Preaching to the Heart by Tim Keller

I've really enjoyed teaching homiletics at Heritage Seminary this Fall. I've assigned three texts: Biblical Preaching by Haddon Robinson, Preaching & Preachers by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Preaching to the Heart, a CD series by Tim Keller. There are many great texts out there, but if the students can learn the mechanics of sermon development from Robinson, and the heart of preaching from Lloyd-Jones and Keller, then they've got a really solid foundation.

The Preaching to the Heart CD series by Keller is available from Gordon-Conwell. It's incredibly valuable, and the students this Fall have already said how much they've enjoyed it. It's by far the best conference audio on preaching I've come across. Here are some of the topics he covers:

1. Preaching to the Heart without being Legalistic
2. Preaching to the Heart without being Pietistic
3. Unintentional Preaching Models
4. Reading, Preparation, Conversation, and Preaching
5. Preaching to "Emerging" Culture
6. Preaching to the Heart without being Individualistic

If you're a preacher and you haven't heard this series yet, then it's well worth getting. I highly recommend it.

Here's my wish: I hope that that somehow, one day, these lectures can become a book, so that they will get the exposure that they really deserve.

Comments

[Geoff Henderson]

Darryl,Thanks for the resources. Is this Keller series vastly different than the one he did with Ed Clowney some years back?

[Darryl]

Geoff,I've only made my way through about a third of the Keller/Clowney lectures, and from what I've seen so far, these are very different.

[Josh Mueller]

Thanks, Daryl!If anyone is interested in free audio downloads from Keller on the same subject, I found a couple here from a lecture at Oak Hill College in November 2008:http://s3.amazonaws.com/tgc-audio/keller/20081119.1_Tim_Keller_preaching%20_to_the_heart.mp3http://s3.amazonaws.com/tgc-audio/keller/20081119.2_Tim_Keller_preaching%20_to_the_heart.mp3

[Josh Mueller]

One thing that I found particularly helpful in Keller's lecture is his analysis of the typical distinction made between exegesis and application. In recognizing that the questions WE bring to the text(which themselves are highly determined by our life situation and current debates we're invested in) shape the interpretation significantly, "application" is never just a consecutive second step after an "objective" process of determining the original meaning.His reason why he won't use the outline of the text itself as the outline (which Haddon Robinson recommended if I remember correctly) really makes sense to me. Asking the question how a text FUNCTIONS in its original context and in our covenantal relationship with God seems to be a key question that needs to be asked every time in sermon preparation.Another key element is being familiar with the questions the listeners are asking, and that cannot happen unless we invest significantly in personal conversation with both congregants and the people we want to reach.

[Darryl]

I got thinking about this when I realized that Preaching & Preachers by Lloyd-Jones came about from lectures he delivered at Westminster Seminary. I'd love to see Keller's lectures make it into a book somehow, or for him to write a book on the topic.Appreciate your comments, Josh.

[Alan Stoddard]

Josh, how do you define "function" of the text?