PREACHING

'Preachers lead whenever they help others bridge the gap between their aspirations and their reality. Doing so will mean challenging their ideas and helping them see beyond their shallow goals. It will mean pacing the challenge to keep them moving forward with discouraging them. It will mean keeping the focus on the issue until people accept responsibility for it and begin to change. Preachers lead whenever they help others bridge the gap between their understanding of God and God's claims in their lives. Preachers are equipped to do that only as they are open to God's work in their own lives and have seen their own values, attituudes, and behaviours challenged and changed by the Word of God.'

Alice P Mathews, Preaching That Speaks to Women, p.139.

PREACHING

'Preaching is a call to faith.'
Alice P Mathews, Preaching That Speaks to Women, p.111.  

PREACHING

'The kind of preaching to which laypeople are exposed in large measure determines the vision or image of God they carry around in their heads, and that vision determines how they live. If they see God as an arbitary dictator or as a spoilsport, they live in fear and guilt. Their vision of God is central to their lives because that vision provides the worldview that controls them. It shapes the way they both interpret and respond to everything going on around them.'

Alice P Mathews, Preaching That Speaks to Women, p.107.

FAITH

'If there is any subject in the Bible about which preachers must not be vague or abstract, it is the subject of faith. For the biblical writers, faith is not a theoretical question. It met them and it meets us in the middle of life in the world. Faith is the door to the presence of God (Heb.11:6). Faith is the means by which we appropriate God's grace for salvation (Eph.2:8-9). Faith is the root of the Christian life (Rom.5:1). Faith unleashes power to serve God (Matt.17:20). In short, faith is at the core of the Christian life. Preaching is a call to faith, and it must be clear. Without faith we cannot please God (Heb.11:6). Without faith a relationship with God is not possible. Faith is essential to Christian spirituality.'

Alice P Mathews, Preaching That Speaks to Women, p.104.

POST-MODERNISM

'The term postmodernism  has become a real trash can for whatever many of us think we do not like or want to face.'

Alice P Mathews, Preaching That Speaks to Women, p.80.

PREACHING

'When you step before an audience, tell the truth. Do not make up fairy tales about the Christian life. People are listening, and they may hear and take seriously what you say. Do not promise more than the gospel promises: The gospel of Jesus Christ promises deliverance from spiritual death and hell. The gospel promises eternal life with the eternal God. The gospel promiese God's enpowering presence in our lives. But the gospel does not promise that if we live a certain way, certain results are 100 percent guaranteed. A woman being batterted by her deacon- or elder-husband should not be told that if she is submissive, she will have a wonderful fullfilling marriage. Here marriage is a torment, and she may end up in a coffin if her husband's violence escalates.  

In your preaching, do not gloss over the problems women face in bad marriages. Do not dismiss the struggle of single mothers, the stress and hassle of work world, the painful obligations posed by aging parents. Do not ignore or trivialise women's realities. When you do, you may help push them towards disillusionment with the church and with the gospel.'

Alice P Mathews, Preaching That Speaks to Women, p.77.

PREACHING

'...a preacher can do only three things with an idea: explain it, prove it, and apply it. Turned around, these are the three funcional questions budding preachers are taught to ask in sermon preparation: What does the text mean? Is it true? So what?'

Alice P Mathews, Preaching That Speaks to Women,  p.73.