FEATURE
First of all, let me be clear
that I am what some old
Baptists used to refer to
as a ‘Spurgeon’s man’.
I have twice graduated
from the college which
bears his name, and as
such what I am about to
do probably comes close
to heresy. The following
statement is attributed
to Charles Haddon
Spurgeon, and I am not at
all sure I agree with him:
‘If a sermon is good
enough to preach once it
is good enough to preach
ten times.’
LWPT8462 - Preach Magazine - Issue 2 v2.indd 49
49
IF A SERMON CAN BE PREACHED
TEN TIMES IT SHOULD NOT EVEN
BE PREACHED ONCE.
I
am inclined to say that if a sermon
is so devoid of local colour and local
reference that it can be preached ten
times it should not even be preached
once. A sermon is not like an old
recorded tune, which you can simply
play again and again, regardless of
setting. Rather, it is a piece of music
played live – in different settings, at
different volumes and in different
ways.
Having said that, I
write this in an office
where a collection of
A4 binders is slowly
creeping round the
walls as they fill up
wit