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Preparing Expository Sermons: A Seven-Step Method for Biblical Preaching
"The Bible is what God has made. Sermons are what we make with what God has made." This is the foundation for developing expository messages, according to Ramesh Richard. His method, explained in Preparing Expository Sermons, has been field-tested in training seminars for thousands of preachers around the world.
Richard's book is a simple do-it-yourself resource for developing and preaching expository sermons. It guides the reader through a seven-step process, with many practical suggestions and illustrative charts along the way. In addition, there are eleven appendixes that include information
o how to choose a text
o preaching narratives
o understanding your audience
o forms of sermon introduction
A comprehensive sermon evaluation questionnaire is included as well.
Preparing Expository Sermons, an updated and expanded version of Scripture Sculpture, is ideal for beginning preachers, lay preachers without formal training, or any pastor who is looking for a refresher course in expository sermon preparation.
Richard's book is a simple do-it-yourself resource for developing and preaching expository sermons. It guides the reader through a seven-step process, with many practical suggestions and illustrative charts along the way. In addition, there are eleven appendixes that include information
o how to choose a text
o preaching narratives
o understanding your audience
o forms of sermon introduction
A comprehensive sermon evaluation questionnaire is included as well.
Preparing Expository Sermons, an updated and expanded version of Scripture Sculpture, is ideal for beginning preachers, lay preachers without formal training, or any pastor who is looking for a refresher course in expository sermon preparation.
- GenresTheology
224 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2001
88 people are currently reading
178 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
June 27, 2018
Helpful refresher on how to study the Bible well.
January 9, 2019
A very elementary look at the writing process. The expanded includes a few examples of sermon outlines and one example sermon. If you have an earlier version, then I cannot recommend getting the update. The writing method includes pieces that one would not think to include. Over time, this simplified writing process will become automatic. For experienced preachers, this will simply become a list of things that you do not realize that you are already doing. For those just starting out, this is a method that has worked for so many, so do not try to reinvent the wheel. Overall there is nothing impressive or groundbreaking to be found here.
May 17, 2007
Talbot Course: Expository Preaching
This is a decent book, but Haddon's book is the Standard on the same topic.
This is a decent book, but Haddon's book is the Standard on the same topic.
October 22, 2021
It was a very good book for its technical abilities.
It was not a fun read, but if you want to have a very well structured sermon, this is an excellent resource. Other homiletic books are excellent for understanding preaching and God's work in preaching better. I had three texts for my preaching class. This one, Deep Preaching (Edwards), and The Glory of Preaching (Johnson). Edwards and Johnson were more enjoyable and I liked their content better (reviews both there respectively). This book made me think of breaking down a sermon bit by bit.
This book was more helpful for being technically proficient.
It was not a fun read, but if you want to have a very well structured sermon, this is an excellent resource. Other homiletic books are excellent for understanding preaching and God's work in preaching better. I had three texts for my preaching class. This one, Deep Preaching (Edwards), and The Glory of Preaching (Johnson). Edwards and Johnson were more enjoyable and I liked their content better (reviews both there respectively). This book made me think of breaking down a sermon bit by bit.
This book was more helpful for being technically proficient.
March 15, 2023
This is, as others have said, a very rudimentary discussion on preaching. The seven steps are very accurate, true, and helpful. New preachers benefit from the structure, and it serves as a refresher for more experienced preachers. I would have given it three stars for that reason, that I felt underwhelmed with regard to freshness and new material; however, the appendices bolstered this book enough to garner a fourth star.
February 24, 2022
The first book I read on Expository Preaching. There are other books which are better when it comes to Expository sermons; but this is one is not bad either. Helped me whet my appetite for deeper learning.
July 7, 2023
Perhaps I’ve benefitted from the insights of this book before I read it, but this book seemed rudimentary to me. I’m glad I read it as a refresher for my preaching class, but I’m not sure if I’ll return to it often.
April 19, 2020
So good, it helps me alot...👍👍
April 9, 2022
Good introductory text.
December 12, 2023
Pretty good intro manual on expositional preaching. It’s a little bit dated, and other introductions are better, but there’s some decent stuff in here.
July 27, 2014
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 Haddon Robinson at Dallas, there is a clear mark of Haddon’s influence throughout. This book is a good introduction to sculpting sermons and is worth reading. However, for reasons noted below, I would place others higher on my list of best introductions to the subject.
The book itself is short, 140 pages before the appendices. It is nice to read a concise work, but at times the writing feels slightly overwhelming, with one example or teaching element after another. Richard takes the reader through seven steps of sermon preparation. The steps make good sense and are similar to the seven stages I use on this site (main differences in stages 1, 6 and 7).
Throughout the book I found strengths, and usually a “but” as well. For instance, in stage 2 the focus is on the structure of the text. This chapter is great at demonstrating content cues and structural markers in a text, but it is almost exclusively focused on individual verses. By having one verse on a page, as suggested, it is harder to focus on the flow of thought in a “chunk” of text. On several occasions Richard suggests handling the Bible one paragraph at a time, but there seems to be little attention given to narrative texts that may need multiple paragraphs for a whole plot. In fact, even in the appendix that deals with narrative texts specifically, the idea of “plot” is strangely absent.
Probably the strongest step in the process is the fourth step, the purpose bridge. This stage links the Bible study to the stages of sermon formation. As far as Richard is concerned, the author’s purpose influences the process sufficiently in the Bible study stages of 1-3, so that now at 4, the preaching purpose is the only concern. I would suggest the author’s purpose must be specifically discerned, rather than assuming it will be discovered in the Bible study process provided, and the author’s purpose should be the starting point for the modern preacher (who obviously can and will sometimes select a differing purpose for the contemporary audience).
Richard is essentially very deductive in approach. He allows for inductive sermon shapes, but it seems that each major point in any sermon should follow a deductive pattern with the stating of the point up front. This feels a little rigid.
The final 60 pages of the book are given to 13 appendices. These deal with issues that regularly come up in Scripture Sculpture seminars around the world. Strong appendices include one on the Holy Spirit’s role in preaching (a regular concern when people formally interact with the process for the first time), and another on understanding your audience (brief, but with some helpful comments on differing cultures). On the other hand, several of the appendices are relatively weak and have the feel of an information dump for things that didn’t fit in the text of the book. Appendix 5 on principilization contains non-stop warnings, but does little to instruct the reader how to avoid the pitfalls. Appendix 10 provides a sample sermon introduction, but I would assume this sermon was for seminary students, since the language used seems a little lofty for a typical church congregation – omni-function, self-deification, apokalypsis.
For people wishing to have a book that gives a detailed step-by-step process for sculpting a sermon from an epistolary text, this would be a decent option. For those who, like me, are perpetual students of preaching, then this does contain much to commend it. Yet as a practical introduction to expository preaching, I would recommend others, such as Robinson and Sunukjian, above Richard.
(Ramesh Richard also has a book on preparing evangelistic sermons, which I suspect would be a very worthwhile read.)
Originally offered on www.biblicalpreaching.net
As a student and successor of Haddon Robinson at Dallas, there is a clear mark of Haddon’s influence throughout. This book is a good introduction to sculpting sermons and is worth reading. However, for reasons noted below, I would place others higher on my list of best introductions to the subject.
The book itself is short, 140 pages before the appendices. It is nice to read a concise work, but at times the writing feels slightly overwhelming, with one example or teaching element after another. Richard takes the reader through seven steps of sermon preparation. The steps make good sense and are similar to the seven stages I use on this site (main differences in stages 1, 6 and 7).
Throughout the book I found strengths, and usually a “but” as well. For instance, in stage 2 the focus is on the structure of the text. This chapter is great at demonstrating content cues and structural markers in a text, but it is almost exclusively focused on individual verses. By having one verse on a page, as suggested, it is harder to focus on the flow of thought in a “chunk” of text. On several occasions Richard suggests handling the Bible one paragraph at a time, but there seems to be little attention given to narrative texts that may need multiple paragraphs for a whole plot. In fact, even in the appendix that deals with narrative texts specifically, the idea of “plot” is strangely absent.
Probably the strongest step in the process is the fourth step, the purpose bridge. This stage links the Bible study to the stages of sermon formation. As far as Richard is concerned, the author’s purpose influences the process sufficiently in the Bible study stages of 1-3, so that now at 4, the preaching purpose is the only concern. I would suggest the author’s purpose must be specifically discerned, rather than assuming it will be discovered in the Bible study process provided, and the author’s purpose should be the starting point for the modern preacher (who obviously can and will sometimes select a differing purpose for the contemporary audience).
Richard is essentially very deductive in approach. He allows for inductive sermon shapes, but it seems that each major point in any sermon should follow a deductive pattern with the stating of the point up front. This feels a little rigid.
The final 60 pages of the book are given to 13 appendices. These deal with issues that regularly come up in Scripture Sculpture seminars around the world. Strong appendices include one on the Holy Spirit’s role in preaching (a regular concern when people formally interact with the process for the first time), and another on understanding your audience (brief, but with some helpful comments on differing cultures). On the other hand, several of the appendices are relatively weak and have the feel of an information dump for things that didn’t fit in the text of the book. Appendix 5 on principilization contains non-stop warnings, but does little to instruct the reader how to avoid the pitfalls. Appendix 10 provides a sample sermon introduction, but I would assume this sermon was for seminary students, since the language used seems a little lofty for a typical church congregation – omni-function, self-deification, apokalypsis.
For people wishing to have a book that gives a detailed step-by-step process for sculpting a sermon from an epistolary text, this would be a decent option. For those who, like me, are perpetual students of preaching, then this does contain much to commend it. Yet as a practical introduction to expository preaching, I would recommend others, such as Robinson and Sunukjian, above Richard.
(Ramesh Richard also has a book on preparing evangelistic sermons, which I suspect would be a very worthwhile read.)
Originally offered on www.biblicalpreaching.net
December 28, 2015
Great outline, but really no need to read the rest of the book.
I'm not too experienced in homiletics, but this seven step method seems to be a great way to outline sermons. I especially appreciated the CPT and CPS method. That being said, the book just tries to flesh out the outline. If you know the seven steps, there is really no need to read the rest of the book. It's a pretty dry read. It looks like the appendix has some handy resources in the back if you plan on pursing studies in homiletics.
I'm not too experienced in homiletics, but this seven step method seems to be a great way to outline sermons. I especially appreciated the CPT and CPS method. That being said, the book just tries to flesh out the outline. If you know the seven steps, there is really no need to read the rest of the book. It's a pretty dry read. It looks like the appendix has some handy resources in the back if you plan on pursing studies in homiletics.
July 28, 2011
I use it all the time.
October 5, 2012
Studied this in a preaching labs class at church. Simple and easy to remember method that will yield sermons or lessons that bring the text to the listener. Good book.
November 3, 2013
I liked the seven-step process and found the asymmetry to be helpful.
January 13, 2015
Ramesh Richards teaches and uses the book to help us gather the seven step to Biblical Preaching. Technical book but a very good read.
May 9, 2015
Good book on preaching, very practical and accessible. However, I disagree with some minor statements, especially when it turns to "contemporization" and topical preaching.
November 9, 2015
Textbook for EFCA GATEWAY Western District.
November 12, 2015
Excellent technical content on preparing sermons. First book I've read on the subject so I don't have anything to compare it to, but it was very helpful and clear.
Read
April 14, 2016Technically very good!
November 2, 2016
A great method in how to prepare sermons exegetically. My only complaint is the lack of instruction in preaching Christocentrically.
Read
May 12, 2017Not bad. I think it has been superseded by Chappell's "Christ-Centered Preaching" (which accompanying lectures can also be accessed for free in ITunes). Chappell gives all these same structural directions but also shows how to the gospel actually changes the structure of a sermon—right down to the construction of sermon point phrasing. Nevertheless, it was a helpful and well-written book, and the author has obviously thought deeply, carefully, and at great length about this momentous task of expositional preaching, and for that he deserves great commendation.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews