Charles Simeon’s journey in the world where people came to be saved tells us more about what decision made by individual and determination can lead to. In his youthful stage, Charles was not someone who could be expected to one stand and preach the sermon of God 1 . His turn of events came as surprise to many people. Sure, if you are destined to save the living God then no one can take it away, no matter your life you have lived in the past or what your friends say about you. In the book “Twelve Skills of Great Preaching,” the author Wayne McDill introduces us to various methods that can be used to prepare for a sermon and an inductive way of studying the Bible 2 . For the modern preachers in the 21 st century, some of the details about Charles’s life should remain legendary especially when combined with the tips given by Wayne McDill.
The events that drove Charles to fellowship and preaching are exactly the same as the story of Robert Murray M’Cheyne. These two great preachers had a journey that is almost the same and they were always inspired by similar ideologies about the kingdom of God and how people should be pushed to surrender their past lives and come back to the Lord who is the savior 3 . In Murray’s work as an evangelist, it was said that “affection for the Christ was the pulsating power behind his preaching.” This is the same with Charles who had a very unique story before God placed him in the position of preaching to convert souls. There are different occasions when people tried to remove Charles from his role as a preacher but they never succeeded 4 . As a preacher, Charles had many obstacles to his mission and through the power of the living Lord he served, he was never removed.
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The theological foundation of Charles can be used as a testimony in the modern world. Something very important as someone reads through his work is that throughout his preaching, he was a servant of God who always wanted his preaching to make a real difference to his audience. When preaching, he always tested his work on the pulpit in a very creative manner 5 . Three sets of questions were used and these are; “does the preaching uniformly tend to humble the sinners?” “Does the preaching exalt the savior” and lastly, “does the preaching promote holiness?” These are exactly what we find written by Wayne McDill as skill three. The skill three by Wayne is concerned with asking research questions 6 . This is very important as it makes the sermon engaging and offers the preachers an opportunity to get to know if their audiences understand anything preached. It is a way of giving immediate progress on what is understood.
In contrast to Murray’s work, Charles's desire was to develop what he termed as “Bible Christian.” He identified himself as Bible Christian on most occasions and he justified this by waking up very early in the morning at 4.00 am to pray and meditate about the teachings in the bible 7 . This will only end at 8.00 am and it is after these four hours pray that he will call a friend and a servant to hold what was known as a “family prayer.”
Skill two from Wayne’s work talks about noting text detail. This is an area that was taken so much into consideration by Charles Simeon by his methodology for preaching 8 . From the beginning of his pulpit ministry, Charles intended his ministry to be very direct and simple to understand. This is the same thing that is proposed by Philips Brooks who was well known for defining preaching as “truth through personality.” Brook opted for a natural and unaffected approach in preaching. To summarize, preaching the gospel helps to share the love of God and Christ and it should be done in a manner that is easy to understand so as to touch more souls and change the way people see the earth. We are supposed to see things or events in the ways of the Lord, showing love, humility, and generosity.
Bibliography
Curtis, Bill. “Rodney ‘Gipsy’ Smith, Forgotten Evangelist” in A Legacy of Preaching, Two – Enlightenment to the Present Day , ed. Forrest, Benjamin K. et al. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018.
Forrest, Ben and Kevin King, et al., editors A Legacy of Preaching, Volume Two---Apostles to the Revivalists: The Life, Theology, and Method of History’s Great Preachers . Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 20
Matz, Robert and Jerry Sutton. “B. H. Carroll, Preaching Sermons saturated with Scripture” in A Legacy of Preaching, Volume Two - Enlightenment to the Present Day , ed. Forrest, Benjamin K. et al. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018.
McDill, Wayne. Twelve Essential Skills for Great Preaching. Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing Group, 2018.
Stone, Jordan Mark. “Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Preaching the Love of God in Jesus Christ” in A Legacy of Preaching, Volume Two – Enlightenment to the Present Day , ed. Forrest, Benjamin K. et al. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018.
1 McDill, Wayne. Twelve Essential Skills for Great Preaching. Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing Group, 2018.
2 Ibid.
3 Stone, Jordan Mark. “Robert Murray M’Cheyne, Preaching the Love of God in Jesus Christ” in A Legacy of Preaching, Volume Two – Enlightenment to the Present Day , ed. Forrest, Benjamin K. et al. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018.
4 Matz, Robert and Jerry Sutton. “B. H. Carroll, Preaching Sermons saturated with Scripture” in A Legacy of Preaching, Volume Two - Enlightenment to the Present Day , ed. Forrest, Benjamin K. et al. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018.
5 Forrest, Ben and Kevin King, et al., editors A Legacy of Preaching, Volume Two---Apostles to the Revivalists: The Life, Theology, and Method of History’s Great Preachers . Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 20
6 Ibid
7 Curtis, Bill. “Rodney ‘Gipsy’ Smith, Forgotten Evangelist” in A Legacy of Preaching, Two – Enlightenment to the Present Day , ed. Forrest, Benjamin K. et al. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018.
8 Curtis, Bill. “Rodney ‘Gipsy’ Smith, Forgotten Evangelist” in A Legacy of Preaching, Two – Enlightenment to the Present Day , ed. Forrest, Benjamin K. et al. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018.
