The Preacher's Catechism

Your work as a pastor can make it easy to overlook the deep needs of your own soul. These 43 questions and answers, written to reflect the format of historic catechisms, seek to provide nourishment for weary pastors in the thick of ministry. Each chapter features content designed to care for your spiritual health, feeding your mind and heart with life-giving truth aimed at helping you press on in ministry with endurance, contentment, and joy.

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Invitation to the Reader

PART 1 THE GLORY OF GOD AND THE GREATNESS OF PREACHING

1. Preaching, above All—What is God’s chief end in preaching?
2. Enjoying God—How do we enjoy God?
3. The One We Preach—Who is God?
4. By the Book—What do the Scriptures primarily teach?
5. Preaching Christ—What is preaching?
6. All Our Days—What is the preacher’s chief end?
7. Confident of This—How can we rest in God’s power and purpose?
8. Called to Preach—Why do we believe that God called us to preach?
9. For God, for People—Why does God call us to preach?
10. Not a Square Inch—What else did God ordain?

PART 2 JESUS FOR PREACHERS

11. Sin—How did the first preacher sin?
12. Weakness—What is the good news for struggling preachers?
13. Knowing Jesus—Does Jesus love preachers?
14. For His Name’s Sake—Surely we preachers don’t have to suffer, do we?
15. Rewarded—Where does our reward come from?
16. This Solid Ground—But are we saved?
17. Lavish Love—How can we know we really are saved?
18. Holiness—How will we preachers grow?
19. Journey’s End—Will we ever stop preaching?

PART 3 LOVING THE WORLD

20. The Grace of Law—Must we preachers obey the law, too?
21. Obedience—What ten things must every preacher know and do?
22. Love’s Choice—What does the first commandment teach us?
23. Image Rights?—What does the second commandment teach us?
24. Our Honor or His?—What does the third commandment teach us?
25. Stop!—What does the fourth commandment teach us?
26. Respect—What does the fifth commandment teach us?
27. Servant-Hearted Servants—What does the sixth commandment teach us?
28. Faithful Attraction—What does the seventh commandment teach us?
29. Give—What does the eighth commandment teach us?
30. True to His Word—What does the ninth commandment teach us?
31. Resist—What does the tenth commandment teach us?
32. The Heart of the Law—What is the summary of the Ten Commandment for preachers?

PART 4 PREACHING WITH CONVICTION

33. Trusting Ministry—Why should we believe in our preaching?
34. At the Cross—What happens when we preachers actually believe in Jesus?
35. The Courage of Our Convictions—How can we treasure preaching, even when we feel like no one else does?
36. Ministering Sacraments—Will we let the sacraments preach?
37. Take Them to the Water—Why do we celebrate baptism?
38. To Supper—Why do we share the pulpit with the Lord’s Supper?
39. Seek First—What is prayer?
40. Praying, for His Glory—Do we want God and his kingdom above all else when Sunday comes?
41. Trust Issues—Do we go home on a Sunday praying for God’s will to be done?
42. Confession Time—What’s the worst sin we might commit in a sermon?
43. All for the King—Will we pray ourselves into a glad submission to God?

About the Author:

Lewis Allen (ThM, Westminster Theological Seminary) serves as senior pastor of Hope Church in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which he helped plant after twelve years of pastoring a church in West London.

Hardcover. 224 pages.