“If a preacher can exhaust his sermon material in thirty minutes, either he hasn’t done his homework, or he’s just not reading good books.”
I look for books that challenge me with positive truths about Christianity and faith. We hear too much of the negative speakers and writers singing their doleful jeremiads about the decline of church and faith. Such books seldom bring out anything new; they simply restate old facts in new words. The mark of a good book, for me, is that it has a depth of scholarship to challenge the thinking believer. At the same time, it should be written in positive, understandable language/ which puts it in the domain of every reader, regardless of educational experience.
A book I’ve found very helpful in my preaching ministry is Preaching and Preachers by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Zondervan). The author, an Englishman, gives us a thorough study of the art of preaching. It develops with candor and insight the preparation and delivery of sermons, the congregation and how it should be regarded, and the careful use of imagination and illustrations. In one section dealing with preparation for the preacher, Lloyd-Jones discusses reading. He says the preacher should not read to gather ideas; he should read to help himself think. “What we preach is to be the result of our own thoughts. We do not merely transmit ideas.”
Another book I think is essential to the preacher’s library is Sermons in American History (Abingdon). Edited by DeWitte Holland, the book presents one of the best studies of the history of American preaching I’ve found. Preachers such as John Cotton, Roger Williams, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, and Harry Emerson Fosdick have given some of the best sermons we’ve heard or read. But the book is more than a random collection of messages by the masters; each sermon focuses on issues such as social action, evolution, or government and religion. Most of the sermons were transcribed from authentic manuscripts, and the collection is an imposing one. The book is not intended to be a model of preaching for all preachers, but it will stimulate preachers to formulate and present their own ideas about important issues.
I keep books scattered around-by the television, in the car. I read lighter books during commercials and traffic jams, or when I’m early for an appointment. Deeper thought books, though, are reserved for my study.
When I was pastoring, I studied during the morning hours, and my people knew I could be disturbed only in emergencies. People respect that if the extra study shows up in your sermons. On the other hand, if your preaching doesn’t improve each week, they may want you out ringing doorbells. We tend to be activistic in our churches, letting administrative duties squeeze out our study time.
In the source book category, nothing has helped me as much as the nine-volume Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, edited by Gerhard Kittel (Eerdmans). This is an expensive set of books, though many times I’ve seen it on sale in bookstores. But for the minister of the Word who has even a slight working knowledge of Greek, it is invaluable. The Journal of Biblical Literature calls it “one of the few biblical studies of this generation that is destined for immortality.”
The books give a wealth of information about such words as “agape,” which helps preachers to zero in on the exact meaning of love. For years I had been troubled by a passage in Colossians, in which Paul speaks of Christ as the first-born” of every creature. I knew that in the book he was opposing Gnosticism and the belief that Christ was a created being; the passage seemed to contradict this. So one day I looked up the Greek word for first-born, and discovered that in the sense Paul used it, the word actually meant “lordship.” “He is the ‘lord’ of every creature.”
Another weighty book that has influenced me is Light From the Ancient Past, by Jack Finegan (Princeton University Press). I’ve always been a student of archaeology, and Finegan’s book gives a good archaeological background of the Hebrew-Christian faith. It emphasizes that not once have archaeological findings contradicted the Bible. Such things as the work of Paul, the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, and the New Testament manuscripts are explored in great detail, as are events preceding Christ. I recommend the book for its ability to give historical authenticity and perspective to the faith of modern Christians.
Though I’m retired now, I continue to read as much as ever. I walk through bookstores whenever possible, and scan the book review sections of Christian magazines that have been consistently helpful in pointing me to good books.
I would like to recommend one more book: Why Conservative Churches Are Growing, by Dean M. Kelley (Harper & Row). Kelley is a United Methodist minister, and director of the Civil and Religious Liberty Committee of the National Council of Churches. This background has provided him with much data on church growth and decline. The book is a study of conservative churches and the things contributing to their growth. He probes the questions: Is religion obsolete? Are churches dying? He gives charts of various denominations, showing their progress up or down. Although the book deals with problems all churches face in trying to keep up with the times, Kelley points out that churches provide answers to life’s deepest questions, and that the church’s involvement in society is secondary. Many churches are low in attendance and Sunday school, yet conservative churches seem to be progressively growing. I think the answer is that conservative churches have stayed with the gospel as presented in the New Testament in a very simple way.
Copyright © 1981 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.