Christ Centered Preaching has had an enormous impact on my day to day life as a pastor, specifically with regard to the preparation and delivery of sermons. As a guy who has been trained in and through the local church, this shrink-wrapped seminary class on homiletics is much appreciated and highly esteemed.
I like what RC Sproul said in his endorsement of this book:
This is an outstanding tool for students of homiletics. It is the best I have seen on this subject. The book crystallizes the essence of expository preaching and presents clear, transferable principles for preaching effectively. The book itself is structured in a lucid, readable format.
Author Bryan Chapell is the president of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, MO. His style of writing is very much geared toward the seminary student but that does not negate the tremendously practical aspect of his instruction. This is definitely a book that will be revisited by pastors who aim to find by encouragement and instruction in the practice of expository preaching.
Chapell hits everything from prayer, to building an outline, to establishing a principle statement, to making application and appropriate illustrations. He also deals with such things as dress and hand jestures in a thoughtfully biblical manner.
I want to highlight just a few of the immediately helpful items that Chapell focuses on.
The 3am Test: Chapell asks the hypothetical question as to whether or not you would be able to concisely and clearly answer someone who wakes you up at 3 am on Sunday morning, questioning what you are going to preach on. Until you can do so, clearly and concisely, you are probably not that clear on your main point.
The Fallen Condition Focus (FCF): Before you are ready to preach, says Chapell, you must identify and understand: (1) What does the text say? (2) What spiritual concern(s) did the text address (in its context)? (3) What spiritual concerns do listeners share in common with those to (or about) whom the text was written? Chapell writes, “By identifying listeners’ mutual condition with the biblical writer, subject and/or audience, we determine why the text was written, not just for biblical times but also for our time.”
Principle Statements: Chapell emphasizes that statements of principle in the sermon must include both the truth of the passage as well as the call to action. To avoid one or the other is to not give a statement of principle.
I have heard some folks voice concern over his chapters on redemptive preaching. Personally I did not witness any fouls. I thought Chapell qualified his terms and did enough leg work in the book to make his goal clear of preaching the text within a context so as to not warrant raised eyebrows, even from premillennialists.
The book is flat out loaded. I have been shamelessly pushing it on other pastors and teachers throughout this year. If you want to encourage your pastor or Sunday school teacher, get him this book.
It is hard back so it costs a little more. Think seminary text book. Discounted copies are available at the following online stores: