Cliff Boone is Senior Pastor at Cedar Crest Bible Fellowship Church in Allentown, Pennsylvania and was, before that a church planter in Tanzania. Cliff is a personal friend and back in 2006 I had the privilege of preaching at his church and at a church holiday conference. Cliff has just completed his Ph.D on PURITAN EVANGELISM: PREACHING FOR CONVERSION IN LATE-SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH PURITANISM AS SEEN IN THE WORKS OF JOHN FLAVEL. I am delighted Cliff is this week’s expositor in the spotlight. Cliff blogs at Alive2God
1. Where do you place the importance of preaching in the grand scheme of church life?
We know of the studies that have been done of the words used in the NT for ‘preaching’ and ‘teaching.’ It seems clear to me that the life of the church must include a declaration/proclamation as well as an explanation of the truth of God’s Word. I believe that this declaration can be scheduled into the life of a local church in various ways – the NT doesn’t prescribe that it be done every Sunday morning at 11am! Nevertheless, it must be a regular part of the life of the church.
2. In a paragraph, how did you discover your gifts in preaching?
I distinctly remember exactly where I was when a certain realization hit me. It was during a Christian conference for college students. I was talking with a friend after one of the meetings. During the conversation I commented that I longed to be the one up on the podium teaching the Word to others. He shocked me by saying that he didn’t have that desire! Up until that point in my life I thought that every Christian wanted to be the preacher! This new realization lead me to investigate just how God had gifted and inclined me, and to take steps in exploring my gifts. Over the next few years I saw God’s blessing on others every time I had the opportunity to preach or teach. I kept following God’s leading, and soon the body of believers in which I was a part confirmed what I was seeing and feeling. So, with internal and external confirmation I continued pursuing the task of preaching.
3. How long (on average) does it take you to prepare a sermon?
I schedule 14 hours for every sermon. I do not always get those hours, due to other pastoral tasks that intrude on my study time. But, I begin each week with the goal of getting 14 hours of preparation.
4. Is it important to you that a sermon contain one major theme or idea? If so, how do you crystallise it?
You may be surprised at my answer. I do not think it is important. Here is my thinking: If I am true to the text, and am faithfully expositing it, I will have as many themes or ideas as that portion of the Scripture presents. To say that my sermon must have one major theme is as artificial as saying that my sermon must have three points and a poem! Now, lest I miscommunicate here, let me say that I labour to show how the text relates the various points together. So, in that sense, there is always an overarching unifying theme in my sermons. That theme is whatever the text provides to unite the various points. I am not worried that having various points creates difficulty for the hearers to remember it all. I am only worried that I clearly exposit the text. I then trust the Spirit to speak to each hearer in the area that that hearer needs. For example, I may have a sermon with five points. I am not concerned that everyone remembers all five points. I am only concerned that each one hears the Spirit on that point or points that they particularly need that morning.
5. What is the most important aspect of a preacher’s style and what should he avoid?
The most important aspect is that of being genuine. Be who you are. Don’t feel constrained to behave or speak “like a preacher.” Just be who you are – handling the Word of God. People respond to authenticity. People smell artificiality a mile away.
6. What notes, if any, do you use?
I prepare an outline. At certain points in the outline I will write full sentences – but only occasionally. If you want to read an essay I’ve written on why I do not manuscript my sermons you can check my blog here http://www.alive2god.com/?p=1136. I realize that we are not all wired the same way and that some find it difficult to preach with the small amount of notes that I use, but I do believe in what I have written in that essay.
7. What are the greatest perils that preacher must avoid?
Pride. It is a dangerous thing to have many eyes focused on you weekly.
8. How do you fight to balance preparation for preaching with other important responsibilities (eg. pastoral care, leadership responsibilities)
I could not do what I do without the team-work of other pastors and elders in our local church. We have striven to divide responsibilities and work as a team. Even with that, pastoral duties other than preaching always threaten my preparation time. That’s just the way it is. Now, after all these years, I don’t fret over that. I just make midcourse corrections to my schedule each week and roll with the punches!
9. What are the 5 books on preaching that have been most helpful to you as a preacher, with perhaps a few words by way of comment about them?
C.H. Spurgeon Lectures to My Students. You can always count on Spurgeon to be both instructive and spiritually challenging!
J. Oswald Sanders Spiritual Leadership. This does not speak directly to the task of preaching, but applies abundantly to the person who holds the role of pastor/preacher. Sanders’ approach to leadership is thoroughly refreshing when compared to the plethora of current books being written about church organization, management and leadership.
Arturo G. Azurdia III Spirit Empowered Preaching. Perhaps the most important book on preaching I have read in recent years! If you are a preacher and haven’t read this one, buy it today!
John Piper The Supremacy of God in Preaching. Many preachers list this one. I am no different. Very helpful.
Lloyd M. Perry A Manual for Biblical Preaching. I cut my teeth on sermon preparation using this manual. Now I am not so strict in my application of his advice to my sermons, but it was extremely helpful to shape my sermon arrangement and give me a good foundation. I still pull it off the shelf and refer to it occasionally.
10. Which preachers, living or dead, have had the greatest influence on your own ministry?
Douglas Miller, (Pastor in the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church. My first example of expository preaching.)
John Stott.
Harold Burchett (Former professor at the seminary I attended. Mentor)
Ronald Mahurin. (Senior Pastor with whom I served for five years. Great example and encourager.)
Robert Johnson. (Associate Pastor with whom I served for five year. Now with the Lord.)
John Flavel. (Lived in the 1600s. I have let him coach me in preaching through his writings and sermons.)
11. What steps do you take to nurture or encourage developing or future preachers?
We have just begun taking pastoral interns for our summer months at our church. This has been a great joy to me and, I trust, a help to them. I give the intern the text that I will preach on. Then he spends some time making an outline of how he would preach it. He then listens to me on Sunday. On Monday we compare notes and discuss. A great blessing!
12. What advice would you give to a young man who is wondering whether God is calling him into a preaching ministry, firstly in terms of recognising the genuineness of a call and secondly in acting on it?
Take steps to explore your own giftedness. Seek confirmation of your gifts and calling from the local church in which you are a member. Linger often and long in prayer.
13. Is good expository preaching something that is ‘caught’ or ‘taught’; where is the balance between the two?
Sitting under those who preach expository messages is crucial to the process of becoming one who does the same. However, you need training. How do you get from the point of first reading a text to standing in a pulpit and expositing it to others? Someone needs to help you learn that process. You need to see it done, and to be trained in it.
14. What is the secret of perseverance in a preaching ministry?
Submission – being yielded to the will of God.
15. What is the secret of freshness in a preaching ministry?
The preacher’s prayer life. The vitality of my prayer life is what injects corresponding vitality into everything I attempt to do – especially preaching!
“Lloyd M. Perry A Manual for Biblical Preaching. I cut my teeth on sermon preparation using this manual. Now I am not so strict in my application of his advice to my sermons, but it was extremely helpful to shape my sermon arrangement and give me a good foundation. I still pull it off the shelf and refer to it occasionally.”
Dr. Perry was my homiletics prof at TEDS, and I chafed under his rigorously organized scheme of sermon preparation. Only afterward, when I had been preaching for a while, did I come to appreciate that while I’ve probably never worked up a sermon that fit all of his parameters, he gave us a terrific starting point to develop our own styles. I will always feel indebted to him and am sorry that he wasn’t more widely known. He was a great Biblical rhetorician!