Extemporaneous Preaching

I have always been an advocate of extemporaneous preaching. As soon as I learned that there was such a thing as “homiletics” when I was a young convert at Bible school thirty-five years ago, I opposed it. I was obliged to take the courses in homiletics myself, but I never believed a word of it. Homiletics is “the art of preaching,” but we deny that preaching is an art. Homiletics is “the preparation and delivery of sermons,” but we deny that preaching consists of delivering sermons, and hold that the best and truest preaching is that which is done without preparation. By the rules of “homiletics,” the preaching of Christ himself, and of his apostles also, was the most miserable sermonizing ever to disgrace the earth, yet we know that the power of God was in it. The preaching of George Whitefield must be categorically condemned by the dictates of “homiletics,” yet no greater preacher ever walked the earth than George Whitefield. He preached extemporaneously, as did the Lord and the apostles, and his sermons violated all the precepts of the rule-makers, yet his “rambling effusions,” as the critics called them, were unequalled in power and effect.

Defining Extemporaneous Preaching

But we must define what we mean by extemporaneous preaching. The term may mean several different things:

In its truest sense, it is preaching without premeditation.
The term is also applied to preaching without notes, though we may have premeditated what we are to say.
It is applied, in a lower sense, to preaching with both premeditation and notes, but without having determined beforehand the exact substance or wording of the sermon.

In the latter sense, almost all preaching is extemporaneous today, and this is, at any rate, a grand improvement over the days in which most preachers used to write out their sermons in advance, read them to the people, or memorize them, and quote them to the people.

We shall allow all three of these definitions to be legitimate, each of them describing a different degree of the extemporaneous element. We think, as a general rule, the more nearly the preaching approaches to the purely extemporaneous, the better it will be.

The History of Extemporaneous Preaching

We have reasons for believing this. We may cite, in the first place, the fact that almost all the greatest preachers in history have preached extemporaneously. On the one extreme, we have T. DeWitt Talmage, who wrote out his sermons, memorized them, and rehearsed them in front of a mirror before preaching. This does not deserve to be called preaching at all, and of eloquence, Talmage had none. His sermons are mere word paintings, artificial throughout—”shimmering soap bubbles,” James H. Brookes calls them—and as destitute of solid substance as they are of real eloquence. At the other extreme, we see men like Gipsy Smith, who never preached from notes, usually did not know beforehand what his subject would be, and rarely preached as he intended. Yet his sermons are not only eloquent and moving, but full of solid substance also. George Whitefield, Charles G. Finney, Peter Cartwright, and all the early Methodists preached as did Gipsy, and with the same power and effect.

Exceptions to the Rule

We know that there are exceptions. Some men have preached well from notes, and some have written and read their sermons, and yet “preached” with power. Such was Jonathan Edwards. We do not trouble ourselves about such exceptions. Some birds may sing in a cage, though they will sing better under the open sky. David might have used his trusty sling to kill Goliath even in Saul’s armor, though he would have been severely hampered by it.

The Power of a Full Heart

The facts of history must be reason enough to advocate extemporaneous preaching, but there is a reason for the reason. Extemporaneous preaching is preaching from a full heart. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,” and it is the full heart which flows out in true eloquence in extemporaneous preaching. The dry pump must be primed, while the artesian well flows of its own accord. It is the empty heart which must carry a prepared sermon to the pulpit. The full heart stands in no need of this.

The Role of Inspiration

But we must qualify this, for the heart of the preacher is not the only factor. A man must have not only a full heart, but the inspiration of an occasion also. A full heart preaching to hungry hearts needs no priming, but the Lord himself could do no mighty works in some places, and the most eloquent preacher on earth will be shackled on many occasions. John Nelson described his attempt to preach to a certain people as “plowing on a rock.” I preached once in the church in which I grew up, and found the atmosphere so icy that I thought while I preached that if I had shed a tear it would have frozen on my cheek. I could not have wept in such a place to save my life. I was told afterward (by a woman new to the place) that the sermon was “fantastic,” but she had scarcely heard me preach. An old proverb truly affirms, “Great ships require deep waters,” and a great preacher will rarely do well in a contracted sphere. Those who are obliged to preach continually to the same little flock will lack the inspiration which a larger sphere would provide, and may struggle to preach at all. John Wesley affirmed that if he must preach always to the same people, in three months he would preach himself and all the people fast asleep. This was probably saying too much, but the difficulty is nevertheless a great one.

The Importance of Understanding and Feeling the Subject

But granting the inspiration of an occasion, it is the full heart which makes a preacher. Martin Luther affirmed that if a man could not preach on one word of Scripture, he could never be a preacher. To preach on one word, a man must have a full heart, while any empty head may fill up an hour with rambling through a chapter. We fear this is one reason that “expository preaching” is so popular today. Any man can do this, who really cannot preach at all. I once endured a man’s preaching for an hour and a half on Jacob’s blessing of the tribes, and I spent most of that time praying that he would quit. If I had been D. L. Moody, I would have stopped him myself. He had nothing to say, and had no business behind a pulpit, yet he thought he was a preacher. His performance was extemporaneous, but it was not preaching, but only the empty rambling of a man who thought a good deal too highly of himself.

The Challenge of Preparation

David Marks, one of the greatest preachers the Free-Will Baptists ever possessed, would often ask the crowd for a text, and preach on whatever they gave him. On one such occasion a heckler cried, “Nothing,” and Marks preached on the word—with good substance, too. Charles Wesley often opened his Bible and preached on the first words that presented themselves, thinking thus to be directed of God in the choice of his sermons—and there is no doubt that some very remarkable texts were given him in that manner. But whatever may be thought of that, no man could preach so without a full heart.

The Influence of Preparation on the Preacher’s Heart

Bill Rice once related an experience which he had when he was young, at some camp or conference conducted by J. Frank Norris. Norris was disgusted at the conduct of the young would-be preachers, many of whom did not get up for breakfast. He announced, therefore, a special meeting at five o’clock in the morning, when he would teach them how to preach at any time with five minutes’ preparation. They all got up early that morning, and came to the meeting, to learn how to get something for nothing. Norris scolded them for their laziness, and then told them that if they would but study eight hours a day for the next thirty years, they could then preach at any time with five minutes’ preparation. Norris was on the right track, but the wrong train. Thirty years of study may give a man a full mind, but leave his heart as empty as ever. Norris’s power did not derive from study, but spiritual experience. Thirty years of hardships will certainly make a better preacher than thirty years of study. The man who neglects study can hardly be fit to preach, but study can never be a substitute for experience and meditation.

The Role of the Holy Spirit

An old man once commenced to feel the head of Gipsy Smith. The gipsy asked him what he was about, and was told he was looking for the secret of his power. Gipsy told him he was feeling too high, and told him that his power lay here, indicating the position of his heart. Nor is it only the full heart which makes the preacher, but the earnest and the burning heart also. Yet when we speak of preaching extemporaneously, the full heart is the matter of first importance. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,” and the man who cannot preach extemporaneously is really no preacher at all, and ought to stay out of the pulpit.

Examples of Power in Extemporaneous Preaching

For the above, my readers will have to go without references, for I have written from my own heart and memory, without consulting my books. In what follows, however, I intend to give them some examples from my books of the power and superiority of extemporaneous preaching.

I begin by putting the whole matter on the foundation of Scripture. The Lord says in Mark 13:11, “But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.” This scripture, both the command and the promise, are almost totally ignored in modern preaching, and though some plausible pleas may be presented to justify this, we fear the real reason is unbelief. Yet that this scripture can be fulfilled in our day will be evident from the following:

Instances of Fulfilled Promises

At the Ottawa Convention of Baptists in 1919, T. T. Shields spoke for an hour and a half in defense of the inspiration of the Scriptures. “During that hour and a half,” he says, “the promise, ‘It shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak,’ was abundantly verified. Scriptures passed in procession before my mind like moving electric signs, ablaze with glory; and those who were present on that great occasion, who read this account, will remember how often during the course of that afternoon the word of the Lord was as a hammer breaking the rock in pieces.”

Another instance comes from the sick-bed of a newly converted Jewess, of the name of Maria, who was under the care of her grandmother. “On the Friday following, an opportunity occurred of explaining the striking fulfilment of prophecy in Christ Jesus. When giving a detail of the conversation to Miss P., Maria said, ‘I prayed a long time before I had courage to speak; but when I began, words seemed put into my mouth, and thoughts into my mind. For nearly two hours I spoke so earnestly, that I seemed to tell her more than I knew:’ and E., who was present, added, ‘My mistress [Maria’s grandmother] sat looking at Miss Maria with great astonishment, but never once interrupted her.”’

Conclusion

In my own preaching, I have often taught the people “more than I knew,” for new light has come to me while I preached, and things which I understood but vaguely and indistinctly have become as clear as crystal.

Extemporaneous Preaching - Glenn Conjurske