Southwestern Hosts Second Annual Preaching Conference
By Katie Coleman, Julie Owens and Alex Sibley
Southwestern Seminary’s second annual Text-Driven Preaching Conference, March 5-7, provided helpful instruction in the what, how and why of text-driven preaching. Eight plenary sessions, their choice among 30 breakout sessions, and a pre-conference workshop—all led by renowned preachers and scholars in the field of preaching—equipped attendees to allow the structure, substance and spirit of a given biblical text to drive the structure, substance and spirit of their sermons.
Each of the plenary sessions featured a text-driven preacher modeling how to preach a text-driven sermon. Speakers included Dante Wright, H.B. Charles, Tony Merida, Robby Gallaty, and Alistair Begg, as well as Southwestern professors David Allen, Barry McCarty, and President Paige Patterson.
Dean of Southwestern’s School of Preaching David Allen opened the conference, delivering a message from Isaiah 6, wherein Isaiah encounters the Lord and receives his call to be a prophet. Describing Isaiah’s vision of the Lord, Allen said, “Isaiah saw things in the night of sadness that he never saw in the light of gladness.”
Allen asserted that this is characteristic of not only Isaiah, but of himself and of the many preachers in attendance. “All your losses, all your disappointments, and all your discouragements have a mission from God—to point you not to an empty throne on earth, but to a God who sits enthroned in heaven.”
Allen called on his fellow preachers be wary of neglecting their calling. “There is only one sin greater than the rejection of the preaching of God’s Word,” he said. “That is the rejection of preaching the Word when you are called to do so.”
Following Allen was Dante Wright, senior pastor of Sweet Home—The Pinnacle of Praise in Round Rock, Texas, who preached from Jeremiah 20. He exhorted preachers to rely on God as the sustainer of their ministries, even when they face the temptation to quit.
Wright described a “virus” that has power to destroy one’s ministry and church. This “virus,” he explained, is manifested in various aspects of ministry: disappointment following Sunday services, members who “starve your appetite for ministry,” discouragement, and many other factors that bring pastors to the brink of “spiritual burnout.”
Wright challenged conference attendees to remember the God who called them to ministry. “God is too legit for you to quit on Him,” Wright said.
The complaints described by Jeremiah in this chapter are not unfamiliar to the preachers of today, Wright explained. Many pastors are frustrated and discouraged by ridicule they receive, as well as the disappointments of unmet expectations.
“Remember, if God calls you, He can save you and He can sustain you,” Wright said. “You can overcome the temptation to quit by making a decision to persevere under pressure.”
Southwestern President Paige Patterson kicked off the second day of the conference, explaining that the doctrine of salvation is the most important element in God’s Word. “Every doctrine is important, and the Bible is about many things,” he said, “but from the earliest chapters of Genesis, the Bible is about the fall of man and the plan of God to bring about his redemption.”
Preaching from Leviticus 16 on the Day of Atonement, Patterson noted how God told Aaron that he must approach Him in a prescribed way. “The first thing that we are met with is that you do not come to God anytime you choose, under your chosen circumstances. … You have to come to God in God’s way and on His timetable,” Patterson said. “There is no guarantee there will be another opportunity like that.”
But while a sinner is subject to the laws of God, Patterson said, repentance and the blood of Jesus make atonement possible. “God is the eternal judge of the universe,” he said. “He has found us guilty of evil and said the wages of sin is death. But then the eternal Judge laid aside His robes and took human form and paid the price for us.”