Charles Spurgeon is remembered even still as being the most popular preacher of his era, but his fingerprint upon the Kingdom of God goes even further because of his influence upon ministers and theological students down through the ages. While pastoring he organized a college for ministers and invested in them. On Fridays he would be more informal with his lectures and over time those messages were recorded and put into book form. From that we get Lectures to My Students, a wonderful collection of subject matter that covers everything from preaching, to prayer, and to ministry.
This review, though, is not of Charles Spurgeon’s work but rather of Jason Keith Allen’s work, Letters to My Students. The book to which I’m referring to is volume 1 of a series where the author desires to mentor ministers and future ministers just as Spurgeon had done many years ago.
Allen is the president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and was influential in bringing that seminary from near death to a thriving and growing seminary. He serves as an associate professor for preaching and pastoral ministry, has his own weekly podcast entitled “Preaching and Preachers”, and is the author of several books, including The SBC and the 21st Century, Discerning Your Call to Ministry, Being a Christian, and Portraits of a Pastor.
I have read some of his pastor works by this is my favorite. Over the past several years I’ve attempted to be a student of the preaching process in hopes of improving my own efforts to preach. This first volume which occupies its attention squarely on preaching I have found to be one of the most refreshing and practical works that I have had the privilege to read.
In this work he has broken down the topic into three sections: preparing to be a preacher, preparing your sermon, and growing in your preaching. In these sections Allen is true to keeping the focus upon the Word of God while at the same time navigating a preacher through the events that we face that might tempt us to deter from that.
I love this book! I would encourage every pastor to read it. You will find it just as refreshing as I did. I look forward to future volumes.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher for an honest review.
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