Psalms and Hymns.com » Preaching

The Four Rules of Preaching

Eric Priest — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:41:38 +0000

John Frame gives four rules for preaching:

Make it biblical
Make is clear
Apply it correctly to the congregation
Make it interesting

Any other rules (as opposed to maxims) that you would add?

The Shoemaker: Lessons in imagery from Charles Dickens

Eric Priest — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:00:15 +0000

In just one paragraph from Book 1, Chapter 5 of A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens teaches a master-class to those of us who would use similes to make communication more vivid.

The faintness of the voice was pitiable and dreadful. It was not the faintness of physical weakness, though confinement and hard fare no doubt had their part in it. Its deplorable peculiarity was, that it was the faintness of solitude and disuse. It was like the last feeble echo of a sound made long and long ago. So entirely had it lost the life and resonance of the human voice, that it affected the senses like a once beautiful colour faded away into a poor weak stain. So sunken and suppressed it was, that it was like a voice underground. So expressive it was, of a hopeless and lost creature, that a famished traveller, wearied out by lonely wandering in a wilderness, would have remembered home and friends in such a tone before lying down to die.

New Category/Topic: Preaching

Eric Priest — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:00:03 +0000

I’ve added a new category to the website: Preaching.

I preach occasionally at our church and have recently come to be more interested in what it means to preach Biblically, clearly, and to the heart. It’s not completely outside of the realm of this website, either, given that it is an integral part of the corporate worship of God. And, the lines between the content of the preaching and the content of the worship service should be consonant.

John Witvliet said at the Where Are the Psalms? Conference that one of the goals when composing a sermon should be to ask and answer the question, “What Psalm should we, as a congregation, sing or pray in response to this passage?”

I can’t promise that the preaching material will be insightful or ground-breaking or even learned. After all, I’ve spent many more years as a musician than as a preacher. Hopefully, though, the preaching material will be cogent, clear, and helpful.

Though I have limited opportunity to preach, I enjoy preaching and have a very high view of the calling of the preacher to faithfulness and clarity.