Center for Compelling Biblical Preaching

We understand that the most compelling preaching comes from a life consumed with loving God and loving others (Matt 22:37–40; Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 9:27; 1 Tim. 3:7; 4:16; Titus 1:9; 1 Pet. 5:2–4). Chief among the values of loving God and others are meekness, gentleness, kindness, and humility (2 Cor. 10:1; Eph. 4:2; Col. 3:12; 1 Thess. 2:7; 2 Tim. 2:25; Titus 3:2; James 3:13; 1 Pet. 5:5). We seek to live these values at the Center, cultivate them in others, and encourage others to cultivate them in those they serve.

We believe that the received final form of the books of Scripture intend to communicate a meaning given by the whole of the words, tone, structure, genre, and theology of an individual book. That meaning both contributes to and is part of the meaning of the full canon of Scripture. Each book has individual units which communicate a meaning that contributes to and is part of the meaning of a whole book. We seek to equip proclaimers of the Word of God to hone the knowledge, art, and skills to discern, explain, and apply such meanings as the main diet of Scripture to those they serve.

We believe that God’s gifts are expressed through human personalities, experiences, and mores. With respect to compelling biblical preaching, a person’s spiritual self is not separated from one’s embodied self. Instead, each preacher brings an embodied spirituality, Christian practice, and preaching tradition to one’s preaching. Where their realities do not contradict our other values, we seek to allow these embodied realities to provide flourishing in the ministry of preaching rather than to force some to deny or hide their authentic embodied realities.

We exist as part of a confessional institution and hold to its confessional standards. Additionally, in striving for compelling biblical preaching, we embrace and promote a Nicene Christianity so that we might draw from, partner with, and serve compelling preaching practices broader than our institutional confession. We recognize that much compelling preaching, and practices contributing to such, reside in arenas broader than the convictions and preferences that accompany the essentials of our confessions. In the essentials we hold to unity with historic Christian orthodoxy.

We believe that the penultimate aim of compelling biblical preaching is for the peoples of the nations—the families of the earth—to hear the gospel proclaimed to them and have disciples established among them (Matt. 28:19–20; Acts 1:8; Rom. 15:9, 20–21, 26; Eph. 3:21). “Global” encompasses ethnicity, race, geography, class, age, ability, economic status, and all aspects of persons from all walks of life. We especially value the equipping of small church, small town, and working-class preachers, preachers from marginalized communities and congregations, and those currently outside the reach of formal Christian education, according to current Lausanne Movement Research (2015).

We believe preaching that is both biblical and compelling is dependent upon grace—it is dependent upon the sovereign power of God enabling the prayerful preacher through the working of the Holy Spirit. We seek to model and encourage great prayer, yielding to the Spirit, and faith in God to provide results as He wills. We value human preparation and endowments only as workings of grace and not as human efforts that earn God’s favor or that provide measurable results for one greater or lesser than God’s working in others.