Cooking takes time. I suppose you could grab a frozen dinner, heat it in the microwave for four minutes, then sit down and eat. But the quality, nutritional value, and taste of the product will show. The same is true of preaching.

Like cooking, sermon prep and “preacher prep” take time. It takes a LOT of time to shape and equip a man as an expositor of God’s word. For example, the seminary where I attended has an MDiv program of 98 units (representing 3-4 years and thousands of hours). It could be argued every single one of those hours was spent in some way preparing men to become expositors. And having received our degree, many of us still felt like we were just getting started!

So it is with great hesitation I write a post “How to Quickly Develop Preachers.” In one sense, this is an impossibility. But what would you do if you had only a limited time, say, just over a month, to develop the next preacher in your church?

For one friend, this is no hypothetical. He recently said he has only been given five weeks to train some preachers, and then his access and involvement to this flock will be largely cut off. As you might have guessed, he is in an international context. He recently asked a few friends, “Do any of you have short homiletics seminars / bootcamps / courses / resources to share that might be of help as I train some of these men?”

Here was my reply:

What an excellent, practical question. I am praying the Lord will give you wisdom and efficiency with what little time you have.

I think the two most important things you need to discuss are hermeneutics and homiletics. These two provide the building blocks for everything else in sound exegetical teaching and preaching.  

Hermeneutics (the rules of biblical interpretation). R.C. Sproul’s little 125 page book Knowing Scripture is gold. In chapter 4, he shares ten rules for Bible interpretation: Interpret like any book. Read existentially. Interpret the historical by the didactic. Interpret the implicit by the explicit. Determine the meaning of words. Parallelism. Proverb and law. The spirit vs. the letter of the law. Be careful with parables and predictive prophecy. This short book distills much of what I grew up learning as a Christian and had reinforced in seminary. His last chapter on practical tools for Bible Study will also help a Bible student or preacher build their own personal library.

Homiletics (the art and science of preaching).  David Murray’s book How Sermons Work is short, comprehensive, and full of practical examples. He covers all the bases including preparation, selecting a text, interrogation (exegesis), variety in preaching, sermon introductions, organizing the material, developing applications, and the actual preaching event. All in 150 pages!  

Studying these two topics of hermeneutics and homiletics, while also listening and evaluating sample sermons, and then practicing preaching short sermons are probably the best ways to learn.

If necessary, these principles could be taught in a few weeks, though the skills will take a lifetime to master. And still, we will exclaim with Paul, “Who is sufficient for these things?”

2 Corinthians 3:4–6 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.