Deep Preaching: Creating Sermons that Go Beyond the Superficial

by J. Kent Edwards

J. Kent Edwards recalls a story that late pastor J. Vernon McGee told about seeing children in South Africa playing a game of marbles in the dust with real diamonds. The precious stones were being handled with no regard for their true worth. Edwards fears the same thing happens today when preachers offer Scriptural truth to listeners without being completely overwhelmed by its greatness themselves in the process. Deep Preaching is his call to "rethink" preaching. Edwards helps preachers learn to preach the word in ways that will powerfully change the lives of hearers. He contends that sermons "need not settle comfortably on the lives of the listeners like dust on a coffee table." He encourages preachers to join him in casting off the lines that moor their ministries to the status-quo and make every effort to steer their preaching out of the "comfortable shallows." He urges them to preach deep sermons rather than superficial ones, moving "beyond the yawn-inspiring to the awe-inspiring, from the trite to the transforming."

Genres: Nonfiction, Christian, Theology, Church

208 pages, Paperback

First published July 28, 2009

Reviews

[Joost Nixon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The gold is in Appendix 1: Closet Questions. The last several pages of the last chapter were also quite good.

But throughout the book I found myself frustrated by the ratio of illustration to content. In my view, the amount of illustration drowned out the content, and so I was always scanning forward to find the central idea. At times, I was exasperated. Too much fluff. But there is some solid stuff if you can dig down to the bottom.

[Andreas Beccai · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of the book doesn’t pull any punches, and neither does the author. He begins the book with an event that sparked the writing of his book. As a homiletics professor he was in a soundproof room listening to a seminarian preach. He recounts his horror as it dawns on him that the regular methods of teaching preaching to his students was leading to technically good sermons that were starved of the power of the Holy Spirit. Having read preaching books before and not noticing much change in the effective output of my messages, Edwards book made a lot of sense to me. Mounting the pulpit every preacher has to preach to members who are in the 21st century haze. This haze consists of social media, media, and a postmodern aversion to truth, and it is through this fog a preacher is called to shine a bright light into their minds and hearts.
I appreciate Edwards hard-nosed approached to the Spiritual disciplines of the pastor. One that caught my attention in particular, was his suggestion that fasting in some shape or form should be a common feature of sermon preparation.
Deep Preaching is an earnest work, it is far from robotic and one of the best I have read on preaching, I would not hesitate to recommend this book to every preacher.

[Mark Lacanienta · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read. Dr Edwards is not only a passionate professor, but loves the church.

[Bogdan Javgurean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd give it a 3.5 because the idea could have been expressed more concisely. Some chapters felt a bit boring (the first part of the book). Also I feel like maybe edwards is trying to do a bit too much here. It might have been better if he decided to either focus on the importance of the spiritual disciplines and the heart in preaching or the technical things like: finding the big idea, using metaphors... Overall good book, here are a couple of things i enjoyed.

The main idea of the book is hinted to in its name. The author invites preachers to take their calling more seriously through meditating on the text deeply, praying and fasting. Though he also talks about technical things like strategies and tactics for preaching he invites the preacher to rather emphasize the work of meditation and prayer in preparation. He is arguing against spiritually dry sermons and “mature love” and challenges the reader to pursue an intense romantic relationship with God “The prerequisite to deep preaching is a deep and passionate relationship with the God for whom we speak.”
One of the things I liked most about the book was the part about fasting. Edwards says that fasting is an expression of our attitude of dependency on God. If we never fast in preparation for preaching, we probably consider our own exegetical and homiletical skills in combination with our holiness enough to accomplish the supernatural task of transforming the listener’s hearts.
Another thing I liked was his discussion of the use of metaphors. Edwards makes the case that metaphors are the basic way humans learn. We put information about new things and ideas into pre-existing forms “We learn by taking elements of what we already know and extend them to what we are trying to learn.” The author also argues that it is important to use metaphors not only for helping the listener learn, but also for making the main idea we as preachers are trying to communicate clearer to ourselves “If you can’t put the idea of a passage into a metaphor, you don’t really understand it. And you are certainly not ready to preach it.”
Bouncing of the idea about the importance of metaphors, Edwards also makes a point that emotion is important in preaching. People learn through intellect, skill practice and emotion. Therefore when the preacher uses metaphors he must be aware of the emotion it will communicate and ask himself whether it is in harmony with the emotion of the passage.
Another thought I found helpful were the “Closet Questions.” Edwards proposes the following questions for meditation in preparation for the sermon:
1. Why was this exegetical idea necessary for its original recipients?
2. What is God revealing about himself in this text?
3. What is God saying to me in this text?
4. What does God want to accomplish through this text?
5. What could hinder the progress I had just made through this text?
He also suggests that these questions could be discussed in a group of pastors. Everyone brings their exegetical work to the meeting and has the opportunity to bounce ideas of each other and receive feedback.

[Michael Harshman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really do like a good book on preaching as they can give different pointers and ideas in a slightly different way from each other. "Deep Preaching: Creating Sermons That Go Beyond the Superficial" by J. Kent Edwards is another one that I am glad to have. Initially, I was thinking that this book might be a little different from some of the books I have read on how to do the mechanics of sermon preparation. I was not disappointed.

I have read many books on preaching and sermon writing, but this book came from a completely different approach from the others that I have read. Most of the ones I have read deal with the methodology of preparing a sermon, from Bible study time and prayer to the mechanics of an expository outline and sermon preparation. All those are fantastic of course, but this book is different. This book actually deals with the heart and passion of the preacher.

The primary focus of "Deep Preaching" is the pre-work even before you start any of your homiletic work. Most of the other preaching books that I have read touch a little bit on this topic, but the primary focus of a majority of those books is relating to the mechanics of how to develop a sermon. "Deep Preaching" completely flips that ratio, covering topics from meditation, prayer, and fasting to the use of metaphors in your sermons

Even if you aren't someone who preaches, this book really would be an amazing tool to help you draw closer to God in a more intimate manner. But, of course, this was really designed for preachers to help them with that intimacy that leads to a deeper, more impactful sermon.

I would strongly recommend "Deep Preaching" and it would be on my "must buy" list for anyone that is preaching in any venue. I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

[Cody Pritchett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is gold. It’s full of heart, boldness, biblical grounding, imagination, and spirit. The author writes in the style he advocates to preach in: illustrative, down to earth, quirky, and biblical.

The biggest insight I gleaned from this book is the connecting point and bridge from exegesis to homiletics: closet work. How can we be faithful to the authorial intent of the biblical passage and connect it to the modern audience? Many homiletics professors and authors teach us steps and principles—which are extremely helpful, but this author shows and tells the preachers how to go deep with the Bible, with God, with ourselves, and our people with the concept of pausing between exegesis and sermon writing with what he calls “closet work.” Closet work is getting before God and praying, meditating, and fasting (if necessary) to let the word of God seem into us and get more guidance from God before we start writing the sermon. It gives space for God to show us more in exegesis, illumine and inflame our hearts and minds, and process before God. It takes time and space—but it makes all the difference between serving up a nutritious, homemade, and hot meal to our people and serving them pop-tarts. Many brilliant and clear sermons lack the freshness, power, and anointing of God because they aren’t birthed or cooked in the presence of God. This book is a remedy for that dynamic. Many sermons are dull, dry, and lifeless—and people sense it. This author helps us move towards a better way! This shouldn’t be the only preaching you read but it supplements the more technical ones and breathes life and depth into the sermon prep process.

[Troy Nevitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have once heard Edwards speak in person. His sermon was good. His lectures were interesting, but I found them to be unhelpful and off-putting.

This book is not like his lectures. It was quite good. I see the emphasis for why we preach and how we work to preach well. Most importantly, his emphasis to be deeper preachers by being filled with the Holy Spirit throughout the entire process. Devotionally read the Word. Pray. Diligently work hard. Write the sermon. Let the Holy Spirit show you the text and what you wrote. Marinate/meditate in the sermon's content and the text. Refine. Pray. Let the Spirit continue to work. And then preach as one who has been transformed by the Holy Spirit. Then trust the Holy Spirit will do the work he is going to do, knowing you don't save anyone, but God does.

[Joel V Mosier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy Read, Yet Ideas that Challenge Who Preachers Are

While easy to read, the author presents thoughts and ideas that get at the core of who we are as preacher-pastors. Convicting. Practical. Highly recommended.

[Nick Di Mauro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Timely and true. As one who has been preaching for over a decade and currently studying for my doctor of ministry degree, I would highly recommend this books to anyone starting their journey as a preacher. As for me, I gave it 4 stars because I was hoping for a little more depth.

[Scott Troske · Rating 5 out of 5]

Straight to the point. Brutally blunt.

[Greg Savage · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good and concise method for sermon preparation.

[Rob Byron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clearly conveys the gravity of the task of preaching well and deeply, and has some solid ideas of how to achieve it

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kent Edwards' Deep Preaching mostly delivers as promised. I'll focus on two negatives before offering some positives.

The two drawbacks to the book are poor editing and a confusing presentation of fasting. I noted misspelled words in more than twenty places, many of which were so obvious that they took away from the experience of reading for comprehension. In a word, it was distracting. For example, in Appendix 2, Improving Perfection (Extended Metaphor) on p. 193, Edwards introduces us to Michele Oka Doner. However, several lines later she is called "Ms. Donner." This may be nitpicky, but this happened throughout the book. I also finished reading the section on fasting without getting a clear vision for his reasons for fasting. On p. 115 he states that Jesus fasted and "[h]is comments on fasting are frequently prefaced with 'when you fast' rather than 'if you fast.'" My issue was with the word "frequently" especially since the footnote refers to one passage: Matthew 6:16-17. Again, I mostly agreed with his argument, but I was also concerned with his wobbly stance on the implications for pastors who are NOT regularly making fasting a part of their sermon prep. To say that not fasting implies "that you are not experiencing real intimacy with God" is a bold statement that he does not back up very well. He then backs off a little in the next sentence to say that not fasting "may indicate our remoteness from God," which is a careful, nuanced way of saying it.

The part of the book I loved was his overarching emphasis on the need for the pastor to meet with God and plead with the Holy Spirit to work in not only the delivery, and not only the prep, but to work in the heart of the pastor. His description of the process leading from exegesis to homiletics is one that harried and hurried 21st century pastors need desperately to heed. His quote of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones that "the preacher's first, and most important task is to prepare himself, not his sermon" is right on. Deep preaching ought to affect us before we even think about how it might affect our congregations.

Another thing that must be noted is Edwards' insistence on mastering metaphors. He uses them incessantly throughout the book, the vast majority of them to good effect. Edwards makes the case for the necessity of finding metaphors in real life that will connect biblical truth to the lives of those in the congregation. His reasoning is sound and he subordinates the need for metaphor to the need for the God to make the sermon come alive in the hearts of listeners.

I would commend this book to all preachers, but especially those who were taught primarily to focus on sermon construction and communication techniques. Those are helpful but a technically good sermon that lacked depth is what provided the impetus for Edwards to writ this book in the first place.

[Bob Wolniak · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book makes an excellent companion to Haddon Robinson's classic Biblical Preaching. It assumes and builds on Big Idea, three developmental questions, purpose, etc. What Edwards adds is a good deal more development of a biblical basis and theology of/for preaching, and especially a lot more specific thought on the inner life of the preacher in terms of meditation, prayer, fasting etc. The rest of the book goes in to great detail about what he calls "closet work", including a wealth of questions to submit your sermon preparation to and answer. He also takes pains to identify what makes a sermon "deep" and what makes it shallow. Edwards uses a wealth of examples and shows a pastor's care for the heart of the preacher.

[Doug Dunbar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-reading, but more like re-applying (Sept 2014).

Good challenge to make sure we are preaching from our hearts and walk with Jesus, passion for His word and love for His church. I'll be coming back to this one over the course of this year. Rather than reading 10 books about preaching, I figured its better to read one and USE it, then move on to another one for next year.

[Matt Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exhortation to go deeper than an exegetically solid sermon

Kent Edwards passionately and effectively persuades you of the dire need for good preaching, and then provides helpful instruction for how to get there. His explanation of the need for dynamic metaphors is worth the price of the book. This book will challenge you in a good way.

[David Meldrum · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mixed bag. There's some really helpful stuff in here on moving beyond the surface in preaching that, if taken seriously, can only benefit ministry. Some of it is over-long, repetitive and theologically (on Scripture, preaching and other issues) from a very particular perspective. Worth reading and applying for any preacher, whatever the frustrations of the book.

[Beniamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author does a great job in making a case for preaching and making the reader understand the motivation behind it. Also, Edwards makes a great plea for the importance of prayer and understanding that exegesis and homiletics isn t everything. It is not that technical like other homiletics books.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent study of the Spirituality of Preaching, looking at the means that a Preacher can use in order to seek the wisdom of God so that our message will have a Biblical depth.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this book were very good, and other parts more predictable. Worth it though.

[Ben Montoya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall good content; weak in some areas, but helpful and encouraging.

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear and straightforward, really enjoyed the methodological stuff in this one.

[Emi Ciupe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I have read on preaching so far.