I read about John Stott and really liked his style. Stott wanted people to live
to the glory of God in the world. Stott was wondering, especially during the
1960’s and 1970’s¸ when people tended to “do their own thing,” how could
he get people to listen, let alone come inside the church? He also said that
“if our theology is right then we have all the basic insights we need into
what we ought to be doing.”[1]
Although Stott believed that it was important that he must add contemporary
studies to biblical and theological studies in order to preach effectively. I
think that Stott preaches for faith. Stott spoke the Bible around the world,
and he loved to let the scriptures speak for themselves. His most important
contribution to preaching was being able to be faithful to the scriptures even
during the twentieth century, when preaching was not always biblical, and
more and more churches were seeing less and less attendees.
“Jerry Falwell Sr. was first and foremost a pastor and preacher.”[2] His
sermons were filled with words of encouragement, practical application, calls
to action, and a dynamic faith. Falwell was not bothered by his critics. He
became a spiritual giant, even as American morals were eroding, and people
were becoming spiritually adrift. In the 1970’s Falwell was preaching to other
preachers telling them to preach with power, be willing to pay the price,
build great congregations of believers, everything must be bathed in prayer
and penetrate the entire community.
Falwell was not an expository preacher he found a biblical reason for every
problem. I think that Jerry Falwell preached the human experience. he used
expressions of defeat, lack of spiritual nourishment. He wanted his words to
fix the lives of all Christians. Jerry Falwell built a large empire starting with
a church and a college in Lynchburg Virginia. He was also quite active in
politics, while also maintaining a large audience that tuned in each week to
hear or see him on national television. He tried to remain an available and
helpful man as he preached the Bible.
[1] Benjamin K. Forrest, Kevin L. King, Bill Curtis, Dwayne Millioni, Ed. A
Legacy of Preaching : Enlightenment to the Present Day. (Grand Rapids,
Michigan: Zondervan, 2018): 343 h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h
h h
[2] Benjamin K. Forrest, Kevin L. King, Bill Curtis, Dwayne Millioni, Ed. A
Legacy of Preaching : Enlightenment to the Present Day. (Grand Rapids,
Michigan: Zondervan, 2018): 525
