Length: 169 pgs
Author: Al Mohler
I am deeply thankful to God for Al Mohler. I believe God’s hand has powerfully been on him as the president of Southern Seminary. I think He is Not Silent might be Mohler at his best, showing the deterioration of preaching in light of the glory that it is meant to be.
In the end, our calling as preachers is really very simple. We study, we stand before our people, we read the text, and we explain it. We reprove, rebuke, exhort, encourage, and teach – and then we do it all again and again and again.
Preach the Word! That simple imperative frames the act of preaching as an act of obedience, and that is where any theology of preaching must begin. Preaching did not emerge from the church’s experimentation with communication techniques. The church does not preach because preaching is thought to be a good idea or an effective technique. The sermon has not earned its place in Christian worship by proving its utility in comparison with other means of communication or aspects of worship. Rather, we preach because we have been commanded to preach.
True preaching begins with this confession: we preach because God has spoken. That fundamental conviction is the fulcrum of the Christian faith and of Christian preaching.
I fear that there are many evangelicals today who believe that God spoke but doubt whether he speaks.
Preaching is therefore always a matter of life and death. … The question that faces us as preachers is not how we’re going to grow our churches or inspire our people. It is not even how we can lead them to live more faithfully than they did before. The question that faces us is: Are these people going to life or are they going to die?
The expositor is not an explorer who return to tell tales of the journey but a guide who leads the people into the text, teaching the arts of Bible study and interpretations even as he demonstrates the same.
The preaching ministry is not a profession to be joined but a call to be answered.
Standing on the authority of Scripture, the preacher declares a truth received, not a message invented. The teaching office is not an advisory role based in religious expertise but a prophetic function whereby God speaks to His people.
Rarely do we hear these days of a church that is distinguished primarily by its faithful, powerful, expository preaching. Instead, when we hear persons speak about their churches, they usually point to something other than preaching. They may speak of its specialized ministry to senior adults, or its children’s ministry, or its youth ministry. They may speak of its music or its arts program or its drama team, or of things far more superficial than those. Sometime they may even speak of the church’s Great Commission vigor and its commitment to world missions – and for that we are certainly thankful. But sadly, it is rare to hear a church described first and foremost by the character, power, and content of its preaching.
No Other Boast 