I enjoy preparing, praying over, and preaching sermons. As you might suspect, I also enjoy listening to sermons. In fact, even though some preachers consider it scandalous to listen to sermons in preparation of a sermon, I still do. I love sermons, learn a lot from sermons, and enjoy citing other preacher’s sermons in my own sermons. After all, sometimes my hearers need to hear what Sinclair Ferguson says on a given passage!
I am often asked about my favorite preachers. Below are some of those ministers. I’ve tried to refrain from sharing detailed comments about style, deliver, tone, etc. I like these preachers for sometimes different reasons and, or course, I like some more than others. Each of these men preach expositional sermons, meaning, they preach sermons in which the main point of the text serves as the main point of the sermon.
Kent Hughes and a lot of UK Evangelicals
My favorite preachers are British. There’s a bit of a story behind this. My love for the preaching ministry happened in Wheaton, Illinois, at College Church. There I sat before the pulpit of R. Kent Hughes for four years and I continue to value his preaching ministry. You can hear many of his sermons through Preachingtheword.com and Sermonaudio.com. Many of his sermons have also become chapters in his Preaching the Word series of commentaries (watch Kent described this commentary). I selected Covenant Theological Seminary as a place to prepare for ministry in part because Kent and the president of Covenant, Bryan Chapell, were preparing an edition for this commentary.
While Kent is not British himself (he’s a SoCal boy), he introduced the people of College Church to so many preachers working in the UK. In particular, I was introduced to a ministry begun by Evangelical ministers in the Church of England called, Proclamation Trust. Proclamation Trust was largely the work of Dick Lucas in the 1980s to gather together ministers and cultivate in them a love for expositional preaching. This ministry was especially valuable to those ministers who did not have access to uniquely Evangelical seminary training, or seminary training at all. Kent Hughes and Dick Lucas are two of my favorite preachers (you can hear Dick Lucas sermons here). The American counterpart to the Proclamation Trust is the Charles Simeon Trust based in Chicago under the leadership of Dave Helm at Holy Trinity Church, who is also a very fine preacher.
William Taylor is the Rector of St. Helen’s Bishopsgate, London, simply one of my favorite churches in the world. William followed the ministry of Dick Lucas and his sermons are equally wonderful; I regularly check-in to see where he is leading his flock (listen here). Colleagues of his through the Proclamation Trust include two other wonderful preachers: William Philip at Tron Church, Glasgow, and Vaughan Roberts at St. Ebbe’s Church, Oxford.
Before moving on, I don’t want to forget to mention two men. First, John Stott was rector of All Souls Church, Langham Place, London from 1950 to 2007. He preached worldwide and I am not alone in adoring his sermons. To find his sermons, Monergism.com has a good selection, as does All Souls Church. A contemporary of John Stott, the Welshman, Martyn Lloyd Jones, is another favorite preacher of mine. It was not until well beyond my call to ministry in 1999 that his sermons were made available free of charge through the Martyn LLoyd-Jones Trust. I remember happily paying for his sermons. Nicknamed, “The Doctor,” due to his previous employment as a Royal Physician, he spent most of his ministry preaching from the pulpit of Westminster Chapel, London, from 1939 to 1968. Again, all his sermons can be reached through the MLJ Trust.
Though a somewhat silly caricature, there were so many amazing preachers visiting the pulpit of College Church during my time there that it was almost like being in London 30 years earlier when Lucas, Stott, and The Doctor were all preaching sermons within walking-distance from one another!
Notable others across the pond
I should mention a couple of other wonderful preachers (with accents). Eric Alexander retired from St. George’s Tron Church in Glasgow, Scotland in 1997, to be followed by Sinclair Ferguson. This church left the Church of Scotland in 2011, becoming Tron Church (see above). Eric Alexander’s sermons can be found here. In addition, Ian Hamilton is a retired minister from Cambridge Presbyterian Church in Cambridge, England. You can still find many of his sermons cataloged on their site. Edward Donnely was the pastor of Trinity Reformed Presbyterian Church, a Church of Ireland congregation in Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland. He is now a professor at the Reformed Theological College in Belfast. His sermons can be found here.
Finally, William Still was a minister at Gilcomston Church in Aberdeen, Scotland. In 2013, sixteen years after Still’s retirement and death, his church left the Church of Scotland just as the St. George’s Tron Church in Glasgow. Williams Still’s delightful preaching can be found here.
Sinclair, Liam, Alistair, Phil, and Don
Here’s the unique thing. In terms of preachers with a footprint in the States, I still tend to prefer those men influenced by the rich history of Scottish preaching. Formerly pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Columbia, South Carolina, Sinclair Ferguson is now Associate Preacher at St. Peter’s Free Church of Dundee, Scotland, though he still preaches in the States. It is easiest to find his sermons through through SermonAudio, and you can check out Monergism.com for other sermons and talks. Sinclair may be my favorite living preacher.
I also very much enjoy the sermons of Liam Goligher, pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. You can hear him here.
Another man from Glasgow, Alistair Begg, has been a favorite for some time. He preaches at Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio. Conveniently, his sermons are neatly organized at Truth for Life.
Liam’s predecessor at Tenth, Philip Ryken (now president of Wheaton College), is also a favorite preacher of mine. His sermons are here.
Finally, I appreciate the sermons of New Testament scholar, D. A. Carson, Emeritus Professor of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. His sermons are hard to pick out from his many talks and lectures; I’m grateful to Nick Batzig at Ligonier and Feeding on Christ for arduously cataloguing many of Don’s sermons available online.
Notable others in the States
Dan Doriani is a Vice President and professor at Covenant Theological Seminary, but was for a time pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, Missouri. I find his sermons very insightful and solid (find some here). Kevin DeYoung is the pastor of Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina. He is such a gifted expositor and you can listen to his latest sermons here, however, it is pretty challenging to travel the Internet without running into a DeYoung sermon!
Following Sinclair Ferguson at First Presbyterian, Derek W. H. Thomas is an excellent preacher and you can hear his sermons here. I also enjoy John Carrick, who taught homiletics at Reformed Theological Seminary and Greenville Presbyterian Seminary, whose sermons you can get here.
There are many, many other preachers that I enjoy, even though I don’t follow their preaching closely. I suppose this list could be much, much longer than what follows. In terms of consistently edifying sermons, here is a solid group of preachers that feed me.
Perhaps this is stating the obvious, but I do enjoy many of Tim Keller’s sermons, even though you usually have to pay for them (there are free ones here.) I find myself delighting in Tim’s sermons less for their exposition and more for their thoughtful practical applications, which I believes is a special ability of his. For similar reasons, I also enjoy the sermons of Rankin Wilbourne, pastor of Pacific Crossroads Church in Santa Monica, California. Listen here. And also, rather close to home, I am edified by the preaching ministry of Shawn Slate at Redeemer Knoxville (sermons here), Leo Schuster at City Church Houston (here and here), David Jones at Grace Palo Alto, and Pat Roach, West Coast Area Coordinator for RUF (you’ll have to snoop around the Hope Portland, Grace Seattle, and Ascension Pres websites to catch him).
Again, without doubt, there are many others.
