10/10 (exceptional): An excellent textbook for any serious preacher. It's occasionally a little wooden, but page after page is filled with helpful, sage advice with just the right balance of freedom and direction. I will return to this again and again. ( )

Vines and Shaddix’s book caught my eye by their front cover, but Dr. Bryan Chapell’s Christ-Centered Preaching caught it by the back. With recommendations from Dr. R. C. Sproul and Dr. J. I. Packer, two of my favorite pastor-theologians, I knew I was going to be in for a treat. Dr. Chapell is the pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church in Peoria, Illinois, but has also played a prominent role in areas of preaching and theology at Covenant Theological Seminary. He also authored Christ-Centered Worship, which I read during my time as a worship pastor. He has also authored books on prayer, marriage, and several robust volumes on reformed theology. I truly believe he will go down as one of the most exceptional pastor-theologians of our day, with several books I believe will benefit many of the future generations of pastors and Christians.

Book Synopsis
Similar to some of the other volumes we have reviewed, Christ-Centered Preaching is separated into three main parts where Dr. Chapell covered the principles of expository preaching, the preparation of expository sermons, and a theology of Christ-centered messages. Each is poignant, timely, and filled with vivid theology and clear application as Dr. Chapell seeks to offer techniques for serve faithful pastors for years of gospel ministry. As a pastor, Dr. Chapell knows the work it takes to delivery sermons and this book seeks to provide a method for pastors to do so faithfully as we seek to equip, edify, and feed our flocks faithfully with expository sermons centered on our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The first section on the principles of expository preaching is focused primarily on the priority or importance of God’s Word. I especially appreciated his caution against using Scripture to mean “whatever our imaginations suggest rather than what Scripture determines,” because when we do we elevate our opinions and “make the Bible say anything we want” (77). This is dangerous, of course, so we should be sure and “use Scripture alone as the basis for [our] exhortations” (78).

The second section on the preparation of expository sermons seems to be where Dr. Chapell has the most fun or is right at home. After selecting a text, we are to begin to ask the text questions to shed light on its meaning to shed light on “where we are going” (104). When we are clear on the questions, we are able to move along in the study process to fine tune our exegesis to form our sermon structures which are grounded in the text, driving home the text’s main point. He also highlights illustrations and applications in chapters seven and eight, respectively, where illustrations help to illumine the texts and applications bring the text home to roost in the hearts of our hearers. It would seem that Dr. Chapell finds the application of utmost importance, for he shares without it “a preacher has no reason to preach” (210).

The final section on Christ-centered on a theology of Christ-centered messages is vitally important. Christ is at the heart of Scripture and is the only answer for the fallen human condition Dr. Chapell addresses in the first chapter on a redemptive approach to preaching. However, this chapter also has the warning to be wary of non-redemptive messages centered in the “deadly Be’s,” such as “Be Like”, “Be Good”, and “Be Disciplined” messages. Using a diagram, Dr. Chapell points out Christ-centered exposition is where “a preacher explains the role of an epoch, event, person, and passage within the divine crusade of redemption” (304).”

Another characteristic of Dr. Chapell’s book are the discussion questions following each chapter, which help to give the reader some further things to consider. Also, there is an appendix in the back, which covers topics of style, methods, length, and virtually every other sermon issue imaginable. Christ-Centered Preaching is clearly laid out, easy to follow, and not too technical. Also, with bits of help on weddings and funerals, it seems to cover every sermon occasion imaginable in an expositional, Christ-centered manner.

Personal Interaction
Since I am running out of space, a few of my highlights from Dr. Chapell’s book involve the path of preparation and his chapter on the application, as these are my current areas of need. I found the six critical questions beginning chapter five to be helpful, especially to show any areas of weakness or misunderstanding of the text I need to study deeper in order to clearly preach the text. Answering the questions will allow one to preach faithfully, clearly, and expositional.

We are not in the pulpit to simply proclaim the Word, but also to apply the Word we proclaim, and chapter eight offers incredibly helpful insights on how to do so. We have to be sure we cover the what (214-216), the where (216-219), the why (219-220), and the how (220-222), as smoothly as possible, and Dr. Chapell seeks to keep us from falling into various breaking points. In fact, he says, “When listeners conclude that a pastor as ‘stopped preachin’ and gone to meddlin’, the sermon fails.”

Conclusion
To conclude, Dr. Chapell’s Christ-Centered Preaching has been my favorite book to read and review for our class. It is timely, helpful, clear, and filled helpful tools to guide me in my beginnings of expositional preaching. Further, I would highly recommend this book to any pastor seeking help in making Christ the central focus of his preaching. ( )

Bryan Chapell continually reminds us through his book “Christ-centered Preaching” that in order to be effective we have to keep our focus on Christ. We need to take time to prepare, we have to try to understand what the text means, we need to be organized, we need to present the material so that it is interesting and understandable; but above all these things, we need to focus the attention of the congregation on Christ and His work. If the people listening to a sermon leave thinking about how organized the sermon was, or how nice the preacher looked, or how nicely he read the scripture, then the sermon was ineffective. The work is not complete unless the congregation leaves thinking God and his grace.
Bryan then also covers the other things involved in preparing and delivering a sermon. He talks about taking the message from a particular text in the Bible and expounding on that text. He also talks about how to organize a sermon. Even though there is no prescribed order in which these components need to appear in a sermon he says that every sermon should, “present the Word, explain what it says, and exhort based on what it means. This is expository preaching.” He especially emphasized the need for exhortation, or application in a sermon. He writes, “The application of the sermon is not merely an appendage to the discussion or a subordinate part of it, but is the main thing to be done.” A sermon without application leaves people where they started. They may understand a little more about culture in Bible times, or about tenses in Greek or Hebrew, they might even have a better understanding of how the text fits into the whole scheme of the Bible, but if there is no application to their personal life then the sermon was pointless. It didn't help them grow and it left their life completely unaffected.
He also goes over the importance of using illustrations and how to format introductions and conclusions. But in the end I believe that the most important thing that he stressed was the need for the sermon to be Christ focused. He wrote a lot of things in the book, and though I wrote a lot of notes, there is no way that I am going to remember even one third of all that he said, but if there are two things that he stressed that I will take with me, one will be, “Even if your words barely crawl over the edge of the pulpit, love of God's Word, will, and people ensures an effective spiritual ministry.” It is important to try hard to prepare a good sermon and to have good delivery, but in the end I have to put it in God's hands, because He is the only one that knows exactly what is going on in people's hearts and that can touch them where they need to be touched. And the other thing is, “God called you to this situation. He wanted no one else in the universe to prepare this message for this moment other than you.” It's easy to think of oneself as being inadequate for preaching a sermon, or delivering any message from God for that matter, and in truth we are, but even though we don't deserve to be His messengers he has chosen us and we have to trust that He knows what he's doing. However I do any time I get up in the pulpit, I can rest in the fact that whatever happens, it's what God wanted to happen, and he'll use it for his glory.

In Christ-Centered Preaching, Bryan Chapell (Chancellor of Covenant Seminary in St. Louis) provides a unique and important contribution to the study of preaching. In much the same manner as Robinson’s Biblical Preaching and Vines’ Power in the Pulpit, Chapell strives to recover the importance and beauty of the expository sermon for his readers. Expository preaching, “puts people in immediate contact with the power of the Word” (31). Chapell is quick to dispel any notion, however, that his is just another text on preaching.

In chapter one, the author reveals his theological cards when it comes to the preached Word and writes, “preaching accomplishes its spiritual purposes not because of the skills or the wisdom of the preacher but because of the power of the Scripture proclaimed” (26). The preacher, then, is responsible to present the Word, explain the Word, and make exhortations based upon the Word (86). “The efficacy of the truths in God’s message rather than any virtue in the messenger,” he writes, “transforms hearts” (26).

This conviction – that God is the active agent in the preaching event – is woven throughout the entire book, and comes to full fruition in Chapell’s instruction that every sermon must have Christ at its most foundational point. It is this aspect of his instruction on preaching – “to disclose where every text stands in relation to Christ” – that seems to be noticeably absent from other preaching textbooks (279).
Critique

One major contribution of his text is his instruction to discover the Fallen Condition Focus of a text during sermon preparation. The preacher must search for, “the human concern that caused the Holy Spirit to inspire this aspect of Scripture,” and once discovered, the preacher is given the key to discovering the importance of the passage in the lives of his congregation (48). Once he discovers the Fallen Condition Focus (FCF), the preacher can search for a contemporary parallel in the life of his hearers that helps them realize the modern-day application of the ancient text. This emphasis on the FCF provides a biblical means of discerning God’s intended application of a text, whereas other methods that instruct the preacher to study culture and keep abreast of current movies and books places the authority that governs application outside of Scripture.

Another major contribution of Chapell’s book is that it is noticeably theological in nature. Rather than follow a portion of a chapter of theology with seven chapters of exegetical method and six chapters of the importance of water for a healthy throat, Chapell finds a much healthier balance between theology and practice. He maintains great insight into sermon preparation, yet never loses sight of the goal, “to sweep listeners up into the glory and the power of the Spirit’s revelation” (139).

His greatest contribution to the conversation lies in the final chapters of the book. In these chapters, he lays out a case for redemptive preaching. Such preaching comes about when it “specifies an FCF indicated by a text and addresses this aspect of our fallenness with the grace revealed by the text” (270). Christ-centered preaching is not searching for Jesus behind every rock and crag in the text in the hope that he will appear if one only look hard enough. Nor is Christ-centered preaching the type of allegory that permeated the medieval period. Christ-centered preaching strives to reveal each passage’s relation to the work of Christ. Every text is either predictive of Christ’s work, preparation for Christ’s work, reflective of Christ’s work, or the result of Christ’s work (282). The duty of the preacher is to discern this relationship between written Word and living Word and communicate that to the congregation.

Chapell’s instruction as to discover the intended meaning and application of the text as it relates to the work of Christ Jesus provides the student with the means to follow Spurgeon’s “bee-line to the cross” without making assumptions and impositions upon the text that simply do not belong. That provision stands as the greatest highlight of this text, and the greatest gift of this book to this preacher.

If someone were only able to buy one book on preaching I think this should be the one. Bryan Chapell champions the importance of preaching Christ from ever text, but he also reminds us of the importance of preaching the specific text rather than just embarking on some redemptive historical rant. His discussion of the Fallen Condition Focus is also very helpful. ( )