Distinguished author, podcast host, professor, and pastor Kevin DeYoung spoke at Chapel for The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and presented the historic E.Y. Mullins lecture series March 19–20.
DeYoung (PhD, University of Leicester) is the senior pastor at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina, and associate professor of systematic theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte. He has written books for children, adults, and academics, including Just Do Something; Crazy Busy; and The Biggest Story.
“Sometimes we need to step back and do the obvious, though painful, right thing to do,” DeYoung said in his chapel message from Genesis 39. “The Lord sticks close to those who will stick close to him. God is with us even when no one else is.”
During the Mullins lectures, DeYoung offered three lectures on improving preaching. The first lecture, titled “Three Indispensable Requirements for Good Preaching,” laid a foundation for understanding expository preaching as getting to the meaning of the text and what to do with it.
The second lecture examined the Puritan understanding of preaching and offered historical insights for pastors wanting to approach preaching as expository, doctrinal, orderly, plainly, and focused on Christ.
In the third lecture, DeYoung offered ten suggestions for how preachers can make progress in improving their pulpit ministry:
- Preach the right sermon from the right text.
- Make sure your best stuff comes from the closest attention to the text.
- Have preaching heroes and be willing to disagree with them.
- Aim for simplicity.
- Work hard for clarity.
- Don’t be lopsided.
- Don’t be afraid of variety.
- Preach the meaning and mood of the text.
- Elevate and respect the uniqueness of the preaching event.
- Preach with confidence.
“Your job as preachers,” DeYoung said. “Is to just keep sowing seeds. Let the Lord do what he wants with the seed. In the parable in Mark 4, Jesus says that the farmer sleeps and goes to bed. When he wakes up, he knows not how it grows by the power of the germinating seed of the Word of God. God will bring the growth. Let us have confidence that he will.”