The 12 Essential Skills for Great Preaching

McDill has captured the essence of expository Preaching. No other preaching method I have studied is as God honoring and powerful. It teaches you how to preach God's Word and not your own or anyone elses. At the same time it helps you to use your own life experiences to illustrate the points you pull directly out of God's Word. It takes the best of Inductive study methods and couples them with the art of expository preaching.

I must admit as a recent Bible college graduate I was intimidated by the task of expository preaching. However, as I finished each chapter I thought to myself, "I can do that." Soon I was through the entire book confident I could preach an effective expository sermon on any passage of Scripture.McDill takes you through from text to sermon and everything in between showing exactly how to do everything. I readily admit that my preaching has changed since reading this book. It has added depth and meaning and my sermons are not just an exegetical speech but messages that connects with the hearts and spirits of the congregation.This book is a must-read for the expository preacher!

I have read several books on preaching and this one definitely fits the bill. It's imaginative, philosophical, practical, and invigorating all in the same volume of text. It's not long and wordy but gets right to the point. No matter how long you have been at the preaching desk, there is something in this book that you will find enlightening. For years I have been trying to find a book that "spells out" the practics of sermon preparation and writing. This book does just that. Especially helpful is the Motivated sequence outline, and specifically the analogy and scene/story chapters. Many times preachers during their sermon preparation contract a disease that I call "IMAGINATION BLOCK." You know, that's where you simply cannot come up with that perfect example, illustration, metaphor, or even application that really brings home the point your trying to make. McDill shows you, in a step-by-step way, how to find enlightenment in this area from your own experience. What a refreshing change to the etherial, ambiguous books i've read before where understanding the first two chapters is an exercise in futility. Preachers need down-to-earth counsel on understanding how our people receive and conceptualize the word of God, and the best way to help facillitate that reception. This is what McDill's book describes and proscribes in detailed fashion. This is a must buy for every preacher who is sick and tired of trying to figure out, "Just how do I approach this text, or that Psalm, this epistle, or that retorical prologue?" In short, BUY IT YOU'LL LIKE IT!"

I have read some 20 books on preaching design and this is one of the best. It gives clear and practical guidlines for developing a sermon that will appeal to any listener. The "motivated sequence" outline is excellent and will help any preacher to throughly develope a point that will expalin the text and touch the heart of the hearer.

Read Martin L. Jones for the philosophy of preaching, and Wayne McDill for the nuts and bolts of construction. The graphic format will cook book you through a method that keeps you on the text with one finger, and the congregation with the other.