Deep Preaching: Creating Sermons that Go Beyond the Superficial
Overview
J. Kent Edwards recalls a story that late pastor J. Vernon McGee told about seeing children in South Africa playing a game of marbles in the dust with real diamonds. The precious stones were being handled with no regard for their true worth. Edwards fears the same thing happens today when preachers offer Scriptural truth to listeners without being completely overwhelmed by its greatness themselves in the process.
Deep Preaching is his call to "rethink" preaching. Edwards helps preachers learn to preach the word in ways that will powerfully change the lives of hearers. He contends that sermons "need not settle comfortably on the lives of the listeners like dust on a coffee table." He encourages preachers to join him in casting off the lines that moor their ministries to the status-quo and make every effort to steer their preaching out of the "comfortable shallows." He urges them to preach deep sermons rather than superficial ones, moving "beyond the yawn-inspiring to the awe-inspiring, from the trite to the transforming."
Top Highlights
“The first step to become a deep preacher is to place preaching as your top pastoral priority.” (source)
“We make our priorities and then our priorities make us.” (source)
“The priority you place on your preaching will determine, more than any other factor, how deep you preach.” (source)
“We are called to tell people what God thinks as revealed in the biblical text” (source)
“As Charles Hodge, the great Princeton theologian wrote, inspiration is ‘the supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit on selected individuals which rendered them the instruments of God for the infallible communication of his mind and will.” (source)
- Title: Deep Preaching: Creating Sermons that Go Beyond the Superficial
- Author: J. Kent Edwards
- Publisher: B&H
- Print Publication Date: 2009
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Preaching
- ISBNs: 9781430076636, 9781433668463, 9780805446951, 1433668467, 0805446958, 1430076631
- Resource ID: LLS:9781433668463
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-06T20:43:00Z
Dr. Kent Edwards’ ambition is to change people’s lives with the Word of God and equip others to do the same. Dr. Edwards is known for his passion for preaching, and brings over 30 years of Christian leadership experience, both as a senior pastor and a church planter. He is a popular conference and seminar speaker and regularly lectures nationally and internationally.
Dr. Edwards is the tenured professor of preaching and leadership at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University; the founding pastor of Oasis Community Church in Yorba Linda, California; and the founder and president of CrossTalk Global. He directed the Doctor of Ministry programs at Talbot School of Theology and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary for 13 years while serving as executive board member of the Association for Doctor of Ministry Education, as well as founder and editor of The Journal of Christian Ministry. Dr. Edwards is past president of the Evangelical Homiletics Society, and the author of two award-winning books: Effective First-Person Biblical Preaching (Zondervan, 2005) and Deep Preaching (Broadman & Holman, 2009).
Dr. Edwards earned his Bachelor of Theology from Ambrose University, his MDiv from Tyndale Seminary, his DMin from Denver Seminary, and his PhD in intercultural education from Biola University. His DMin dissertation focused on communicating Old Testament narrative literature, while his PhD dissertation was on effective intercultural leadership.
Dr. Edwards has been married to his wife, Nola, for 32 years. They have two sons, Nathan (25) and Jonathan (22).