To accomplish the God-honoring goal of preaching, we must start early! This is the welcomed advice of Bruce Mawhinney in Preaching with Freshness, Eugene: Harvest House Publishers, 1991, p. 41) (click to open). “Early exegesis helps to prevent late eisegesis.” Bruce Mawhinney is senior pastor of New Covenant Fellowship in Mechanicsburg and writes one of the most refreshing books on preaching I have ever read. Preaching with Freshness is a first-person narrative on reviving stale preaching. Howard Hendricks said, "If more books on preaching were as interesting as this, then perhaps we would have more interesting preachers."
The following posts are an overview of the preparation process. We want to start early and with the end in view.
Step One: Choose the passage
Step Two: Study the passage
Step Three: Discover the main point of the passage
Step Four: Construct the sermon outline
Step Five: Develop the sermon outline
Step Six: Write the introduction
Step Seven: Write the conclusion
Step Eight: Preach so people will listen
In my next post, we will discuss the first step: Choose The Passage.