What difference does the everyday context of your congregation make to your preaching – in preparation, delivery, content, and response? This is the question I posed to three different preachers from three different churches.
Dave Bruce is Chase Team Rector of St Andrews and All Saints churches in Malvern. He taught physics for 15 years before training at Trinity College Bristol and completing his curacy in Malvern.
Lukundo Fagade is on the leadership team of King’s Church, Manchester, and helps lead a church plant in Higher Blackely. She also works part time as a community pharmacist.
Clive Burnard was an atheist until the age of 32 when the Lord ‘turned him around’. He’s now been in ministry for 25 years, the last two of which he’s spent being Senior Pastor at Mutley Baptist Church in Plymouth.
NG How were you taught to preach? How has your preaching developed and changed over the years as you’ve matured in your style, delivery, and theological thinking?
DB I was brought up on expository preaching, and, despite a bit of input at theological college, I’ve learnt mainly from watching other preachers. Preaching for me is about ‘hook, book, look, took’ – hooking people in, looking at the Bible, unpacking it, and then taking it and using it. More recently, however, I’ve begun to reflect on the idea of response – how can I preach in a way that allows God to meet with people in his Word by his Spirit and respond in a way which brings transformation? How can I, through my preaching, grow
