The views expressed in this article are of the author only and do not necessarily represent those of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
A Little Book for New Preachers
Matthew D. Kim
IVP Academic (2020). 128 pp.
Matthew Kim, a professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a former student of the esteemed preacher and homiletician Haddon Robinson, pens for us a little book in size and page numbers, but whose contents and significance are weighty because they pertain to the Lord and to his gospel. Perhaps as a nod to the enduring form of a “three-point sermon” or more substantively to the fulsome trinitarian thrust and grounding of his own homiletical vision and theology, Kim structures the book in three easily-accessible sections, each of which is further divided into three chapters.
Kim walks us through the why, the what, and the who of faithful, gospel-centered preaching. He assiduously but succinctly takes readers through naming the familiar mines and traps for us preachers. We can get mired in ourselves, in the maelstrom of ministry demands, in the seduction of life and seeming success, and in the plain desire to be faithful and finding that in our best efforts, we fall short. Deep down, Kim is a pastor. And he approaches the craft of teaching, preaching, and writing with a pastor’s heart that will not let us off the hook, as one who personally knows the walk and the talk. He names the points of grace and those points that need confessing and repenting in order for our vocation and discipleship to the Lord to be without blemish and without spot. His diagnosis? In our preaching, in our exegesis, and in our being, our hearts have gone wayward from the Lord Christ, who he is, what he has done, and what he has called us to be and to do.
In Part One, “Why Study Preaching?” Kim recalibrates us to our purpose. He goes back to the mission, vision, and values of Jesus Christ, and the role of preaching in Jesus’s ongoing ministry. The task of preaching is to bear witness to Jesus Christ, to give God the glory, and to be used by the Holy Spirit as a chief means by which hearts and minds are transformed to become disciples of Jesus Christ. If we missed it along the way in our careers, if we forgot it because of spiritual amnesia, if we ignored it because of willful sin—whatever might be the case—Kim drills down with confident grace and gracious confidence: preaching is all about God and what God is doing in and through you and the sermon to bring glory to himself and to transform people whose lives are marked by Christlike worship and service.
In Part Two, Kim addresses the “what” of preaching: what makes for faithful preaching. He proposes three key ingredients: faithful interpretation, faithful cultural interpretation, and faithful application. He highlights with great passion the importance of always being students of the word – like a farmer working the soil, so, too, we as preachers must plow the depths of Scripture. This means staying close to the text, praying over the text, and engaging in careful exegesis of the history and structure of Scripture. But there’s more, because the text is not given in a vacuum. We need to pay attention to both the cultural context of the Scripture text, the cultural contexts of our ministry locations, the cultural dimensions of the surrounding culture, and our own predispositions, demographics, and identities that influence our reading and interpretation of the Scriptures. Still yet, after all the study and ruminating on in all those considerations, there’s a sermon to preach to real people on a given Lord’s Day, with particular fears, hopes, failings, and joys. Here Kim reminds us that the world of the biblical context and the arena of our cultural lenses must now converge to a given time at a given place to a particular assembly of people who have been summoned by the Holy Spirit to hear the word. Application, application, application. Faithful preaching requires the pastoral gravitas, like Michelangelo’s artistic marvel above the Sistine Chapel, to bridge the finger of God with the heart and life of real people. How does this Good News in this text apply to the life of this congregation, of this community?
In the final section, Kim speaks to the “who” of preaching: you and me. He knows what it means to be a pastor. The call of being a pastor and a preacher are two sides of the same coin. The congregation needs to know you care for and love them. They also desire a word that has been entrusted to you to proclaim to them, to speak to their sins, to speak to their fears, so that the transformative power of the Good News is exhibited. This calls forth pastoral preachers and preaching pastors who are caring and loving, whose lives are Christlike, demonstrating character and integrity, and who are prayerful. Here’s the key to our ministry of preaching and pastoring: we live and move and have our being in the Spirit of God. This means, we must be always prayerful, lest we are nothing.
This book is not just for new preachers, as the title suggests. This volume is a must read for any pastor preacher no matter how many years have been logged. Taking to heart what Kim has written here enables us to be renewed again and again to the sacred vocation of proclaiming and living the Word of God.
Neal D. Presa is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the interim associate vice president for admissions and a faculty member at New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Jersey. He also helps lead the World Council of Churches Central and Executive Committees. He’s the author of numerous books and is a member of the St. Augustine Fellowship of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
