Preach Magazine Issue 5 - Preaching to the unconverted | Page 7

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CALVIN SAMUEL

The plus of the Spirit
Twenty years ago I completed a course in homiletics
as part of ministerial training. That course has had
a huge impact on my preaching over the years.

C

learly, I’ve learnt many things
about preaching in the past
20 years. Nonetheless, three
lessons I learnt back then have
never been surpassed:
c If you can’t express in a single
sentence what your sermon
is about, neither can your
congregation.
c Inspiration and perspiration are
equally important elements of
sermon preparation.
cY
 ou can never entirely account for
the ‘plus of the Spirit’ but prayerful
preachers should expect it.
The ‘plus of the Spirit’ is a way
of describing that phenomenon
whereby a sermon has an impact
beyond that which the preacher
could anticipate.
Sometimes the ‘plus of the Spirit’ may
be as evident to the preacher as to
the congregation. In such instances
preachers ma H