Christians are lifelong students of Christ. Disciples are pupils in the school of the great Teacher. We are constantly learning more about Christ, his salvation, and what it means to follow him in faith. Similarly, preachers are lifelong students. There is no such thing as a preacher who has mastered the skill and knows everything there is to know about all the dynamics of preaching. For one thing, a preacher is always learning more about the truths of Scripture. For another thing, he is always learning about the people to whom he preaches. On top of those, a preacher is continually learning how to better write sermons and preach them to God’s people. There are many other areas of a preacher’s ministry that involve learning as well. Indeed, in many ways, a preacher is a lifelong student.
As students, preachers should always appreciate helpful homiletic resources—even ones that teach us “little things” about preaching. For preachers, there are many little things they can change or improve upon that will make their preaching more understandable, convicting, and edifying. Jonathan Pennington’s book, Small Preaching, is a preaching resource that gives pastors twenty-five little things they can do to improve their preaching. Small Preaching is not an extensive and detailed homiletics textbook. Instead, it is a short book with brief chapters aimed at giving preachers specific examples of small ways to better preach God’s word to his beloved people.
Small Preaching has a short introduction and conclusion. The bulk of the book consists of the twenty-five suggestions Pennington gives preachers to help them grow their preaching skills. There are three main parts of the book: 1) The Person of the Preacher, 2) The Preparation for Preaching, and 3) The Practice of Preaching. Every part of the book contains a handful of chapters relating to those topics. For example, in the third part, Pennington gives advice on sermon introductions, conclusions, creativity in preaching, and so on. Each of the twenty-five chapters is around three or four pages long. They are simple and easy to read. And yet this book is not meant to be read in one or two sittings. When I went through Small Preaching, I only read two or three chapters per day to give myself time to reflect upon Pennington’s suggestions.
Not all of the advice in this book was novel for me. For example, in one chapter Pennington argues that some sermons can be written as a story with a narrative. I had learned about narrative sermons elsewhere. I do, however, need a nudge to utilize the narrative type of preaching from time to time. Even the parts of Small Preaching that were review for me were good reminders. Preachers should always be open to helpful homiletic reminders. Part of learning is repetition, after all!
One of my favorite parts of this book is chapter six. In this chapter, Pennington explains the difference between preaching and teaching. He writes that although teaching and preaching overlap, there is a difference. For example, a professor lecturing about the atonement in a seminary class is teaching. Preaching is slightly different. Pennington notes that preaching includes invitation and exhortation (30). The point of this chapter is that pastors should not preach as if they are seminary professors lecturing in a classroom. Instead, they should preach the Word in a way that exhorts, encourages, and invites people to believe and obey.
I also appreciated Pennington’s advice in chapter eight to engage in much writing during the sermon preparation phase. Of course, pastors prepare sermons differently. There is not one exact way to prepare for a sermon. But there is value in doing much writing when studying for a sermon because “writing is thinking” (40). When a pastor writes out many parts of his sermon during the week, it helps him think about the material in a deeper way. Writing also helps a person to remember. I find this to be true in my own studies. I have gone through countless pens, pencils, and notebooks in my sermon preparation. For me, writing out my notes and detailed sermon outlines helps me think more about the sermon themes and remember the material.
For those interested, Pennington also writes about handling praise and criticism in a biblical way. He compares preaching to conducting an orchestra. There is a chapter that covers cutting out parts of sermons before preaching them, and there is a chapter about avoiding complex sermons while still preaching with depth. Pennington also talks about preaching at funerals and weddings. I should mention that Pennington discusses preaching the Christian calendar and the cultural calendar. Although I am not opposed to some form of a Christian calendar, I disagree with Pennington’s suggestion to include Maundy Thursday and Lent.
Overall Small Preaching is a helpful small book full of what I call “homiletic hacks.” I enjoyed reading this book, and although not every part of it was new to me, I still found it very worthwhile to read. In fact, I will try to read through this book every year just to make sure I do not forget Pennington’s helpful insights. After all, I have much to learn when it comes to preaching. I imagine that when I someday preach my last sermon, I will still acknowledge the fact that I am but an elementary student in the school of homiletics.
©Shane Lems. All Rights Reserved.
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Shane Lems
Shane Lems is a graduate of Westminster Seminary California and has a DMin from RTS Orlando. He has been a church planter and pastor in the URCNA. Since 2013 he’s been serving as pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Hammond, WI. He is married and has four children. Shane has written numerous articles for Modern Reformation, New Horizons, and other publications. He is also the author of Doctrines of Grace: Student Edition and manages a book blog, The Reformed Reader.
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