Vines speaks at SWBTS expository preaching workshop

FORT WORTH, Texas (BP)—More than 300 ministers of the Gospel participated in Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s first ever Expository Preaching Workshop Feb. 28-March 1.

The goal of the conference, held at the seminary’s Center for Leadership Development, was to “provide practical training and help to pastors in the genuine exposition of Scripture,” according to David Allen, dean of the theology school at Southwestern and director of the Southwestern Center for Expository Preaching.

Speakers at the conference included Allen, Jerry Vines, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Mac Brunson, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, and Southwestern Seminary President Paige Patterson.

Sidney Greidanus, noted author and professor of preaching at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Mich., also offered insights into exposition. “I was thrilled to have with us a homiletician of the stature of Sidney Greidanus. His published works in the field are of immense value to preachers everywhere,” Allen said.

Breakout sessions at the conference covered topics such as the use of media in preaching, building an evangelistic church through expository preaching, developing creativity in preaching, and preaching from Old Testament narratives. Other sessions focused on dramatic monologues and exposition and use of argumentation in preaching.

Richard Spring, a Southwestern Seminary alumnus and pastor in Santee, Calif., said the conference is one every pastor should attend in the future.
“We should always be looking for ways to hone our skills in the pulpit. What I appreciated most about the conference was that I was reminded of how powerful the Word of God is. PowerPoint presentations and slides are useful, but there really is power in God’s Word. A lot of people tend to forget that, but Jerry Vines in particular showed that power in his sermon,” Spring said.

Vines, the keynote speaker at the conference, discussed preaching from the book of Ecclesiastes. In a chapel sermon March 1, Vines addressed more than 1,100 seminary students and conference participants, modeling the instruction he provided in an earlier plenary session.

Vines said that Ecclesiastes was the only book of philosophy in the Bible, but that it can be used as an evangelistic inroad into the post-modern culture. In many ways, he said, Solomon’s search for pleasure and his pessimism mirrors that of modern man.

“There are really only two lessons taught in the Bible. The first one is taught in the Book of Ecclesiastes, that nothing in this world can satisfy the human soul. You have to learn lesson number one before you learn lesson number two, that only Jesus Christ can satisfy the human soul,” Vines said.

Written by “the preacher,” the book is a warning to all of the children of God, Vines said. If ministers are to find any satisfaction in life, they will find it only in Christ, rather than in learning, possessions, luxury or work, he said. That is the message ministers must carry to the world, he said.

“Solomon gave himself to every imaginable pleasure, every imaginable enjoyment. But down at the end of old ‘pleasure road’ is insanity. It won’t make you happy. … The Bible teaches you that pleasure in and of itself has a law of diminishing returns. It takes stronger and stronger doses to get the same effect,” Vines said.

Vines, who has served as pastor to churches in Georgia, Alabama and Florida for nearly 50 years, encouraged the ministers at the conference to pursue the pleasures at the right hand of God instead of fulfillment in earthly things.

Thomas White, director of the seminary’s Center for Leadership Development, said that he was pleased with the outcome of the conference and that more like it will take place in the future. The conference will also feature other prominent pastor-teachers who have excelled in the art of preaching, as has Vines.

“With more than 300 attendees from 10 states, we may never know the full impact of this conference. We look forward to establishing this as a yearly ‘must attend’ event for every pastor who desires to properly communicate God’s truth,” White said.