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Topic Archives: Preaching & Teaching

The following article first appeared in The Founders Journal, Issue 74 (Fall 2008) and was featured on the Banner website in January 2010. By ‘posture’ I do not refer to the alignment of one’s body when standing. Good posture, of course, is advisable, for one breathes better, projects his voice better and shows respect for […]

Category Articles
Date January 10, 2024
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In the recovery of biblical exposition that has marked the church in our own time, it has not always been recognized that in addition to such exposition the Reformers and Puritans placed great stress on catechizing. We tend to think of this as children learning catechetical questions and answers by rote. But what the Puritans […]

Category Book Excerpts
Date September 8, 2023
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I often make the same pastoral mistake. It is not deliberate, it is often well-intentioned, sometimes it is even hopeful. It is this: to presume upon the biblical knowledge of the people to whom I speak. I do not at all mean by this to deliver a backhanded insult, appearing to confess a shortcoming of […]

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Category Articles
Date January 19, 2023
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This review was first published in the 2022 edition of the New Horizons magazine and has been shared with permission. * * * The Lord Jesus once said, ‘every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old’ (Matt. 13:52). The treasures from […]

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Category Book Reviews
Date June 3, 2022
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Isaac Watts (1674-1748) was called at the age of 24 to be assistant to Dr Isaac Chauncey, the pastor of the Independent chapel in Mark Lane, London, in 1698. The congregation was composed in part of Cromwellian aristocrats and businessmen. The members of the church were probably far removed from the material and spiritual needs […]

Category Articles
Date November 5, 2019
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The following is an excerpt of Chapter 7 of The Art of Prophesying by William Perkins, the early Cambridge Puritan. The language has been modernized to some extent.  * * * Application is that aspect of preaching in which the doctrine, rightly drawn from the text, is diversely fitted as place, time and person require […]

Category Articles
Date September 20, 2019
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We shall always, I trust, as a church, cultivate an anxious desire for the conversion of all who come within our gates, yea, and of all who dwell around us. Never, I hope, will you wish the pastor to preach so that you shall be fed, careless as to whether sinners are saved or not; […]

Category Articles
Date June 21, 2019
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The following is abridged from a pamphlet by James Begg (1803-1883), The Art of Preaching, printed in 1863, twenty years after more than 400 ministers had left the Church of Scotland to form the Free Church of Scotland. While in the context in which Begg wrote there were no doubt peculiar historical circumstances affecting the […]

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Category Articles
Date February 12, 2019
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This is considered the height of being contemporary and ‘really communicating’ to modern man. We are being urged to interweave pictures and videos during our sermons. If a new preacher is tempted to use a projector, I would suggest that you do it just occasionally at first. Don’t think that you are obliged to do […]

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Category Articles
Date October 19, 2018
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Let me get my caveats out of the way first. Yes, I have preached my share of long sermons (more on that in a moment). I don’t do many 15-minute homilies. My last four sermons on the Christ Covenant website (as of Monday) were 43 minutes, 46 minutes, 46 minutes, and 36 minutes. I aim […]

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Category Articles
Date October 12, 2018
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‘He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides in him.’ — John 3:36 Have you noticed the many sermons, the many books and blogs telling the church of Jesus that our purpose is to reweave the […]

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Category Articles
Date July 16, 2018
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Of all the societal and psychological changes brought on by the dominance of social media, one of its most interesting effects is on our language. Headlines have been replaced by hashtags as a means of capturing the essence of a story, and terms can be coined, duplicated and globally disseminated in a matter of minutes. […]

Category Articles
Date April 27, 2018
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In John Bunyan’s book The Pilgrim’s Progress, the story begins with Christian discovering news which causes him great alarm. Clothed in rags and with a burden upon his back, he is distressed to learn from a book he has been reading that the city he lives in is soon to be destroyed by fire from heaven. […]

Category Articles
Date February 28, 2018
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This latest book by Murray revisits some of the men whom the author has encountered in his reading and work for the Banner of Truth Trust; as such, it may be said to be proudly unoriginal. Murray is not breaking new ground, but mulling over past ministries and seeking to bring the memory of these […]

Category Book Reviews
Date January 31, 2018
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Regular exposition of the Scriptures in one church fellowship places certain unique demands on the preacher. Remaining fresh while remaining faithful, and preaching consistently without preaching predictably can be significant challenges. A perennial problem for any settled preaching ministry, however, is that of remaining Christ-centred and gospel focused in our ministry of the Word, while […]

Category Articles
Date December 6, 2017
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