Being a chaplain for the Salvation Army myself, I was very interested in
reading about Catherine Booth. I had read some about her husband
William but not much on her. I believe that she had good, strong, and well
written sermons. Catherine’s sermons “began with a biblical text and a
challenging title.”[1]&This relates to McDill’s fourth skill naming the text
idea. I also believe that Catherine Booth did an excellent job with McDill’s
fifth skill, bridging from text to sermon. Catherine took some difficult
concepts from the Bible and made them understandable to her listeners.
She preached on sanctification, holiness, and restoration. These topics are
sometimes difficult to understand, yet as she put them into her sermon
she made them understandable to the public.
&&&&&&&&&&& Robert M ’Cheyne also was able to bridge the text to the sermon
as well as diagram his text structure. Although it is not exactly like
McDill’s he did write his sermon out and had one central theme. M
‘Cheyne preached mainly on the glory and greatness of Christ as Christ is
the main thing in the gospel. He lived only 29 years but his legacy lives
on.
&&&&&&&&&&& Philips Brooks stated that “Preaching is the communication of truth
by man to man. It has in two essential elements, truth, and personality.
Neither of those can it spare and still be preaching.”[2]&Brooks wanted to
take truths from the Bible and personalize them so his listeners could
understand the context and content of the text. He wanted his listeners to
know God on a personal level. One of McDill’s stages he uses is naming
the text, which asks the preacher to decide on one topic and use that to
build the sermon on. Brooks did this very well.
&&&&&&&&&&& The last preacher I read was Billy Sunday. I enjoyed reading about
him and was amazed at the number of people who heard him speak and
who were influenced by him. Sunday was a professional baseball player
turned preacher who had never taken a course in theology. He spoke
about Christ and believed that faith in Christ was the answer to
everything. I think that Billy Sunday was masterful at bridging the text to
the sermon by using direct biblical authority and making his idea and his
purpose the same. He delivered powerful sermons around the country and
supposedly was heard by millions without the use of television, radio, or
any other device we may use now.
&
[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: 98]
[2]&Ibid. 230
