Three Preachers

My recent reading foray into the life of that great preacher, Charles Spurgeon, finally sent me down memory lane to remembering three preachers who greatly influenced my preaching.  The first to be remembered is John Brokhoff, a preacher and seminary preaching professor.  To remember him is to remember how he always called those of us who were his students to preach the text.  One of his side remarks carried with me through a life time of preaching was, "Your people do not come to hear what you think, they come to hear the Word of God."

A second remembered preacher was just a preacher.  Clark Pafford was a local Methodist pastor who gave me an opportunity to work with him as a summer youth worker.  Knowing that I aspired to preach, he also gave me opportunities to preach.  But, before he allowed me to fill his pulpit on Sunday, he insisted I preach my sermon to empty pews on Saturday night.  Actually, they were not completely empty as he sat there to listen and offer gentle and kind encouragement.  Clark Pafford taught me preaching is verbal communication  and that I needed to hear the sermon before those who sat in the pews heard it on Sunday morning.  Few sermons were preached on Sunday over forty years which were not first preached to empty pews.

 

And, the third preacher who helped shaped this preacher was E. M. Bounds.  He lived long before I was born, but I met him through his writings on prayer.  A collection of his writings on prayer always stayed close when I was preaching Sunday after Sunday.  Bounds wrote in more ways than I can count that a sermon not prayed over is not really prepared.  According to him no preacher is truly prepared until he has held his sermon in his hands and prayed over until it became a part of his heart.  And while, there are others who have given this preacher's preaching direction, these three seem to stand head and shoulders above all the rest in this moment of remembering and being grateful.