Martin Lloyd-Jones was a highly regarded minister of the gospel in England and Wales in the past century. Prior to entering the ministry he was a medical doctor of repute and often throughout this volume he refers to medical analogies.
Lloyd-Jones is of course a Welshman but he speak with one of those Welsh accents that you are convinced is posh-English. You therefore might expect him to be pretty dry. But this book betrays such an image. It is made up of Lloyd Jones’ mature thoughts (published after he had retired) on the work of the ministry - and particularly preaching. It is actually a transcript of lectures he delivered at Westminster Seminary and was printed in 1971. In the preface he counsels us to read them as his thoughts on preaching after forty-four years in the ministry rather than an authoritative guide on how to preach.
Throughout the book he qualifies much of his advice by saying that there can be no set rule and every preacher must find his own way of doing things. It is a great help if read in such a spirit. He covers most important themes - the primacy of preaching; how to select a text; the form of a sermon; the content of the sermon; the preachers attitude to the word; the preachers love for the people and many other major ideas. He also advises on more minor issues - to the extent of giving architectural advice to those who build churches!
All the lectures are given with a serious aspect where he gives genuine counsel to all in the ministry but there is also a great deal of humour mixed in. The stories from his own experience can be especially poignant and make the book a very warm read.
All in all a good book. A must read for preachers and a tonic for the 21st century pastorate.
