Preaching Today

Preaching and teaching the Word of God is absolutely vital for the life and health of the church – and for the salvation of souls.  It is God’s will to save “those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached” (1 Cor 1:21).  It is as we “Preach the Word” that believers will be encouraged, fed and transformed throughout their lives (2 Tim 4:2).
 

But it is not just any preaching that will do.  Preaching which is irrelevant, boring, high brow and is pushing men’s ideas at the expense of the Word of God is going to help no one, get a bad name for the church and an even worse name for preaching.

We need preaching that really does proclaim (preach) the Word of God right into the hearts, minds, lives and situations of people TODAY; preaching that will exalt the Lord Jesus and change lives and the land for His glory; preaching that will be spiritually gripping and will stick with people as they face life in all its complexities and challenges.

We want to help those who are just starting out along the daunting path of preaching the Word of God.  We also want to support preachers who have been doing this for years but are still willing to learn and develop in fellowship with others.  And if you are somewhere between these two extremes, this group will also be an enormous help to you!  We believe in a commitment to life-long learning when it comes to this amazing responsibility of teaching others the Word of God.  It doesn’t matter whether you are a full-time gospel servant, preaching every week, or whether you have a full-time secular job and only preach occasionally: this course, Preaching Today, is for you if you want to develop your ability to open the Word of God to people and to open people to the Word of God.

This group is open to both men and women.  On the basis of the Bible we do not believe in women preaching to a group which has men in it.  However, we do believe that women have a very valid and important ministry of preaching to other women and teaching the Scriptures to them.  We would want to encourage such a ministry in our churches and are very happy to help women who are, or may become, involved in this ministry to handle the Word of God faithfully.

Tutors:

Martin Woodier, Pastor of Bethel Evangelical Church, Otley & Ilkley

Steven Bowers, Pastor of Brighouse Evangelical Church

Jonathan Bond, Pastor of Jennyfield Evangelical Church, Harrogate

Preaching Today will focus on the three areas which are vital to preaching:

1.  Understanding the Bible Hermeneutics – Exegesis

2.   Getting the Message
Homiletics – Exposition

3.   Preaching the Message Communication - Presentation

Where? When?

How Much?

At home each month you will read a manageable section from two books: Dig Deeper (Nigel Beynon and Andrew Sach), which will help with hermeneutics, and Preaching with Purpose (Jay E Adams) which will focus on homiletics.  We will then have an evening together each month which will be split into the three sections mentioned, discussing what we have read from the books and adding new material.  To help us look at communication and presentation we will circulate recordings of preachers from within the group for people to listen to ahead of the meeting, and then we will have a structured feedback session in small groups.