Preparing Expository Sermons: A Seven-Step Method for Biblical Preaching

This is one of the clearest and easiest to understand books about preaching. Ramesh Richard believes in verse by verse expository preaching (though he does acknowledge the occasional value of a topical expository message). He presents his Scripture Sculpture method, where we can sculpt a beautiful sermon out of a text of scripture. There are seven steps: Study the text (looking for key nouns and verbs and important prepositions and conjunctions), structure the text, find the central theme of the text, make a purpose statement, rewording the central theme of the text in a contemporary way, structuring the sermon (usually in the order of the text), and preaching the sermon. The book also has several examples from Ephesians to show us how to work through this seven step process (there are also examples from Matthew 18:21-35 and Revelation 4:1-12). I do wish that Dr. Richard would have had some clear examples of how to preach Old Testament narrative, but he does have an appendix dealing with narrative. The appendices deal with questions that are often raised by students at Scripture Sculpture seminars. For a future edition (this is already the second edition), maybe Dr. Richard could discuss the average length of time it takes to prepare a sermon and how to squeeze sermon preparation time into a busy schedule, especially when the preacher has several services a week. But the book was great, one of the best preaching texts I have read.

Ramesh Richard teaches preaching at Dalls Theological Seminary and teaches numerous seminars each year around the world, especially in India. In this book, formerly titled Scripture Sculpture, Richard presents a basic model for expository preaching of the Word that is easily adaptable and transferable to different situations. The book is eminently practical yet well grounded.