Preaching

The move to Fisher Street brought a deeper seriousness and discipline to preaching and sermon preparation. Not only did the church have the reputation of having the strong biblical pulpit in Jonesboro, it also had a good number of people who were good Bible students and Bible teachers. Up to this point, out of necessity I had divided my time between church and school. It was at Fisher Street that the discipline of spending twenty to twenty-five hours a week of study in sermon preparation was developed. As I reflect on those days, several life-patterns were emerged:
1. Preaching carefully through books of the Bible;
2. Building the commentary section of my library significantly;
3. Publishing sermon notes for the people which disciplined me to be finished with preparation for Sunday morning and Sunday evening by Thursday afternoon;
4. Making sermon preparation more than just time in the study, but saturating my mind with the passages of Scriptures for each week and meditating on them and thinking through them continually, which transformed preaching from just dispensing knowledge from the head but to the overflow of the heart; and
5. Preaching without notes (again a discipline that required a mind saturated with and concentrated on the exposition of the Word). Preaching not just one of the things that I did, it was the center of my life and of my understanding of the primary calling of the pastor to feed the flock of God.