Paul Washer on Homiletics

Until recently, Paul Washer was known to me only through is followers, who are constantly asking me what I think of him. When my response was, “Not sure who that is…” I was usually met with looks of disbelief, disdain, and supposed disgrace. I’m not sure what this says about me, but those responses actually motivated me to maintain my ignorance.

I confess that I did break down and watch “The Most Shocking Sermon Ever!!!!” on youtube, and was a little bit confused. Not knowing the audience, it struck me as strange to hear—and please allow a loose paraphrase—“You probably have never heard this before, and I won’t be invited back for telling you this, but unless Jesus is Lord of your life, you are not saved!” I tell the college students in my ministry that every week. I actually tell myself that every morning, so to have that kind of line labeled “The Most Shocking Sermon Ever” sort of amused me.

But last semester my umbrella of ignorance was broken when Washer came to The Master’s College, where he preached in chapel and led various Bible classes. I got to meet him, and I must say that he struck me as refreshingly humble and earnest. He had an exhausting schedule, preaching late nights and early mornings, and he still volunteered to get up to meet with any seminary students who wanted to be there before school started. He seemed very grateful, and was exceedingly approachable and sincere.

Beyond that, he also expressed amusement about the one sermon he is known for, which put me at ease. I went to the chapel messages he preached at The Master’s College, and was struck by the power in his preaching. Both messages were convicting challenges to live a holy life, and they were saturated with the gospel. Plus, they were actually expositional messages, exposing the main point of the passages he preached.

During his brief stay, he made time to head down to The Master’s Seminary, where he shared some thoughts on preaching to one of the homiletics classes there. I snuck in the back, took notes, and thought I’d share some of the highlights. Here are some of his more memorable quotes from that impromptu class:

• “There are very few people who are known for evangelism, and yet who fall into the trap of liberal theology. It is very hard to get influenced by liberalism when you are out trying to win souls for Jesus.”
• “I believe in the sovereignty of God over salvation, because I know that the conversion of a man is an absolute impossibility.”
• “The doctrine of the sovereignty of God affects preaching in this way: every time, before you get into the pulpit, you ask yourself, ‘Lord, can these bones live?’ The answer: ‘only if you make them alive.”
• “Many seminaries turn out good preachers who do not lead godly lives. There are so many people out there who are concerned about the preparation of the sermon that they leave behind the preparation of the man.”
• “To help yourself in your devotional life, ask this question over and over again, ‘how does the death of the son of God lead to my forgiveness, and how is that seen here in this passage?”
• “Pastors need to recover the lost practice of staying up late and getting up early for the purpose of prayer. There is a sense that in the evangelical culture we have let the charismatics steal our heritage. We get to those powerful passages on prayer and go into defense mode against the wrong teachings of the charismatics, rather than into extolling the virtues of all-night prayer.”
• “A structured sermon is good, but don’t ever turn God into a propositional statement. Someone should write a book on the idolatry of expository preaching.”
• [On the role of parents vs. the youth pastor in training children]: “God did not give you a child to turn his spiritual development over to a 21-year-old with mousse in his hair who thinks he is cool.”
• “As a pastor, always do theology in the context of the local church.”
• “Preaching should never grow dull. There is never a time where truths have already been explained, so the pastor runs out of things to say. Semper reformanda, so the truths need to be rediscovered every generation.”
• “If a pastor studies a passage to figure out how to preach it, it will be a powerless sermon. If you labor over something to be preached, all that will happen is it will be heard. Instead, you have to ask: ‘What has this passage done to me?”
• “Charismatics repeat the errors of the mystics. The problem with the mystics is that they were looking for the word of God in every place but the Bible.”
• “Evangelism is why I exist. If everyone in the world was saved, you would never see me again. I’d move out to the mountains and be with my family.”

I am thankful Paul came to TMC, and even more grateful that he wedged in this preaching class and took the opportunity to exhort the TMS students. Is it possible to be a fan of Paul Washer, without being one of his followers who can’t stop talking about him? I want to be supportive of his ministry through prayer, but not be one of his followers who hands out the link to his most shocking sermon to every bystander on the street. My middle ground: I follow him on Twitter, but we are not friends on Facebook.