Practical Tips for Expository Preachers

There are a variety of methods for sermon preparation and delivery. There is no one way to do it. Everyone is unique and different. Alistair Begg shares five tips that he learned from an older minister when he was a theological student:

1. Think yourself empty. Survey a passage of Scripture in the proper spirit of unlearnedness. Avoid the proud assumption that you initially know what everything means.

2. Read yourself full. Read widely and regularly.

3. Write yourself clear. Aside from the essential empowering of the Spirit, freedom of delivery in the pulpit depends on careful organization in the study.

4. Pray yourself hot. Without personal prayer and communion with God during the preparation stages, the pulpit will be cold.

5. Be yourself, but don't preach yourself. There is nothing quite so ridiculous as the affected tone and adopted posture of the preacher who wishes he were someone else. Also - a good teacher clears the way, declares the way, and then gets out of the way.

From Preaching for God's Glory by Alistair Begg.

Alistair Begg serves as the senior pastor of Parkside Church in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. He has been in pastoral ministry since 1975 and served eight years in Scotland at both Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh and Hamilton Baptist Church. He has written several books and is heard daily on the radio program Truth For Life. He and his wife, Susan, have three grown children and eight grandchildren.