Five Favorite Books on Preaching

By Timothy Raymond –

Recently, God gave me grace to preach my 300^th sermon as the pastor of my church.  In light of this, and inspired by Adrian Reynolds’ helpful list over at the always edifying Proclamation Trust blog, I thought in this post I might briefly enumerate my top five books on preaching.  Here’s the countdown, for what it’s worth:

5.     Christ-Centered Preaching by Brian Chapel – The first book I read on how to preach Christ from every passage of Scripture and still one of my favorites.  It’s got its idiosyncrasies, but they’re relatively minor and on the whole, the book offers a wonderful hermeneutical model for legitimately transitioning from any text to the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

4.     Preaching with Simplicity by J.C. Ryle – This little booklet (22 pages) is worth about a zillion dollars (though you can get it here for $2.40).  It’s so filled with Ryle’s trademark passion and sanctified common sense.  By simplicity Ryle means clarity in communication, not shallow in depth.  Not only is clarity essential to getting your points across, it is also key to heart-searching, conscience-convicting, life-transforming, powerful preaching (as modeled by Ryle).  This ought to be required reading for everybody who ever gets within 10 feet of a pulpit.

3.     Preaching with Purpose by Jay Adams – Though Adams is better known for being the grandfather of Nouthetic counseling, he was also a mighty preacher, especially skilled in the area of application.  This little gem has been overlooked for too long.  It offers a model for how to do application that may be different from what you’ve always done, but is probably better.  His approach enables you to preach any passage with immediate application to the hearers.  In some ways, it’s paradigm-shifting.

2.     Rediscovering Expositional Preaching edited by John MacArthur – Some books excel in teaching how to do exegesis, others excel in teaching homiletics, but rarely do you encounter a book that does both.  This is one of those rare both/and volumes.  It’s my very favorite book for laying out a process for starting with a bare text, doing responsible exegesis, and then turning it into a quality expositional sermon.  If I were to recommend only one comprehensive book for learning how to preach, it would probably be this one.

1.    Preaching and Preachers by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones – This is one of the most enjoyable books I’ve ever read in any genre.  Also one of the most convicting.  MLJ was a veritable Chuck Norris in the pulpit and his views of preaching and the ministry shine through in a no-holds-barred fashion in this volume.  While definitely not a how-to book, it will provide you with abundant inspiration to preach like a dying man to dying men.  For my fuller review, go here.

Honorable mention: How Sermons Work by David Murray – This unique little book is designed to teach laymen without formal ministerial training how to prepare and preach expositional sermons.  In my opinion, it accomplishes its goal admirably.  It’s clear, theologically-informed, practical, and Christ-centered.  It would be ideal for working through with your elders, deacons, Sunday school teachers, or young men sensing a call to pastoral ministry.

Now I’m interested in getting your input.  What are some of your favorite books on preaching and why?  Leave your recommendations in the comments section below and we’ll have a conversation.

Timothy Raymond is an editor for Credo Magazine and has been the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Muncie, Indiana since April 2006. He received his MDiv from the Baptist Bible Seminary of Pennsylvania in 2004 and has pursued further education through the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation. Tim grew up outside Syracuse, NY and previously served at Berean Baptist Church, Nicholson, PA (member and teacher during college and seminary) and Calvary Baptist Church, Sandusky, Ohio (seminary internship location). Tim met his wife Bethany at college, and they were married in May 2001. Tim enjoys reading, weight-lifting, wrestling with his three sons, and attempting to sleep.