Preach It - Softcover

Briscoe, D. Stuart

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0764426443 ISBN 13: 9780764426445

Publisher: Group Pub Inc, 2003

Synopsis

Who wouldn't want to be an all-around better preacher? Here are vital tips and ideas written in a light and humorous way by a seasoned, successful preacher. Great for new pastors, seminary students, or any pastor who is feeling overwhelmed. A practical primer!

About this title

About the Author

Stuart Briscoe was born in Millom, Cumbria, England, and began preaching at the age of seventeen. In 1970, he became senior pastor of Elmbrook Church, near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served there for 33 years, building it into the leading church it is today. Briscoe has authored dozens of books and is in demand for his preaching and teaching around the world.

From the Back Cover

Turn Survival Into Success With This Guide to Preaching

Who wouldn't want to be an all-around better preacher? Here are vital tips and ideas that are great for new pastors, seminary students, or any pastor who is feeling overwhelmed!

"Nothing, absolutely nothing, is more needed in the church today than powerful preaching of God's Word. Here a powerful preacher shares both his heart and his secrets, in ways that are helpful to anyone entering the pulpit." -Os Guinness, author of The Call

"If you read only one book on preaching, this one should be it! I couldn't put it down! Stuart Briscoe is refreshingly honest, uncompromisingly truthful, practically helpful, personally relevant, and totally encouraging to those who strive to just 'Preach It.'" -Anne Graham Lotz

"Stuart Briscoe is one of the greatest preachers of our time, and I am so glad that he has given us the gift of Preach It! What a treasure of wisdom and insight! This wonderful book is stimulating and practical, and it will move your heart. If you take preaching seriously, then this book is for you!" -Dr. Crawford W. Loritts, Jr., Author, Preacher, Radio Host, Associate Director, Campus Crusade For Christ, U.S.A.

"While many of us are called to preach, there are few who show us how! Stuart Briscoe is a mentor par-excellence to all of us 'want-to-be-better' preachers." -Dr. Joseph M. Stowell, President, Moody Bible Institute

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1 "Preach It, Lad, Preach It!"

Fifty-five years ago I preached my first sermon. And nobody was more surprised than I. At the tender age of seventeen, I had recently left high school and embarked upon a career in banking courtesy of the District Bank, a British financial institution that initially paid me a pittance but promised me a good pension forty-eight years hence! So I was, apparently, settled for life like the other men in the branch, many of whom had been keenly anticipating retirement for almost forty years. But God had other plans. Having been transferred far from home by the bank, I attended a small church as a stranger and was startled when a gentleman approached me and asked, "How old are you?"

I replied "Seventeen." "It's time you were preaching," he pronounced confidently. To which I replied timidly, "I can't preach."

He inquired, "Have you ever tried?" When I replied in the negative, he responded with relentless logic, "How, then, do you know you can't do it?" I was duly mortified. But it got worse. "You will preach next Tuesday to the youth group, and your subject is 'The church at Ephesus,' " he informed me with formidable authority. I must confess that although I had spent most of my life in and around churches, I was not aware that they had a church in Ephesus, but I suddenly became an ardent student of that particular corner of "God's vineyard" (an expression I had heard preachers use).

My motivation was less than honorable, of course. My sole concern was to avoid making a fool of myself, but I had an uneasy feeling that it would happen anyway.

The day arrived. A small group of young people gathered. They all wore slightly quizzical expressions as if they were wondering who I was and what I was doing. I had similar questions. Not daring to look at the people or the clock, I buried my nose in my notes, took a deep breath, and with trembling voice began. I knew I was supposed to have three points-I'm still not sure why! So I'd found three, the first one dealing with the church of Ephesus in Acts, the second in Ephesians, and the third in Revelation. In other words, I had prepared a brief summary of the New Testament. Eventually I stole a surreptitious glance at the clock. To my dismay I discovered I was already past finishing time and had only concluded my first point. I blurted, "I'm terribly sorry. I don't know how to stop." At that moment I was treated to a short lecture titled Preaching 101. An elderly gentleman who was apparently there to keep an eye on the proceedings said, "Shut up and sit down!" I did-hurriedly!

I assumed at that juncture that my preaching career had come to an ignominious end, and I found the thought strangely comforting. But no. The gentleman who had put me in the predicament in the first place bore down upon me and said firmly, "You didn't finish."

I responded meekly "no."

Then, to my horror, he added, "Then you'll come back next week and finish it!"

So I did, but I made sure I finished that time around, and with a great sense of relief I stepped down from the platform, ready to enjoy my well-earned retirement from preaching. Wrong again.

My tormentor told me, "There are lots of little Methodist churches around here, and they don't have preachers, so I've put your name on the Methodist circuit, and you will lead their services and preach for them." I inquired what I should do, and he pointed out that as I'd spent most of my life in church services up to that point, I should know what to do.

No Early Retirement With that helpful advice carefully stored away, I embarked on something I'd had no intention of doing. Many Sunday afternoons found me pedaling my bicycle through the country lanes to picturesque Methodist chapels where a handful of godly farmers, having already done a day's work, were seated expectantly on hard benches. They had stoked up the wood-burning stove to inferno temperatures, eaten heartily, and squeezed themselves into the suits they'd been married in thirty years earlier. They were candidates for a Sunday afternoon snooze-and it was my job to deny them.

They loved the Lord, and they loved the Word, and they loved to hear it preached, and they wonderfully encouraged one shy, timid teenager who had been thrust reluctantly into their pulpit. "Aye, tha's right, lad," they would shout when I said something of which they approved. "Did you hear that?" they would ask one another, turning in the pews and punching one another awake. "Preach it, lad, preach it! Lord, help him to preach it!" And he did!

Edition details

• Publisher: Group Pub Inc
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0764426443
• ISBN 13: 9780764426445
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192