can complain, “I alone am left.” The antidote to this arrogance is “a humble mind, humble motives, and humble dependence.”
The Challenge of Preaching is a short book: 102 pages in the main body and another 23 pages in the appendices. It can be read in a single sitting. I highly recommend it to new pastors because it covers the whole range of preaching topics quickly and memorably. However, I also recommend it to veteran pastors. It has a diagnostic simplicity that will help them identify and correct bad habits they have developed.
I conclude with one final quote that warmed my Pentecostal heart: “At the same time [that we are studying] we should be praying, crying humbly to God for light from the Spirit of truth. Like Moses, we must beg him to show us his glory (Ex. 33:18). Study is no substitute for prayer; prayer is no substitute for study. We must do both. It may help to study on our knees, because this attitude reminds us that we worship the God who reveals himself in the Bible, and we are humble before him.”
Amen to that!
-----
P.S. If you found my review helpful, please vote “Yes” on my Amazon.com review page.
Preaching is not the only thing pastors do, but it is one of the most important things—if not the most important thing. Pastors thus need to work at perfecting their craft through constant attention to proper exegesis and hermeneutics, effective introductions and conclusions, and helpful outlines and illustrations. Because it is so useful in all these regards, John Stott’s The Challenge of Preaching should find a prominent place in every pastor’s library.
First published in 1982 as Between Two Worlds, The Challenge of Preaching now appears in a third edition, abridged and updated by Greg Scharf, and published by Eerdmans. In many ways, it is a primer on preaching, an introduction to the craft. But like the best primers, it is a touchstone that helps experienced preachers test the quality of their preaching.
Chapter 1 identifies three challenges to preaching: “Distrust of authority makes people unwilling to listen,” Stott writes. “Electronic advances have changed the expectations of both listeners and preachers. The atmosphere of doubt makes many preachers too tentative.” Despite these challenges, Stott believes preaching is a theologically necessary task, and in Chapter 2, he outlines its theological foundations focusing on God’s revelation, Scripture’s authority, the Church’s need of biblical renewal, the pastoral role of teaching and preaching, and preaching’s expository character.
Chapter 3 identifies the essential task of preaching as building a bridge between “the biblical world and the modern world.” Theological conservatives typically focus on the former, while theological liberals on the latter, but Stott insists we must keep eyes on both. “We must struggle to relate God’s unchanging word to our ever-changing world without sacrificing truth or despising relevance.”
Stott next turns to how preachers prepare themselves through personal study (Chapter 4) and their sermons through careful organization (Chapter 5). Chapter 4 struck me with particular force. It is easy for many activities to fill pastors’ calendars. Time for study becomes a luxury. If preaching is as important as Stott says it is, however—and I believe he’s on track biblically—failing to schedule regular time for reading and reflection is failing to do one’s job with adequate preparation. In the short term, this can be managed, but in the long term, one’s ministry becomes spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually weak.
Chapter 5 talks about writing one’s sermon. This is a nuts-and-bolts chapter that focuses on selecting the text, isolating the main thought, arranging your material, adding your conclusion, and then—when everything is in place—planning an introduction that draws the congregation in and prepares them to hear the Word of God.
Preaching cannot be reduced to the mechanics of sermon-writing, however. Who preaches is as important as what is preached. In short, the pastor’s life itself preaches the gospel and gives credibility to the sermon. Chapter 6 focuses on sincerity and earnestness. Stott writes: “To be sincere is to mean what we say and to do what we say; to be earnest is also to feel what we say.”
Chapter 7 focuses on courage and humility. “Preachers, like prophets, believe they bring a word from God, and are not free to change it,” Stott notes. “Therefore all preachers have at various times to choose between truth with unpopularity and falsehood with popularity.” This requires courage. But speaking unpopular truths can render us “stubborn or arrogant.” Like Elijah, we can complain, “I alone am left.” The antidote to this arrogance is “a humble mind, humble motives, and humble dependence.”
The Challenge of Preaching is a short book: 102 pages in the main body and another 23 pages in the appendices. It can be read in a single sitting. I highly recommend it to new pastors because it covers the whole range of preaching topics quickly and memorably. However, I also recommend it to veteran pastors. It has a diagnostic simplicity that will help them identify and correct bad habits they have developed.
I conclude with one final quote that warmed my Pentecostal heart: “At the same time [that we are studying] we should be praying, crying humbly to God for light from the Spirit of truth. Like Moses, we must beg him to show us his glory (Ex. 33:18). Study is no substitute for prayer; prayer is no substitute for study. We must do both. It may help to study on our knees, because this attitude reminds us that we worship the God who reveals himself in the Bible, and we are humble before him.”
Amen to that!
-----
P.S. If you found my review helpful, please vote “Yes” on my Amazon.com review page.
August 2, 2022
Very helpful distillation of John Stott's wisdom, experience, and biblical reflection on preaching. While not much of this is new, it's great to have a quick read to remind preachers of the glory, challenge, and methods of their task.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews