A searchable, downloadable PDF of the original review appears below. Stephen Self is a ministry student at Regent College, Vancouver.
The Problem of Preaching. Fortress Resources for Preaching by Donald Macleod. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1987; 95 pp.
The book aims to supply a partial answer to the preacher’s recurring problem: “Who and what am I?” What disturbs Macleod most is the kind of preaching our preachers today produce. Most of the people in churches are receiving sermons that are irrelevant, moralistic, lifeless and uninformed. The crisis of preaching today according to Macleod “is not merely a matter of a sermon having or not having three points and a conclusion. It is bound up with who the preacher is, with what this enterprise is in which the preacher is engaged and involved, and why, that is, for whose sake it is done anyway” (p. 19).
The preacher must be really sure of who he is or she is and what the job or calling entails. Second, is the enterprise in which the preacher’s role played a dynamic and purposeful action. Macleod points out that the laity will be what the minister makes it.
In response to the question “what is preaching?” the author states that the act of preaching is set out as its what-ness (a work, a message, the Word, good news); its wholeness (a preacher who interprets the word, shows its relevance, and witnesses its truth); and its where-ness (an act of worship). Communication “is and must always be dialogical” (p.26). This is why terms and phrases such as “encounter”, “meeting of minds”, “interface” and “confrontation” are so common today. Preaching is communication of the written word.
Macleod describes that the preacher is accused of the chasm between what we are and what we say. Macleod contends that preaching is the art of making the preacher and delivering that. Preaching is the “outrush of the soul in speech” (p.35). The author echoes John Stott who says that the preparation of the speaker is more important than the preparation of the sermon.
According to Macleod, the preacher needs to identify with the people. The sermon’s vocabulary often expresses whether the preacher does or does not. Macleod presses the preacher to deny himself in order to point everything to Christ.
In sermon preparation the preacher must answer the five W’s: Who said it? When was it said? Where was it said? What actually was said, and, Why? He lists seven preparatory steps: 1. accumulate information, 2. brood over the text several times, 3. begin another brooding session, 4. look for the relevance of the passage to the people or pastoral concern, 4. brood again, 5. address the message to life, and 6. write out the sermon in full (pp. 45-49). Macleod gives examples of coming up with the main idea, a topic in outline and a sermonic sample for sermons on John 15:1-11, Psalm 103, Exodus 3:1-20 and the book of Jonah (pp. 49-74).
In order to ensure maximum effectiveness Macleod recommends six qualities every sermon should have: 1. Be personal through eye contact, by writing for the hearer and not the readers, by using personal pronouns “I” or “you” and personal names, and by using names that mean something to the audience today. Macleod quotes Karl Barth’s dictum that the preacher must prepare with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other; 2. Be pictorial through variety, colour, imagination, figures of speech and literary allusions. Turn your congregation’s eyes into ears; 3. Be propulsive i.e. move the people from where they are to where they ought to be; 4. Be pastoral; 5. Be persuasive by knowing the subject; 6. Be prophetic (pp. 76-87).
It is unnecessary and irrelevant that Macleod cites the article and journal when quoting an author. This takes up extra space and makes the reading more cumbersome. For a book written in 1987, I would expect a more current bibliography than 1971. Also the commentaries suggested for sermon preparation are a little dated.
Macleod’s emphasis on brooding over the text is applauded. He does, however, need to expand more on the preparation of the preacher, such as the need for strong devotional life and prayer life. In the preparation of the sermon the author also needs to discuss the ministry of prayer and the Holy Spirit.