Who are your favorite preachers? When I was in college, I loved to hear a Baptist preacher from Lansing, MI, named Howard Sugden. In seminary the red-letter days in chapel for me were when John Stott showed up at TEDS to preach.
We attend Willow Creek and we regularly are treated to well-known preachers and speakers, and I’ll avoid talking about which ones I like the most, but I will say that our whole family misses John Ortberg.
But, preaching fascinates because most of my life has been punctuated by both preaching and by listening to preaching. Over time one arrives at conclusions at what makes good preaching and what makes bad preaching. (BTW, I don’t consider myself a preacher; I’m a teacher with preaching tossed in.)
All of this to say that, due to the support of the Revd Kurt Iver Johanson, some sermons of James S. Stewart are now available: Walking with God is the title of this book.
Stewart is a prince — an articulate NT scholar, he was a professor who found a way to preach nearly every Sunday in Scotland.
His sermons, and I read through a bundle of them, are articulate, practicable, wise, and an excellent model for those of us who need a model of a classical form of preaching. Never informal; always sound of judgment and serious in focus.
I recommend that casual, young preachers buy this volume, read it, and learn from this wonderful preacher. What most of us need is not so much a new book about preaching, but some great examples of preaching. This is one such book.