Legacy of Preaching: Charles Simeon, Rodney "Gipsy" Smith
John Jasper, John Albert Broadus
g g g g 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
g g g g 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
g g g g 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
g g g g 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.
g g g g g g g g g g
g g g g g g g g g g 1Forrest, King, Curtis and Milioni, editors., A Legacy of Preaching: Enlightenment
to the Preesent Day Vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 38-39.
g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g 2Forrest, King, Curtis and Milioni, A Legacy. 45.
g g g g g g g g g g g g 3Ibid. 47.
g g g g g g g g g g g g 4Ibid. 40, 42.
g g g g g g g g g g g g 5Ibid. 139.
g g g g g g g g g g g g 6Ibid. 125.
g g g g g g g g g g g 7Ibid.
g g g g g g g g g g g g 8Ibid. 135.
g g g g g g g g g g g g 9Ibid. 134.
g g g g g g g g g g g g 10Ibid. 181.
g g g g g g g g g g g g 11Ibid. 182.
g g g g g g g g g g g g 12Ibid.
g g g g g g g g g g g g 12Ibid. 189, 191.
g g g g g g g g g g g g 14Ibid. 211.
g g g g g g g g g g g g 15Ibid. 214.
g g g g g g g g g g g g 16Ibid, 221.
g g g g g g g g g g g g 17Ibid. 222.
g g g g g g g g g g g g 18Ibid. 223.
g g g g g g g
