Tuesday, January 30, 2007

What Today's Preachers Can Learn from Spurgeon

A new edition of Reformation 21 is now online.

In particular, check out Zack Eswine's article, Seeking the Spirit: What Today's Preachers Can Learn from Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Eswine lists "some of Spurgeon’s primary thoughts concerning a Spirit-inhabited sermon style":
  1. Use the Spirit’s appointed means
  2. Put your trust in the Spirit’s purpose and not in the Spirit’s means
  3. Seek the virtual preaching of Jesus
  4. Recognize the difference between mental and spiritual power
  5. See the Bible as your primary homiletics textbook
  6. Don’t forget to testify
  7. Engage the imagination and emotion
  8. Lean upon the community of believers
While you're at, check out Eswine's book, Kindled Fire: How the Methods of C.H. Spurgeon Can Help Your Preaching. He writes:
What would it have been like to sit in Spurgeon's classes? I hope this book gives a sense of what students would hear Spurgeon say about preaching if he were to speak with them in the hall, from the pulpit, or on a walk down the streets of London.