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Learning from a Legend: What Gardner C. Taylor Can Teach Us about Preaching
In April 2015, America's last pulpit prince died. When Gardner C. Taylor (1918-2015), former senior pastor of Concord Baptist Church in Brooklyn, departed this life at the age of ninety-six, the United States lost one of the greatest preachers of the twentieth century. Unfortunately, not enough preachers today know his name or why his preaching can enrich and bless the church today. Learning from a What Gardner C. Taylor Can Teach Us about Preaching provides Christian preachers with much-needed lessons, wisdom, and insights from Dr. Taylor, the dean of American preaching. It highlights six lessons that Dr. Taylor can teach preachers in the twenty-first century about pain, redemption, eloquence, apprenticeship, context, and holiness. Not only did Dr. Taylor teach and preach these lessons, he lived them. Those wanting to learn more about Dr. Taylor's preaching while also sharpening their own preaching ought to read this book. ""Rare it is that while blood is still running warm in the human body that a preacher already belongs to the ages. Only a few names belong in that pantheon of pulpit royalty. Spurgeon, MacLaren, Chrysostom and a small coterie of Christian preachers belong to those stamped with pulpit immortality while yet living. Alongside those names firmly fixed forever is that of Rev. Dr. Gardner C. Taylor. Now he has joined that great cloud of witnesses up there somewhere. His name was already mentioned with their names. The man who loved to read MacLaren has now joined that Scott in heaven. Wouldn't you like to hear that conversation? Dr. Alcantara offers here not an encomium of praise only but also a way for us mere mortals to relate to this pulpit paragon. The mighty peal of the concerto that was Gardner C. Taylor's life can set chords vibrating in our own lives. Alcantara has let us into the concert hall so that somewhere in the gallery we feel the floorboards rattling in our lives with the thunder of Taylor's preaching."" --Joel C. Gregory, Professor of Preaching and Evangelism, Truett Theological Seminary, Waco, TX ""April 5, 2015 for me, like most preachers of the gospel; black or white, male or female, young or old was a difficult day as news began to spread throughout preaching circles and around the nation that on Resurrection Sunday Gardner C. Taylor had slipped into eternal life. It was hard then and it is hard now. For years, I have wondered what would become of the preaching methodologies of the great preaching giants whose pulpit habits and practices, preparation and delivery, should be replicated in every age. In this companion piece to Crossover Preaching, Jared E. Alcantara has provided a most valuable resource on Gardner C. Taylor for those unfamiliar with him and for those who knew him well. For those unfamiliar, you now have a most practical, fitting, and insightful introduction to the man, his message, ministry, and method. For those who were blessed to know him well, we now have a treasure that soothes the ache his passing caused and infuses our preaching with fresh information, inspiration, and insight. I will never forget the melody in that voice, the attention to 'lofty' pulpit language, the reverence for the sacred space of the pulpit whenever Dr. Taylor preached. As I read Dr. Alcantara's important work, I smiled and nodded my head and said to myself 'I remember' as I heard Dr. Taylor's voice on every page. I am sure you will as well. This volume will serve as an indispensable resource to the ongoing necessity to preserve the legacy of this preacher without Gardner Calvin Taylor."" --Carolyn Ann Knight, Evangelist; Founder and President, Can Do! Ministries ""Gardner C. Taylor was the epitome of great preaching! This book is an instant classic that should be mandatory reading for all preachers. You will be inspired, challenged, and equipped in a fresh way as a preacher of the gospel. Dr. Alcantara not only introduces us to how Taylor models vital preaching habits, but he
154 pages, Hardcover
Published September 30, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 24, 2018
I had been impoverished and didn’t even know it. Until I got to interview Jared Alcántara last summer, I knew next to nothing about the Rev. Dr. Gardner C. Taylor, a celebrated preacher of preachers who ministered with prodigious and prestigious influence for a great deal of the 20th century. Alcántara, a professor of preaching, has focused his academic attention on Dr. Taylor and has committed to passing on Taylor’s pastoral wisdom to an even wider audience and another generation.
I’m glad I read Learning from a Legend because I felt like I was getting two professors for the price of one. I don’t read enough books about my own craft. I write at least one sermon each week, so I should probably try to read at least one book on homiletics each year to hone my skills. In this book, Alcántara introduces readers to six key lessons on preaching that Taylor both taught and lived out himself–Pain, Redemption, Eloquence, Apprenticeship, Context, and Holiness (conveniently comprising the acrostic P.R.E.A.C.H.). In each chapter, Alcántara quotes Taylor on the topic and then shows how Taylor’s own example bore the positive fruit of each lesson taught.
The book is clear and easy to read. It’s well sourced and heavily footnoted. Alcántara has done his homework, and it shows. He does a nice job of not making the book just about Taylor by bringing in a host of supporting evidence from other voices, many from other traditions and eras. When you read it, you feel like you are being taught by the whole church, not just one wing of it.
Alcántara’s book is not just about Taylor in another significant way–it continually points to Jesus. While Taylor’s rich ministry and exemplary life may be the curriculum, the subject is clearly Christ. Concord Baptist Church, where Gardner Taylor pastored in Brooklyn for forty-two years, once had to rebuild after a devastating fire. In the rebuilding process, Reverend Taylor asked the workers to put an inscription on the floor behind the pulpit that read “We Would See Jesus” (from John 12:21, KJV). Taylor explained it this way:
Amen! And Alcántara develops this further, “Taylor understood what every preacher must also understand. The awesome burden and privilege of Christian preaching is not that we will run out of things to say about the goodness and preciousness of God. It’s that we won’t! The more we preach about a God who redeems and reconciles, the more we’ll want to preach. The more we say, the more we’ll realize that there’s so much left to say” (pg. 47).
Having read Learning from a Legend, I now feel enriched, sharpened, and more ready to write a better next sermon about the best subject in the world.
I’m glad I read Learning from a Legend because I felt like I was getting two professors for the price of one. I don’t read enough books about my own craft. I write at least one sermon each week, so I should probably try to read at least one book on homiletics each year to hone my skills. In this book, Alcántara introduces readers to six key lessons on preaching that Taylor both taught and lived out himself–Pain, Redemption, Eloquence, Apprenticeship, Context, and Holiness (conveniently comprising the acrostic P.R.E.A.C.H.). In each chapter, Alcántara quotes Taylor on the topic and then shows how Taylor’s own example bore the positive fruit of each lesson taught.
The book is clear and easy to read. It’s well sourced and heavily footnoted. Alcántara has done his homework, and it shows. He does a nice job of not making the book just about Taylor by bringing in a host of supporting evidence from other voices, many from other traditions and eras. When you read it, you feel like you are being taught by the whole church, not just one wing of it.
Alcántara’s book is not just about Taylor in another significant way–it continually points to Jesus. While Taylor’s rich ministry and exemplary life may be the curriculum, the subject is clearly Christ. Concord Baptist Church, where Gardner Taylor pastored in Brooklyn for forty-two years, once had to rebuild after a devastating fire. In the rebuilding process, Reverend Taylor asked the workers to put an inscription on the floor behind the pulpit that read “We Would See Jesus” (from John 12:21, KJV). Taylor explained it this way:
The preacher needed to see that! Never mind your skill at oratory: "We would see Jesus." Do not dazzle us with your knowledge. We have come here to see Jesus. We are not hungry for your theories of life. "We would see Jesus." Never mind your positions and suppositions about what is or ought to be. "We would see Jesus" (Quoted on pgs. 30-31 of Learning from a Legend).
Amen! And Alcántara develops this further, “Taylor understood what every preacher must also understand. The awesome burden and privilege of Christian preaching is not that we will run out of things to say about the goodness and preciousness of God. It’s that we won’t! The more we preach about a God who redeems and reconciles, the more we’ll want to preach. The more we say, the more we’ll realize that there’s so much left to say” (pg. 47).
Having read Learning from a Legend, I now feel enriched, sharpened, and more ready to write a better next sermon about the best subject in the world.
April 2, 2024
Alcántara compiles good biographical research from Taylor's life for helpful principles for preachers. Read if you want to hear common principles for the preacher from someone who's less known in white evangelical circles.
Favorite quote:
Taylor cautions preachers against over-realized Spirit theology. There is no such thing as a "free-standing" Spirit of God in the New Testament, he says, only a Spirit of God in relation to other members of the Trinity. When the Spirit of God becomes the main event of preaching without reference to the Father and the Son, it results in the preacher over-promising and under-delivering on what God has promised. Sermons sound more like "pulpit vaudeville"; and Sunday morning looks more like a show than a worship service. God people also suffer. "Such antics," Taylor says, "excite... but do not edify the people of God" (35).
Favorite quote:
Taylor cautions preachers against over-realized Spirit theology. There is no such thing as a "free-standing" Spirit of God in the New Testament, he says, only a Spirit of God in relation to other members of the Trinity. When the Spirit of God becomes the main event of preaching without reference to the Father and the Son, it results in the preacher over-promising and under-delivering on what God has promised. Sermons sound more like "pulpit vaudeville"; and Sunday morning looks more like a show than a worship service. God people also suffer. "Such antics," Taylor says, "excite... but do not edify the people of God" (35).
January 21, 2023
Anytime an author offers you first hand experience on how they have grown or developed in a discipline--you should read that book. Alcantara shares all that he has learned from preacher-pastor Gardner C. Taylor. This piece doesn't function as a biographical work as one may deduce from the title. But this serves as a helpful book for any young (or seasoned) preacher to open and learn from one who has experienced their share of trial and error while navigating life as a pastor in his context.
May 13, 2018
Lessons from the preaching life of Gardner C. Taylor, one of the most widely recognized preaching voices in the last century. Other than the almost exclusive use of male pronouns when referring to preachers, this text is a wonderful read and helps elucidate Taylor's own reflections on preaching and ministry.
August 5, 2020
I was left awed by this. Gardner C Taylor was a giant of a preacher, and the author does a masterful job drawing out specific that we can learn from the life of a man who was committed to advancing the Kingdom of God through Jesus Christ.
If you are a preacher it harbour any dreams of preaching, this is must reading.
If you are a preacher it harbour any dreams of preaching, this is must reading.
September 2, 2023
Great introduction to Gardner Taylor for the uninitiated like myself. The final chapter on the holiness of the preacher was sobering.
“You do not want to strive to be a great preacher. You do want to strive for people to feel, after you have tried to preach, what a great gospel it is.” - Gardner Taylor -
“You do not want to strive to be a great preacher. You do want to strive for people to feel, after you have tried to preach, what a great gospel it is.” - Gardner Taylor -
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August 19, 2021Insightful takes on preaching
January 4, 2017
Dr. Gardner C. Taylor was a faithful Christian preacher whose life and ministry should be studied and remembered. This book features six lessons contemporary preachers can learn from this pulpit giant. Jared E. Alcantara has written a practical, challenging, and encouraging work that I thoroughly enjoyed reading and highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews