J. Kent Edwards - Deep Preaching: Creating Sermons that Go Beyond the Superficial

Too often, preaching is done with technical competence but without the passion and depth that come from meaningful time spent with God and His Word. In Deep Preaching, Kent Edwards reminds us why we preach and offers powerful insights about developing and preaching sermons that go far beyond the superficial. Edwards offers preachers practical counsel for digging deeper as they proclaim God's Word and reminds us that ultimately the power of a sermon depends on the work of the Holy Spirit. Anyone who preaches will find much of value in this volume.

Michael Duduit

Editor, Preaching magazine

Dean, Graduate School of Ministry & Professor of Christian Ministry at

Anderson University in Anderson, SC.

It is a joy to recommend Deep Preaching: Creating Sermons That Go Beyond the Superficial. Dr. Edwards's emphasis on getting back to the original truth-intention of the biblical authors in the biblical text and his urging that we do expository preaching are two of my favorite encouragements for preachers and teachers today. Those who practice the suggestions made in Deep Preaching will surely help end the enormous famine of the Word of God in our day.

Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.

President Emeritus, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, S. Hamilton, MA

Deep Preaching is the most practical book on preaching that I have ever read. It takes its readers on a journey that reveals the art of exegeting and creatively communicating the Scriptures. I know no other book on preaching that does this as well. It stands out from the others.

Dan Kimball

Author, They Like Jesus But Not the Church

This book is a powerful extension of homiletic theory beyond the seminary classroom and the study and into preachers' prayer closets and people's living rooms. It explains how to connect the Big Ideas of God's Story both to my own story and the stories of the people who sit in front of me each Sunday. This book will change how I do sermon preparation, the ultimate test of any preaching book. It truly is a gift from God.

Michael Krause

Teaching Pastor, Southridge Community Church, St. Catharines, ON Canada

Deep Preaching speaks with strength both to the skills of preaching and the soul of the preacher. Read this book with an open heart and mind, and you will grow significantlyas I didin your ministry of the Word.

Brian Larsen

Editor, PreachingToday.com

Anchored in Scripture and church history yet richly illustrated in today's idiom, Deep Preaching goes beyond the tasks of exegesis and homiletics to the core of effective preachingthe soul of the preacher. Dr. Edwards masterfully weaves the fundamentals of sermon preparation and delivery together with the preacher's closet work so that the text invades and reshapes not only the mind but also the soul. Congregations yearn for sermons that in their preparation have first changed the heart of the preacher. This book provides a dependable road map to that end.

Alice P. Matthews, Ph.D.

Academic Dean and Lois W. Bennett Distinguished Emerita Professor of Educational

Ministries and Women's Ministries, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

Professor Kent Edwards's engaging book Deep Preaching masterfully takes the reader on a journey into both the philosophy and practice of effective preaching. As important as these aspects are, the unique contribution of the book is the specific, practical, thoughtful advice it proffers about how to bring the Holy Spirit into the process of understanding and preaching the biblical text. This alone is worth the price of the book.

J. P. Moreland,

Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Talbot School of Theology

and author of The God Question

Deep Preaching is not another book of homiletical gimmicks to entertain your people. This is about their transformation through deep preaching. But this kind of preaching comes only through a high cost to preachers, in what Kent Edwards insightfully describes as our closet work. My exegesis students will all read this book, because it is an indispensable guide to the process of moving from a deep understanding of the biblical text, to a deep personal renewal by the Spirit of God, to a deep communication of the truths of Scripture, so that the Spirit produces deep transformation in the lives our people. This is a desperately needed book in an age of much shallow preaching.

Michael J. Wilkins (PhD)

Distinguished Professor of New Testament Language and Literature

Dean of the Faculty, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University

In a time when sermons can be well prepared and polished but superficial, Kent Edwards calls us to Deep Preaching. The section on closet work is an outstanding matrix for looking deep into God's Word and deep into the preacher's heart and mind to assure we are preaching our very best.

Dr. George O. Wood

General Superintendent, Assemblies of God

Contents

Dedication

To Haddon W. Robinson.
My friend, my mentor
and the deepest preacher I know.

Acknowledgements

Great thanks to my wife Nola and my sons Nathan and Jonathan, whose sacrifice allowed me to focus on writing this book.

Thanks to my deans, Dr. Dennis Dirks and Dr. Mike Wilkins at Talbot School of Theology for the sabbatical that made the writing of this book achievable. Thanks also to the elders and congregation at Woodland Hills Church for listening to parts of this book as sermons and giving me the space I needed to pour my heart into the pages of this book.

Many thanks also to Teri Wareing for going out of her way, on so many occasions, to read this manuscript in its entirety make so many insightful suggestions. Thanks also to Jeremiah Ebeling, Daniel Eng and Kris Cash for all the assistance you gave to this project.

A tip of the hat is owed to the folks at B&H Academic as well. I'm indebted to Jim Baird for believing in the value of this project (when no-one else did) and to Terry Wilder for seeing it through to the end!

Special appreciation to Mike Krause. I value your honesty, integrity and passion for communicating God's word. Your comments, questions and suggestions were greatly appreciated. And I'm proud of all that you have allowed God to do through you so far!

May, 2009 Yorba Linda, California.

Beyond an A

I t was one of the worst experiences I have ever had in the classroom. I was standing at the back of the classroom, ensconced in a soundproof booth, listening on headphones to one of my students preaching a sermon to the class.

I have taught preaching for years and, in the process, listened to hundreds of beginning sermons. I can assure you that listening to a beginning preacher's first sermon is work. It's like screening a young Steven Spielberg's first attempt at filmmaking. You are pretty sure that his future films are going to get better, but what you are watching on the screen right now is not going to win an Academy Award.