Jun
29
2012
A Discussion of Preaching w/ A.B. Sutton, Jr. and H.B. Charles, Jr.
I enjoyed this 44-minute discussion of preaching and church ministry between A.B. Sutton, Jr. and H.B. Charles, Jr. Sutton is founding pastor of Living Stones Temple in Birmingham, AL and has served for over two decades in pastoral ministry. Charles serves as Senior Pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church in Jacksonville, FL. You can check out Charles’ blog here.
Here’s the list of topics/questions covered with time markers:
1. Introduction (:00)
2. Tell us a little about yourself (:50)
3. Tell us about your conversion experience (1:33)
4. Would you say your conversion experience and call to preach happened at the same time? (9:49)
5. What was your formal preparation for ministry? (10:05)
6. What role would you say formal education has had in shaping your pulpit ministry and your pastoral ministry? (11:45)
7. What advice would you give a young preacher about formal training? (13:30)
8. What is the goal of preaching? (15:13)
9. How would you describe your style of preaching? (16:44)
10. Tell us about your process of study. What are you doing to get ready to go to the pulpit? (18:26)
11. How many times are you teaching or preaching in an average week? (20:00)
12. Do you write manuscripts? Do you use manuscripts? What are you putting on paper in the preparation process? What, if anything, do you use in the pulpit? (20:20)
13. How long does sermon preparation take you? (22:10)
14. What is your process for planning your preaching? Are you planning what to preach week-to-week? Monthly? Yearly? (25:08)
15. Do you preach series often? (26:36)
16. Who are the preachers who have made a mark on you as a preacher? (28:10)
17. What do you see regarding the state of preaching? What encourages you and what troubles you? (29:58)
18. What “big picture” advice would you give a young preacher? (32:12)
19. Are there any books or authors on preaching you would recommend? Or anything you’re reading that might be helpful? What is your favorite book on preaching? (33:00)
20. Tell us about the church you’ve recently planted? (34:27)
21. Looking back over your decades of pastoral ministry, what are a few things that make you say, “If only I’d known then what I know”?
22. Any advice for young pastors about pastoral ministry? (43:25)
3 Comments
Wow, T, his conversion/call sounds a little like Charles Templeton’s. Did I miss something?
By the way, that was a great sermon, we hope to have it posted soon.
Hey bro,
Yeah, I thought he answered the conversion question by recounting his sense of call. Then Charles supplied the notion that his conversion happened at the same time as his call. That exchange could have been more helpful.
But after that, I thought the discussion was really good. I appreciated much they shared about preaching and later about pastoral ministry.
thanks for the encouragement on the sermon. I’m looking forward to writing a post or two about the conference and linking to the sermons. Let me know when they’re up.
For Him,
T-
This was a good interview, and it was insightful. I’ve heard or read interviews of Piper, MacArthur or some of the other “big names” among the “young, restless and Reformed”, but we rarely get interviews from some of the notable voices within the Black Church. Some observations:
I wish there was some mention of sin, the cross, repentance, faith in Christ, etc. in Pastor Sutton’s discription of his conversion, and more mention of the word of God or a burden for lost people in his description of his call to preach. Interesting.
Pastor Sutton’s recounting of his call to preach reminded me that, within the Black Church, the ability to move people emotionally is considered an important (if not primary) sign of spiritual validation, particularly when it comes to preaching, worship, and music. Although I see serious dangers in giving that much credence and authority to the emotions, I think this reality has to be faced, if the “doctrines of grace” are to ever penetrate the black community. A primarily “cerebral”, non-emotional approach to worship & ministry won’t go very far in the American black community. In the minds of the masses of black Americans, cerebral/non-emotional=white. As a culture, most black people don’t want a religion they can’t “feel”.
Obviously, these pastors were speaking out of the context of the traditional Black Church. The preachers Pastor Sutton mentions, who most influenced him as a preacher remind me of how vast a gulf still exists between races/cultures/ethnicities within the church in America. Whites and blacks sometimes listen to vastly different sets of preachers.
But, it’s always interesting to me to hear how other preachers approach the ministry/art/craft of preaching.