11 September 2012
Between two worlds has been in print
for over 30 years and is a perennial classic introducing preaching to the next
generation of preachers. John Stott had already served at All Souls Church for
37 years as a curate, rector, and rector emeritus by the time he wrote this
book. These 37 years of serving in a church and his experience in the broader leadership
of the evangelical church have provided him with an excellent vantage point to
discuss the challenges of preaching in today’s world. Stott is challenging and
encouraging. His words light a desire for preaching that hopefully will not go
out.
The book is divided into eight chapters each focusing on a different aspect of preaching in the church today. Chapter one introduces us to a selective history of preaching in the church that is enlightening. There is much benefit in knowing this history as he shows that truly, “preaching is indispensable to Christianity” (15). He shows when the word of God is preached, the hearts of men are changed. He notes that the preaching began and established the Reformation in Germany (25). He ends the chapter by noting two things: There is a broad witness to the importance of preaching in the Church and this witness is consistent through the ages.
Stott continues in chapter two by presenting objections to preaching today. This chapter includes what seems like dated examples, yet we can bring each one of the examples through a ladder of abstraction of sorts to discover principles that are important to us 30 years later. He most notably brings our attention to the distractions of modern technology, which is an even more pressing concern now than when he wrote it. He encourages preachers “to reckon with a television conditioned culture” (75). In our world, it may not be the TV as much as iPhones and computers, but this is a principle that we ought to keep in the forefront of our preaching ministries. We have to fight for and train attention. In this chapter, he also urges the reader to consider preaching dialectically. This thought comes out again and again through the rest of the book. His point is that preachers need to be connected with the hearts of the congregation. Preaching is to be a dialogue with the congregation. He gives the picture of an African American Church where the sermon is verbally a dialogue between the congregation and the preacher (60, 61). Of course this is a picture and might only work in a certain cultural setting, but Stott says, “All true preaching is dialogical.” He continues, “What the [preacher] says provokes questions in their minds which he then proceeds to answer. His answer raises further questions, to which again he replies” (61).
Chapter three focuses on five convictions that the preacher must hold in ministry. First he discusses a conviction about God: He is light, has acted, and has spoken. This progression is beautifully Biblical and is an important belief. The initial affirmation of God being light implies the second and third affirmation that God reveals himself through his acts and words. Stott continues in this chapter to encourage preachers to stand on the Word of God as a revelation of God and to encourage preachers to believe in the power of this revelation to change the hearts of men. Stott’s second conviction is that Scripture is God’s word written down. This conviction encompasses the doctrines of inerrancy and inspiration. Again, this core belief is an encouragement to preachers to be bold with Scripture knowing that it is living (100) and speaks to the hearts of today’s church (101). This doctrine of the Word should also drive us to exposit scripture carefully and diligently (99). He moves on from this to a third conviction about the Church. “The Church is the creation of God by his Word. . . God’s new creation (the Church) is as dependent on his Word as his old creation” (109). Fourthly, the preacher must have a conviction about the pastorate. A pastor is a shepherd and the responsibility of a shepherd is primarily to feed the flock through teaching (118). Stott’s final necessary conviction of the preacher regards preaching itself. This conviction centers around his “contention that all true Christian preaching is expository preaching” (125). For Stott expository preaching indicates the content of the sermon. That content is Biblical truth that is derived from the text.
Chapter four discusses applying sermons to the lives of the congregants. Stott calls this application bridge-building. Stott encourages preachers to show congregants the relevance of the faith and the word of God to their lives, and specifically preaching Christ. He says, “We have to provoke them to think about their life in all its moods, to challenge them to make Jesus Christ the Lord of every area of it, and to demonstrate his contemporary relevance” (147). Preaching Christ and his work will satisfy the souls of a congregation. Christ speaks to our congregations today (154). Stott encourages preachers to deal with ethical issues which congregations face. He divides ethics into individual Christian ethics, churchly ethics, and domestic. Personal ethics refers to how each individual believer lives in this world (155). Churchly ethics relates to how we as a church live with each other. This includes how we forgive and encourage one another (157). Domestic ethics deals with our relationships in our households (159). The last issue is that, in our churches, we need to deal with difficult social and political issues. As a church it is important that we address these issues Biblically and exhort the congregation to pursue Biblically what is good in our society whether it relates to sexual ethics or how we as Christians deal with money.
Stott follows up this pivotal chapter by discussing the need for the pastor to study. He quotes Dr. Billy Graham who said, “I remember that Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse. . . once said: ‘If I had only three years to serve the Lord, I would spend two of them studying and preparing’” (181). As we come to understand more and more the nature of the Bible as God’s revealed Word, it ought to drive us to study. He says, “If this indeed is the Word of God, then away with slovenly, slipshod exegesis.” Stott gives us three characteristics of study: it must be comprehensive, open-minded, and expectant. It must be comprehensive because “[e]very heresy is due to the overemphasis upon some truth, without allowing other truths to qualify and balance it” (183). Our study must cover every page of the word of God and take it into consideration. Stott suggests that we use a reading schedule so we can cover the entire Bible within one year and contends that we must be open-minded in the sense that we allow the text to form our opinions. We have to go back and see the text and it’s circumstances in its original context, and we need to allow this picture to inform our minds. This involves opening “our minds wide enough to risk hearing what we do not want to hear” (186). Lastly, he says that we need to be expectant that the word will be a light and will be effective to change.
Not only does the pastor need to study the Bible, but he also needs to engage and study the culture in which he is a part. For example, Stott points out that reading a weekly newspaper has done much to help him see the culture and to have ample illustrations for his sermons. He also urges us to join or start a Christian reading group to read popular books and watch important new films and discuss their cultural significance, giving us insight into those we desire to reach. He says that these groups have “not only increased our understanding of the modern world, but excited our compassion for human beings in their lostness and despair, confirmed our Christian faith, and rekindled our sense of Christian mission” (196). In regard to the logistics of having a time for study Stott suggests something that has helped him all throughout his time as a preacher. He has set aside one day a week, one day a month and one week a year for time to study, pray and reflect on the message to be preached (204).
Chapter six focuses on preparing sermons. Stott gives the preacher six steps to follow in sermon preparation. His first is to choose the text. He gives much practical advice that is good for the preacher to consider in selecting a text. A pastor can use the liturgy to help him select a text, an event in the life of the nation or culture, a pastoral consideration from what he is sensing in the congregation, or a personal issue the pastor is learning from himself. Each of these can be taken into consideration in selecting a text to preach on. Secondly, he says the preacher ought to meditate on the sermon text. He gives two questions to ask: what does it mean and what does it say (221)? After meditating on the text, he suggests that pastors isolate the dominant thought of the passage. “One of the chief ways in which a sermon differs from a lecture is that it aims to convey only one major message” (225). The final steps are to arrange your material to serve the dominant thought, add an introduction and conclusion, and to spend time praying over and reading the sermon.
The last two chapters focus on the manner of the pastor. He is to be four things: sincere, earnest, courageous and humble. On being sincere, he gives the example of Billy Graham who came to England in 1954. Stott wondered to himself why 12,000 people every night for three months would come to see Billy Graham yet many of England’s churches were half full. His conclusion is that Billy Graham lived what he preached (270). This is the picture of sincerity that Stott is thinking of. To be earnest is to feel what we say. He points out many examples of previous preachers who would cry over lost souls. In his discussion about being courageous, Stott argues that we should not be afraid to deal with the difficult subjects in the Bible, but we should deal with them in a balanced viewpoint. He quotes John Newton as saying that the point of preaching is “to break a hard heart and to heal a broken heart” (314). He closes his book discussing the humility of the preacher. We are to be humble in submitting ourselves to Scripture and the work of the spirit, and to glory in Christ.
Stott’s book is a strong call to Biblical preaching and includes many things that should challenge any preacher who reads it. His exhortation for us to submit to the Word is an important foundation for the preacher and any who call themselves Christian. Finally, his call for us to engage the world with Scripture by building bridges is central in the spread of the gospel.
The book is divided into eight chapters each focusing on a different aspect of preaching in the church today. Chapter one introduces us to a selective history of preaching in the church that is enlightening. There is much benefit in knowing this history as he shows that truly, “preaching is indispensable to Christianity” (15). He shows when the word of God is preached, the hearts of men are changed. He notes that the preaching began and established the Reformation in Germany (25). He ends the chapter by noting two things: There is a broad witness to the importance of preaching in the Church and this witness is consistent through the ages.
Stott continues in chapter two by presenting objections to preaching today. This chapter includes what seems like dated examples, yet we can bring each one of the examples through a ladder of abstraction of sorts to discover principles that are important to us 30 years later. He most notably brings our attention to the distractions of modern technology, which is an even more pressing concern now than when he wrote it. He encourages preachers “to reckon with a television conditioned culture” (75). In our world, it may not be the TV as much as iPhones and computers, but this is a principle that we ought to keep in the forefront of our preaching ministries. We have to fight for and train attention. In this chapter, he also urges the reader to consider preaching dialectically. This thought comes out again and again through the rest of the book. His point is that preachers need to be connected with the hearts of the congregation. Preaching is to be a dialogue with the congregation. He gives the picture of an African American Church where the sermon is verbally a dialogue between the congregation and the preacher (60, 61). Of course this is a picture and might only work in a certain cultural setting, but Stott says, “All true preaching is dialogical.” He continues, “What the [preacher] says provokes questions in their minds which he then proceeds to answer. His answer raises further questions, to which again he replies” (61).
Chapter three focuses on five convictions that the preacher must hold in ministry. First he discusses a conviction about God: He is light, has acted, and has spoken. This progression is beautifully Biblical and is an important belief. The initial affirmation of God being light implies the second and third affirmation that God reveals himself through his acts and words. Stott continues in this chapter to encourage preachers to stand on the Word of God as a revelation of God and to encourage preachers to believe in the power of this revelation to change the hearts of men. Stott’s second conviction is that Scripture is God’s word written down. This conviction encompasses the doctrines of inerrancy and inspiration. Again, this core belief is an encouragement to preachers to be bold with Scripture knowing that it is living (100) and speaks to the hearts of today’s church (101). This doctrine of the Word should also drive us to exposit scripture carefully and diligently (99). He moves on from this to a third conviction about the Church. “The Church is the creation of God by his Word. . . God’s new creation (the Church) is as dependent on his Word as his old creation” (109). Fourthly, the preacher must have a conviction about the pastorate. A pastor is a shepherd and the responsibility of a shepherd is primarily to feed the flock through teaching (118). Stott’s final necessary conviction of the preacher regards preaching itself. This conviction centers around his “contention that all true Christian preaching is expository preaching” (125). For Stott expository preaching indicates the content of the sermon. That content is Biblical truth that is derived from the text.
Chapter four discusses applying sermons to the lives of the congregants. Stott calls this application bridge-building. Stott encourages preachers to show congregants the relevance of the faith and the word of God to their lives, and specifically preaching Christ. He says, “We have to provoke them to think about their life in all its moods, to challenge them to make Jesus Christ the Lord of every area of it, and to demonstrate his contemporary relevance” (147). Preaching Christ and his work will satisfy the souls of a congregation. Christ speaks to our congregations today (154). Stott encourages preachers to deal with ethical issues which congregations face. He divides ethics into individual Christian ethics, churchly ethics, and domestic. Personal ethics refers to how each individual believer lives in this world (155). Churchly ethics relates to how we as a church live with each other. This includes how we forgive and encourage one another (157). Domestic ethics deals with our relationships in our households (159). The last issue is that, in our churches, we need to deal with difficult social and political issues. As a church it is important that we address these issues Biblically and exhort the congregation to pursue Biblically what is good in our society whether it relates to sexual ethics or how we as Christians deal with money.
Stott follows up this pivotal chapter by discussing the need for the pastor to study. He quotes Dr. Billy Graham who said, “I remember that Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse. . . once said: ‘If I had only three years to serve the Lord, I would spend two of them studying and preparing’” (181). As we come to understand more and more the nature of the Bible as God’s revealed Word, it ought to drive us to study. He says, “If this indeed is the Word of God, then away with slovenly, slipshod exegesis.” Stott gives us three characteristics of study: it must be comprehensive, open-minded, and expectant. It must be comprehensive because “[e]very heresy is due to the overemphasis upon some truth, without allowing other truths to qualify and balance it” (183). Our study must cover every page of the word of God and take it into consideration. Stott suggests that we use a reading schedule so we can cover the entire Bible within one year and contends that we must be open-minded in the sense that we allow the text to form our opinions. We have to go back and see the text and it’s circumstances in its original context, and we need to allow this picture to inform our minds. This involves opening “our minds wide enough to risk hearing what we do not want to hear” (186). Lastly, he says that we need to be expectant that the word will be a light and will be effective to change.
Not only does the pastor need to study the Bible, but he also needs to engage and study the culture in which he is a part. For example, Stott points out that reading a weekly newspaper has done much to help him see the culture and to have ample illustrations for his sermons. He also urges us to join or start a Christian reading group to read popular books and watch important new films and discuss their cultural significance, giving us insight into those we desire to reach. He says that these groups have “not only increased our understanding of the modern world, but excited our compassion for human beings in their lostness and despair, confirmed our Christian faith, and rekindled our sense of Christian mission” (196). In regard to the logistics of having a time for study Stott suggests something that has helped him all throughout his time as a preacher. He has set aside one day a week, one day a month and one week a year for time to study, pray and reflect on the message to be preached (204).
Chapter six focuses on preparing sermons. Stott gives the preacher six steps to follow in sermon preparation. His first is to choose the text. He gives much practical advice that is good for the preacher to consider in selecting a text. A pastor can use the liturgy to help him select a text, an event in the life of the nation or culture, a pastoral consideration from what he is sensing in the congregation, or a personal issue the pastor is learning from himself. Each of these can be taken into consideration in selecting a text to preach on. Secondly, he says the preacher ought to meditate on the sermon text. He gives two questions to ask: what does it mean and what does it say (221)? After meditating on the text, he suggests that pastors isolate the dominant thought of the passage. “One of the chief ways in which a sermon differs from a lecture is that it aims to convey only one major message” (225). The final steps are to arrange your material to serve the dominant thought, add an introduction and conclusion, and to spend time praying over and reading the sermon.
The last two chapters focus on the manner of the pastor. He is to be four things: sincere, earnest, courageous and humble. On being sincere, he gives the example of Billy Graham who came to England in 1954. Stott wondered to himself why 12,000 people every night for three months would come to see Billy Graham yet many of England’s churches were half full. His conclusion is that Billy Graham lived what he preached (270). This is the picture of sincerity that Stott is thinking of. To be earnest is to feel what we say. He points out many examples of previous preachers who would cry over lost souls. In his discussion about being courageous, Stott argues that we should not be afraid to deal with the difficult subjects in the Bible, but we should deal with them in a balanced viewpoint. He quotes John Newton as saying that the point of preaching is “to break a hard heart and to heal a broken heart” (314). He closes his book discussing the humility of the preacher. We are to be humble in submitting ourselves to Scripture and the work of the spirit, and to glory in Christ.
Stott’s book is a strong call to Biblical preaching and includes many things that should challenge any preacher who reads it. His exhortation for us to submit to the Word is an important foundation for the preacher and any who call themselves Christian. Finally, his call for us to engage the world with Scripture by building bridges is central in the spread of the gospel.
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