Fresh Air in the Pulpit: Challenges and Encouragement from a Seasoned Preacher [Paperback]

D. Stuart Briscoe (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 189 pages
• Publisher: Baker Pub Group (March 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801010713
• ISBN-13: 978-0801010712
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #450,546 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stuart Briscoe was born in Millom, Cumbria, England in 1930, graduated from high school at the age of 17, and promptly embarked on a career in banking. He studied law, economics, and accounting in his spare time and eventually became personal assistant to the chief inspector of the bank. Also at the age of 17, he started to preach. For 12 years, preaching and his banking career kept him fully occupied.

During the Korean War he was drafted into the Royal Marines. In 1959, he and his wife, Jill, a school teacher, left the business world to share in the ministry of the Torchbearers--a youth organization reaching out to the far corners of the world. Stuart's travels took him all over the world, while Jill looked after their three children: David, Judy, and Peter.

In 1970, Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, U.S.A,. asked Stuart to become pastor. The church has since grown to a weekly attendance in excess of 7,000 and has planted 8 sister churches in the Milwaukee area. Elmbrook's TV and radio ministries, Telling the Truth, feature Stuart and Jill and are widely broadcast. Stuart's ministry is further extended by his extensive video and audio tapes and more then 40 books. After 30 years as senior pastor at Elmbrook Church, Stuart stepped down. He and Jill have assumed the roles of ministers-at-large on Elmbrook's church staff.

Various schools have honored him with honorary doctorates, and God has blessed Stuart and Jill with 13 grandchildren. He has preached in more than 100 countries and is invited to minister to pastors, missionaries, and church lay leaders on all continents.

In his spare time he likes to read, run, garden, and enjoy God's creation.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Written by a pastor, for a pastor, August 10, 2003

By 

Robert Wynkoop (Washington State) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fresh Air in the Pulpit: Challenges and Encouragement from a Seasoned Preacher (Paperback)

This is a book written for pastors by a pastor. Its purpose is to help out "fresh air' back into preachers who may have grown tire or stale in their preaching. Briscoe's promise is that pastors need help in a media soaked culture. Surrounded by pulpit "superstars" local pastors are finding it increasingly difficult to "deliver the goods" to their churches. Briscoe covers the full range of preaching from the preacher's attitude and preparation to the delivery of sermons.

By far the greatest strength of this book is that the author recognizes and expounds on the role of the Holy Spirit in the act of preaching. The pastor is anointed by God to be His spokesmen. Thus, he is to expect something supernatural to happen in the very act of preaching, "When the word is preached in power, progress is one of the inevitable results." I also appreciate that he addresses character issues- that we are to be men of the Word, studying, mediating, praying and walking in the Spirit. Briscoe has the confidence to laugh at himself (preaching a sixty week series on I Corinthians). He is also very pragmatic, taking the read step by step through the process of sermon preparation and proclamation.

The only thing I gook issue with was chapter 9, "The Predictable and the Unpredictable." His premise is good: Each worship service should have predictable elements presented in unpredictable ways. Yet, the examples he gives seem to be novelty for novelty sake. His word of worship (pg. 83) reflects the traditional order of worship that Rutz (The Open Church) attributes to Martin Luther. If Briscoe really wants unpredictability in the worship service, why did he choose an order of worship that is the same "week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, generation after generation, world without end, amen?" c.f., Rutz, pgs. 61. Briscoe's advice to combine different worship styles within a given worship service is suspect, very few people can make it work.

Aside from these minor problems, this is an excellent book for any preacher. Great book on preaching.