The Passion-Driven Sermon: Changing the Way Pastors Preach and Congregations Listen

I was skeptical of this book at first. I have read several books on preaching including Power in the Pulpit (co-authored by Jim Shaddix). What else is there to say about preaching that I haven't already heard or read? I thought. However I am pleased to say that I was pleasantly surprised and edified by reading The Passion Driven Sermon. Instead of focusing on the details of sermon delivery, in this book Shaddix keeps the main thing the main thing. His high view of Scripture and the Church flows through the pages of this book. He constantly exhorts his readers to keep preaching Christ-centered and Bible centered through exegetically sound and Bible-focused arguments. As the book's subtitle suggests, Shaddix not only offers timely words of wisdom to pastors, but his high view of preaching allows even for helpful instruction for those in the congregation. While there is certainly more that could be said on this subject, for preacher and parishioner alike, The Passion Driven Sermon is a worthwhile read.

Why do you preach? A survey of pastors might show a variety of reasons cited as motivation for preachers. Jim Shaddix, however, believes that sermons "should be driven by a passion for the glory of God."Shaddix, who serves as Dean of the Chapel and Professor of Preaching at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and as pastor-teacher at a New Orleans church, believes that preaching detours from its central purpose when it launches into "the quest to answer all the questions people are asking." Shaddix asks: "What is the role and responsibility of my pastor as a preacher? Did God really commission him to be the dispenser of the infinite number of how-tos necessary for navigating daily life effectively?"Such a preaching program is not the purpose of preaching, he argues. "Instead, preaching should be driven by a passion for the glory of God, a passion jointly possessed by both pastor and people. . . . A preacher's call to preach is rooted in his call to Christ, and his call to Christ is rooted in a quest for the glory of God."The central concern then becomes: "How do we preach and listen to preaching in such a way as to bring glory to God in each individual sermon and in the larger preaching ministry of our church?" Shaddix answers that the key is "to rightly expose the mind of the Holy Spirit in every given text of Scripture." The balance of the book offers both theological and practical dimensions to pastoral preaching that is worthy of its calling.Making the case for expository preaching as foundational to a week-by-week pastoral preaching program, Shaddix takes on those who argue that the preaching of Jesus was based in story, and thus our preaching should adopt the same model. Shaddix answers, "He was the quintessential storyteller, we are reminded, and consequently His approach should be the pattern for modern-day homiletics. The further champion for the bulk of our preaching to be in story form in light of the vast treasury of narrative material which monopolizes biblical literary genre and is the very nature of the four Gospels themselves. . . . These suggestions are shortsighted at best, and they communicate a serious misunderstanding of the nature of pastoral preaching today."As heretical as it may seem to some, Jesus is not necessarily the best model for contemporary pastoral preaching. This obviously is not because of any flaw in His homiletic or His theology. Certainly Jesus was the quintessential master communicator and the general model for all preachers of all time. However, we must recognize the fact that He did not practice as the preaching pastor of a local congregation in the same vein as we know the ministry today. His ministry would better serve as a model for itinerant preaching as He engaged different crowds in various settings. Additionally, the content of the majority of His preaching and teaching would more closely parallel evangelistic proclamation as opposed to the edification of believers."The Passion-Driven Sermon i