Being a woman in ministry, I felt comfort in reading about a woman who followed the
calling of God to preach His Word during a time when women were not encouraged to be
in ministry. I felt that she also used the skill of bridging the text to sermon. The reason
behind this is that Catherine based her sermons upon the authority of the Scriptures. "The
theological framework for Catherine Booth’s preaching was clearly from her commitment
to the authority of the Scriptures. She was a serious student of the Bible all her life and
was attentive to the teachings of the Bible in her own life."1 f She used this as the basis of
her sermons, bringing biblical authority from the text to her audience. According to
McDill, "the sermon has direct biblical authority when its central idea and purpose are the
same as that of the text."2 I find it interesting to see the different skills that each of these
preachers used in their sermons. Again, great job on your post.
f f f I also chose B.H. Carroll. Carroll was concerned with aiding the “hearer to
comprehend the appropriate explanation and interpretation of the text; he was less
concerned with the application of the text.”[1] Carroll’s textual emphasis governed all
facets of his “sermon introduction.”[2] While many preaching theories argue that the
sermon should be centered around a purpose statement early in the sermon, he rarely
utilized such statements.”[3] Carroll’s sermons were an “outgrowth of his approach to the
Bible; he understood the Bible to be God’s inspired word.”[4] Carroll’s fundamental
interest in each sermon was that “his listener came to a proper understanding of the
biblical text in its original context.”[5] His entire homiletical methodology is centered on
his approach to the biblical text; as a result, Carroll’s approach to preaching was
dominated by the biblical text.”[6] Carroll constructed his sermons around a “single text
and developed much of his sermons from other texts like expository preachers; he sought
to consistently explain the text in context, even when this meant he ended up explaining a
multitude of texts in a sermon.”[7] This is reflected in McDill’s model skill four,
“inductive study of the text.”[8]. f I found it extremely difficult to find a skill that Rodney
"Gipsy" Smith utilized from the McDill skill set. My conclusion was that Smith did not
really show any reflections of the skills that McDill teaches. However, if you read the
reply to my discussion board post by Mrs. Pamela, I think that you will find her insights
very helpful. Smith most definitely utilized a form of bridging the text to sermon skill.
The Forrest, King and Curtis text states that the most effective part of Smith's sermons
were the illustrations that he used, and that his sermons were filled with these
illustrations.Skill number five, bridging the text to sermon, McDill explains why one need
to provide a sermon idea statement and a text idea statement. When explaining why there
is a need for two different statments, McDill suggests that one of the particulars of the
sermon, built from the sermon idea statement, is the use of illustrations, which provide
the theological principle of the text for the contemporary audience.2 This was how Smith
made a personal and emotional connection with his audience in order to influence their
hearts toward the Gospel message.
1 Benjamin K Forrest, Kevin L. King and William J. Curtis , A Legacy of Preaching,
Volume Two: Enlightenment to the Present Day (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2019), 91.
2 Wayne McDill, 12 Essential Skills for Great Preaching (B & H Publishing Group,
2015), 86.
Forrest, Benjamin, K, Kevin L. King, Bill Curtis, and Dwane Milioni. A Legacy of
Preaching: Enlightenment to The Present Day: Volume Two. Nashville: Zondervan, 2018.
McDill, Wayne. 12 Essentials for Great Preaching. Nashville, TN: B & H Academic, f f f f f
f f f f f 2010.
[1]Benjamin, K. Forrest, Kevin L. King, Bill Curtis, and Dwayne Milioni. A Legacy of
Preaching: Enlightenment to the Present Day: Volume Two (Nashville, Zondervan,
2018,262.
[2] Ibid.,265.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.,263.
[5] Ibid.,264.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.,269
[8] Wayne McDill, 12 Essential Skills for Great Preaching (Nashville, TN: B & H
Academic, 2010), 75
