Books like Expositional Preaching: Chinese ( 9Marks): How We Speak God's Word Today (Building Healthy Churches

My cousin's husband, who's a pastor himself, recommended this book to me during a discussion on preaching at a family reunion. When I got it out of the library, I was pleased to discover that it was quite short and to the point. (I'm afraid I don't have much patience with theological tomes; sorry, St. Augustine!)I grew up in a small fellowship where the teaching was always Bible-based and Bible-focused. Having learned preaching in that environment, more by example than by instruction, I didn't realize until fairly recently that this style had a name. We were expositional before expositional was cool!It was both interesting and edifying, however, to learn some of the "theory" behind the practice. I love the esteem in which Helm holds the Word of God, and how he argues we should submit to it, and allow it to shape our preaching. I was also very pleased with the emphasis he places on our dependence on the Holy Spirit, especially in the last chapter. Books such as this one can certainly be helpful, but without the Spirit of God speaking His Word through us, we are all the "clanging gong" spoken of by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13.The one thing I didn't love about the book was that it felt, at times, like a sort of condensed, college-level textbook. There were a lot of abstract concepts, and I didn't feel that the alliterative lists (sometimes nested inside other alliterative lists) made them memorable enough to really be helpful. The practical examples were great, and I wish there had been more of those, and less abstraction.Overall, however, I really enjoyed this book, and it has me interested to look up the other ones in the 9Marks series. (Not being a Calvinist, though, I expect I'll probably find some of them a little annoying. :-))I will close with a couple of my favorite takeaway quotes from the book: "The people are the point!" "Preachers cannot be too simple. *We need clarity.*"And I can hear the few folks who put up with my sometimes-wordy preaching saying "amen" to the latter! :-)