Baylor University: 12 most effective preachers in the English-speaking world

Hmm...one full professor and an adjunct from Truett.

Coincidence?

 

How does one judge the effectiveness of preaching? Much of what is accomplished through our preaching will not be seen in this life. Spiritual work is invisible, though there are often visible results.
Methinks this survey is somewhat foolish. Furthermore, why does John MacArthur not appear in the list? That is incomprehensible.

 

The list should be named, "the finest well-known biblical orators in U.S. Christendom."

 

My face when I read that a pastor's writings have been published on HuffPo:

 

I've heard four of them, Swindoll (in person and on the radio), Andy Stanley (podcast/YouTube), Begg (radio), and Gregory (in person). I actually know Gregory personally. We were in the same orbits with mutual friends from 1990 to 2003.

 

The one making the list will probably be shocked when Christ adjudges some obscure hick preacher who stuck with the same bunch of sinful, contentious folks for decades as more effective than all on the above list.
Effectiveness is tied neither to oratory nor audience size alone. Faithfulness is what matters in the end.

 

I cannot endure women preachers. Andy Stanley is becoming notorious. I like Swindoll but I lost track of him. Nowadays, I am listening to Young Earth Creationists (YECs), as I found visiting the Ark Encounter in Kentucky to be a mountaintop experience for me myself personally.

 

Effective at what? Some of them down

I think it's the theological issue of our time. From the list, I know Tim Keller is one of the founding pastors of Biologos, an organization dedicated to help churches accept the theory of Evolution. John Piper compromises on Genesis also holding to a modified gap theory. Andy Stanley is just out there with all kinds of strange stuff, including his belief that the Garden of Eden story could be fabricated.



I'm surprised MacArthur is not on that list. I would be curious how they determined effectiveness. MacArthur is solid on Genesis. I would think Begg is also.

 

Thanks for the info. How many decades ago did Baylor go bad?

 

It is an important theological issue because Evolution is bad science. It was outlined by the Greeks, but they probably got it from the Hindus, making it clearly religious, clearly satanic.

 

Through over 50 years of trying to serve the Lord I've heard many preachers who fit that bill... They never wrote a book or were on TV... Most were obscure hick preachers who feed the flock of God... And could they preach!... Brother Glen

 

If you read the results, you see that while Baylor/Truett produced the survey, they were not the ones who did the scoring. According to the Baptist Standard --

"Preaching experts in the Academy of Homiletics and the Evangelical Homiletics Society judged how much nominees’ preaching matched criteria that included their selection of biblical texts, the relevance of their sermons and their ability to deliver them in language people can understand."

You can read the whole article at the following web site: www.baptiststandard.com/news/texas/baylor-survey-names-dozen-preachers-effective/.

Personally, I prefer Piper, Keller and Swindoll.

 

Criteria are going to be different depending on who you ask. It's not about how many you reach it's about how many are reached with the truth. It is odd when people drive that far for a Church, but it depends on motives.

 

Andy Stanley Says We Need to “Unhitch” the Old Testament from Our Faith