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Praise the Lord I will finish this book this week. It seems to have been a long journey but I have prospered much, and truly been blessed by it.
This week I will read chapters 193-201, in Haddon Robinson's book :"The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching". This book was co-authored by Craig Brian Larson.
Chapter 193. Well-Focused Preaching
Chapter 194. The Agony and Ecstasy of Feedback
Chapter 195. Getting the Feedback You Need
Chapter 196. A Comprehensive Check-Up
Chapter 197. The Science of Surveys
Chapter 198. Lessons From Preaching Today Screeners
Chapter 199. Holding Hearers Captive
Chapter 200. My Best and Worst Sermons Ever
Chapter 201. Learning From Giants
Chapter 193, "Well Focused Preaching, written by Bill Hybels, is a lesson on sermon evaluation. Bro. Hybels has asked that the elders in his church evaluate each sermon preached simply because he wants his messages to be the best they can be. He suggest finding the right persons to do the evaluating, recieving the evaluation at the right time(when it is most effective), and ask the right questions in evaluation. Bro. Hybels mentioned that each sermon is viewed by him as the sacrificial lamb and should be presented unblemished. Amen!!
John Vawter wrote chapter 194 and titled it:" The Agony and Ecstasy of Feedback". Interesting enough it is difficult to accept constructive criticism, especially from your wife. That's who began the whole process of evaluation, it seemed that Bro. Vawter had created some bad habits during his delivery of the message. No one would tell him so guess who did, Mrs. Vawter. He had begun to clap his hands, use humor indirectly, and some other habits that was driving the congregation crazy. So he mailed out evaluation forms to several people that he thought would be honest and evaluate him correctly. As he received the forms he had to admit that all he could see was the negative remarks that were made, even though there were lots of positve input. He said it was hurtful at first but realizing the fact that these were honest remarks to help him to become a better preacher he asked God to remove the pride that had innocently crept into his sermon delivery, and took the remarks seriously and started to grow. He says his ministry is improving and the church is growing, that's the way it is done. AMEN!!
Chapter 199 is written by Craig Brian Larson and is titled:" Holding Hearers Captive". Bro. Larson speaks of self-evaluation. The best way to evaluate self is to listen to your sermon on tape. On tape you do not have the luxury of facial expressions, body language, the excitement of a crowd, nor the presence of God. On tape you are stripped down to voice and words. So what is it then that holds an audiences attention, it's, "energy". When evaluating self by use of tapes, when you don't have your props, when it is just your words that are heard, do you sense an element of electricity. Bro. Larson describes three types of energy and if you pocess even one of these you can hold your hearers captive. I will talk more about this in my next post.
Holding Hearers Captive, the title to chapter 199, written by Craig Brian Larson, gave pointers in self-evaluation. Listen to your sermon on tape, this will reveal whether or not if you deliver energy, yes energy, that is what you look for when holding hearers captive. He speaks of three types of energy, (a) Emotional energy
(b) Intellectual energy
(c) Vocal energy
If you have just one type of energy, you can preach.
Well Amen to that!!
In chapter 201 titled:" Learning From Giants", written by Kevin A. Miller, is about what you can learn and use from other preachers. Miller says that even though he can't imitate great preachers, he and we can benefit from their example. Miller says "caution" is the first principle, don't attempt to apply what you notice first about a great preacher simply because the first thing you notice will be their strongest gift, and probably not yours. He gives the example of a great preacher with the gift of high intesity in his preaching but he is more subtle so it would be totally out of character for him too try to preach with that level of high intensity, not only that but that his congregation would be confused as well and focus more on the intensity than on the message, so use caution.
Kevin A. Miller teaches that you can learn from other great preachers in chapter 201. He mentions not to try to imitate them but use your gift to better you. He first taught to use "caution" and now he makes mention of "adaptation". Examine yourself and your gifts and then try to adapt or borrow something from the other preachers that fits your course of preparation and delivery. We are all learning nad growing in The Lord. Amen
Kevin A. Miller also teaches us that to learn from the great preachers we have to have the right "attitude". That is to say we have to be willing to learn and continue to improve our preaching techniques and glean what we can from our mentors.
Kevin A. Miller,author of chapter 201 titled:"Learning From Giants", says that there are two pillars on which you can be secure as a preacher, "obedience", preach because you are called to preach, and "confidence that God's Word has a power beyond our own skills", God says:" my word will never go forth and come back empty. With these two pillars yuo can do what you have been called to do and do it with power. God is awesome!!!!
One final comment on "The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching" written by Haddon Robinson and Craig Brian Larson. Wonderful book with an awesome amount of information, certainly one that should belong in any preachers library. I don't know if the book got better middle to end or if maybe I was enlightened more toward the end of the study, regardless I feel I have grown tremendously through this book. God Bless!!!
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