Prepare Self, Before Sermon
February 24, 2009
“No book on a minister’s philosophy of preaching is complete without pausing to look at the preacher himself….The preacher must be a man who is characterised by spirituality in an unusual degree..The preacher’s first, and most important task is to prepare himself, not his sermon.”
(Martyn Lloyd Jones, quoted in Tony Sargent, The Sacred Anointing, p90)
I have been going through Philip Doddridge’s “Rise and PRogress of Religion in the Soul” over the past month and have gotten stuck (in a positive way) on Chapter XIV in which Doddridge lists several questions for self-examination–very good way to begin to how one prepares the preacher (or the elder or deacon). The book is directed a everyday Christians but I am afraid too few of us in leadership have done this work well or consistently.
love needed to proclaim His word