Legacy of Preaching: Charles Simeon, Rodney "Gipsy" Smith
John Jasper, John Albert Broadus
e e e Charles Simeon's preaching career lasted fifty-four years, mostly at the
Trinity Church in Cambridge, England.1 Simeon Saw a need for homiletics for
the church, so he began documenting and keeping notes for how he
prepared for and developed skills to prepare for preaching. The structural
diagram skill, from McDill's text, is the one that most closely associated with
one of Simeon's methods for sermon preparation. He would build an outline
or "skeleton" from which Simeon would build his sermon and preach from
that.2 Working from the skeleton, Simeon would determine the scope and
meaning of the text, how the passage should be divided and discussed, and
then would work to an application.3 One can see other shades of McDill's
skills within Simeon's approach to sermon preparation, but the skeleton was
the backbone of his perparations for his sermons. Much like the structural
diagram, this would assist Simeon in properly showing how a text could be
treated naturally in its proper context.4
e e e Rodny "Gipsy" Smith had a seventy year evangelistic career that
spanned five continents.5 Rodney was raised in a British Romanichal Gypsy
culture, which relied heavily on orality and oral traditions.6 He was a self-
taught preacher who initially only utilized the Bible, an English dictionary, and
a Bible dictionary for his education.7 In most of his methodology and
practice in preaching, Smith did not use any of McDill's first six skills when
preparing for sermons. Smith admittedly had somewhat of a disdain for
sermon notes and did not see any value in enumeration, which was common
in his day.8 Smith relied on his charisma, his oratory skill and had an
undaunting reliance on the Holy Spirit and the power of the message found
within the ross, repentance and atonement through Christ crucified.9
e e e John Jasper was a slave in and around Richmond, Virginia, who was
bought by a wealthy business man and deacon of the Baptist Church of
Richmond, whose name was Samuel Hardgrove.10 While working for Hargrove
in 1839, at the age of 27, Jasper would make a commitment to serve
Christ.11 Upon his conversion Jasper began to learn to read and write with
the assistance of a slave preacher named William Johnson.12 Jasper would
develop a reputation as a capable and influential preacher to blacks and
whites, respectively. Jasper did not rely heavily on any kind o homiletic
methodology, but rather focused on preaching a narrative story infused with
emotive and persuasive speech, with the intention of pointing to a future
with Christ, who is the "kinder, gentler and caring" master.13
e e e John Albert Broadus was a seminary professor, president and one of
the 19th century's most influential contributors to sermon preparation and
delivery.14 While teaching and presiding over the Baptist Southern Theological
Seminary, Broadus would use his experiences and teaching opportunities to
write A Treatise on the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons.15 It could be
argued that Broadus used all six of the skills found in McDill's text, but the
three that jump out are the structural diagram, research questions, and
bridging the text to sermon idea. His value of grammatical method of
exposition and the use of a logical way of working through sermon text
seems to reflect the structural diagram.16 And his value of having knowledge
of the original languages and a vigorous historical analysis of the text, point
toward the a great deal of importance being placed on research.17 Broadus
believed that preaching should be applicational and that application should be
consistent through out a sermon.18 The idea of providing application from the
biblical text to the sermon begins to happen through the text idea, sermon
idea and purpose statement found in the bridging the text sermon idea skill.
I would not be surprised if some of McDill's methodology has been
influenced by Broadus's work.
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e e e e e e e e e e 1Forrest, King, Curtis and Milioni, editors., A Legacy of Preaching:
Enlightenment to the Preesent Day Vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 38-39.
e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e 2Forrest, King, Curtis and Milioni, A Legacy. 45.
e e e e e e e e e e e e 3Ibid. 47.
e e e e e e e e e e e e 4Ibid. 40, 42.
e e e e e e e e e e e e 5Ibid. 139.
e e e e e e e e e e e e e 6Ibid. 125.
e e e e e e e e e e e e 7Ibid.
e e e e e e e e e e e e 8Ibid. 135.
e e e e e e e e e e e e 9Ibid. 134.
e e e e e e e e e e e e 10Ibid. 181.
e e e e e e e e e e e e 11Ibid. 182.
e e e e e e e e e e e e 12Ibid.
e e e e e e e e e e e e 12Ibid. 189, 191.
e e e e e e e e e e e e 14Ibid. 211.
e e e e e e e e e e e e 15Ibid. 214.
e e e e e e e e e e e e 16Ibid, 221.
e e e e e e e e e e e e 17Ibid. 222.
e e e e e e e e e e e e 18Ibid. 223.
e e e e e e e
