Category: Preaching

Book Review: Karl Barth: The Word in this World: Two Sermons

Post author By Andy Rowell
Post date July 7, 2010

Karl Barth: The Word in this World: Two Sermons
This slim volume has some great introductory material about the two sermons (Eberhard Busch, Will Willimon, Clifford Anderson) and great blurbs which serve as more introductory material (Geoffrey Bromiley, Donald McKim, James Strauss, Dieter Zellweger). The first sermon in the volume Barth later found embarrassing because the sinking of the Titanic was more of a focus than Scripture. The second is in Barth's classic expositional style but it is also inspiring. The text is Jesus walking on the water and Peter going out to him.

Here is a quote:

"What is required–what Jesus Christ continually requires–are rocks like this who are certainly not perfectly untainted people, who are perhaps seriously objectionable in many ways and will have much to answer for, but are nevertheless ready to do something quite specific, to render obedience to a specific word by undertaking a specific service." Karl Barth, "The Bremen Sermon (Matthew 14:22-23)," in The Word in this World: Two Sermons by Karl Barth (ed. Kurt I. Johanson; trans. Christopher Asprey; Vancouver, BC: Regent College Publishing, 2007), 55.

It made me want to preach. Add this to my recommendation of God in Action: Theological Addresses as a good introduction to Barth.

See my Karl Barth category for more on Barth.

Will Willimon on intellectual curiosity, theology, preaching and communion

Post author By Andy Rowell
Post date October 22, 2009
1 Comment on Will Willimon on intellectual curiosity, theology, preaching and communion

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to meet Will Willimon today. Probably everyone who reads my blog has their own pastor/scholar heroes. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lesslie Newbigin, Eugene Peterson, and Will Willimon are some of mine.

Today I had the opportunity to hear him interact with some Duke
Divinity School students in Ken Carder’s Introduction to Christian
Ministry course (of which I served as the Teaching Assistant last
year).

Here were three of my favorite ideas Willimon shared today:

“As a pastor, it helps to be an intellectual. Amidst the ordinary, getting excited about ideas helps.”
“By
their 50’s, pastors need theologians. Ministry is too dangerous, too
peculiarly demanding. At that point, you need more than just liking
people.”
“Some biblical texts are all gospel or all law. I preach them in their onesidedness and then let communion balance it out.”

Willimon was Dean of Duke Chapel for 20 years and had now been a United Methodist Church bishop in Alabama for five years. He blogs at http://willimon.blogspot.com/ and has two new books out.

The Early Preaching of Karl Barth: Fourteen Sermons with Commentary by William H. Willimon by Karl Barth and William Willimon (Paperback – Sep 2, 2009)

Undone by Easter: Keeping Preaching Fresh by William H. Willimon (Paperback – Oct 2009)

See also Bishop Willimon’s Podcast — The iTunes link will only work if you have iTunes, which is free program that works on PC’s and Macs, installed on your computer.

Audio Ecclesiology Pastor's Life Pastoral Care Preaching Tim Keller Willow Creek Community Church

Tim Keller on Willow Creek, ecclesiology, and preaching

Post author By Andy Rowell
Post date October 22, 2009

I highly recommend New York City pastor Tim Keller's first two blog posts:

The "Kingly" Willow Creek Conference

He describes Willow Creek as "kingly", Reformed as "prophetic", and emerging as "priestly." I agreed with him–giving a couple lengthy comments–trying to show that the "kingly" has particular strength with regard to evangelism.

I had previously interacted with Keller about large church vs. small church ecclesiology in the comments of David Fitch's blog in December THREE QUESTIONS FOR THE ATTRACTIONAL PRACTICIONERS WHO QUESTION THE FRUIT OF MISSIONAL: A Response to Dan Kimball

His second post encourages pastors to be involved doing pastoral care and not just preaching.

Preacher-Onlys Aren't Good Preachers

He writes

I pastor a church with a large staff and so I give 15+ hours
a week to preparing the sermon. I would not advise younger ministers to spend
so much time, however. When I was a pastor without a staff I put in 6-8 hours
on a sermon. If you put in too much time in your study on your sermon you put
in too little time being out with people as a shepherd and a leader. Ironically,
this will make you a poorer preacher.

I also thoroughly enjoyed Keller's thoughts on preaching at

Gordon Conwell's PulpitTalk – Volume 5. Spring 2007 – Preaching to the Heart.

Preaching to the Heart by Tim Keller. Pastor's Builders Series- Audio Resource.
Unintentional Preaching Models by Tim Keller. Notes from Pastor's Forum Seminar.
Reading and Preparation by Tim Keller. Notes from Pastor's Forum Seminar.

There he talked about how he plans sermons far ahead of time, reads lots of newspapers and books, and believes it takes 3,000 sermons to become a good preacher. He says he did less preparation in his early years of preaching. He only decided to make his preparation more tight after he had to preach multiple times the same sermon. He talked about liking:

Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon by Bryan Chapell (Hardcover – Mar 1, 2005)

but likes to put the theological aspect at the end of the sermon after the application.

They have also just recently announced that 150 Keller sermons are now available on the Redeemer website for free. Free Sermon Resource.

The June cover story of Christianity Today profiled Keller: How Tim Keller Found Manhattan
The pastor of Redeemer Church is becoming an international figure
because he's a local one. By Tim Stafford | posted 6/05/2009 09:47AM

He has three books: