Faithful Preaching

What is a preacher? What is preaching? Pastor Tony Merida asks these foundational questions to arrive at this overview of his widely anticipated book, Faithful Preaching: “Faithful preaching is the responsible, passionate, and authentic declaration of the Christ-exalting Scriptures, by the power of the Spirit, for the glory of the Triune God. Expository preaching is the best approach for accurately explaining and applying God’s Word, and for maintaining a God-centered focus in preaching. It also offers wonderful spiritual benefits to both the preacher and congregation. To be faithful expositors today, we must avoid the common problems associated with expository preaching such as boredom, irrelevancy, and Christless messages. Faithful preachers will usher the people through the text passionately and authentically, pointing them to Christ.”

In this unique resource, Fr. Michael E. Connors, CSC, gathers and expertly guides the collective wisdom of experienced preachers and homilists to provide a unique resource that examines the preacher’s unique role as shepherd and a spiritual leader. The chapters will investigate these dual roles according to the roots of the Catholic spiritual tradition and provide practical advice for priests, deacons, seminarians in homiletics classes or preaching classes, retreat leaders, RCIA catechists—all who preach. Preaching as Spiritual Leadership provides solutions to the following questions: How is preaching embedded in the Church’s pastoral mission? What does it mean to be a shepherd and spiritual leader for others? How can a preacher flourish in the role of spiritual leader? How can we lead others into committed discipleship through preaching? To be a shepherd and spiritual leader, the preacher must be in some sense a mystic, who is filled with the Lord’s gracious presence, a presence to be shared with others. Homilists are a sacramental people, they must also be a mystagogues: ministers who can both lead the community’s ritual celebrations, and help the People of God to plunge into the liturgy with lively faith, to touch the holy realities behind them.

"Faithful preaching is the responsible, passionate, and authentic declaration of the Christ-exalting Scriptures, by the power of the Spirit, for the glory of the triune God."--Publisher's Description.

There are few problems in the contemporary church today that can match terrible preaching, and the poor exposition of the word of God. Perkins had much the same problem in his own day and in his own city. In this volume, written specially for ministers, he provides a foundation of bible truths to teach the manner in which ministers may preach effectively and faithfully to their congregations, as well as showing Christians how they may read their bible with profit and understanding. This is a classic work that should be at the side of every preacher and every student of the bible to be read again and again. This work is not a scan or facsimile and has been made easy to read with an active table of contents for electronic versions.

As a pastor, do you feel like you’re wearing too many hats? If you’re a pastor, you know the tension of balancing (or trying to) the many roles and expectations that come with leading a church. But are you able to distinguish which roles are truly essential? And can you measure how you’re fulfilling them? Portraits of a Pastor features contributions from evangelical leaders like Jason Allen, Jared Wilson, Daniel Akin, and Owen Strachan on the essential roles and aspects of pastoral ministry. Together the book answers three important questions: What does it mean for the pastor to hold all nine roles? Why should the pastor fulfill these roles? How can the pastor most faithfully fulfill them? A pastor must be a preacher, shepherd, missionary, evangelist, church historian, theologian, man of God, leader of his household, and leader of others—a tall order! After reading Portraits of a Pastor, you’ll: Have a clearer vision of the roles you should fulfill in the life of your congregation Be inspired to fulfill your calling by growing in new areas of leadership Know the unbiblical visions of pastoral leadership that may distract you from your core calling It’s true: much is demanded of pastors. But it’s also true that too much is demanded of most pastors. Know what God has called you to, how to fulfill that calling, and what may be distracting you from it.

In A Lay Preacher's Guide: How to Craft a Faithful Sermon, Karoline M. Lewis provides lay preachers with an essential and accessible guide to the basics of Sunday morning preaching. Laypeople are increasingly called to serve congregations and are preaching regularly. But often they do not have immediate, reliable, or trusted access to homiletical instruction or support for their preaching. As a result, these church leaders--feeling called to ministry and to preach, and affirmed by denominational leaders to do so--are left on their own to figure out how to preach. In A Lay Preacher's Guide, Lewis gives this unique subset of preachers the foundations of biblical preaching, so they can preach faithfully in their unique contexts. She lays out in a concise and clear format the steps to preaching a faithful sermon, a process that can be immediately applied to weekly sermon preparation. This book is a go-to resource for lay preachers, providing a basic course for faithful preaching.

The Christ-Centered Expositor by pastor and preaching professor Tony Merida provides a comprehensive overview of effective expository preaching that begins with the inner life of the expositor, and then moves to the essential elements of sermon preparation and delivery. Ideal for pastors, teachers, and students, The Christ-Centered Expositor will equip you for greater faithfulness to God, his Word, and his mission.