Oswald Chambers's Theology of Preaching
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Oswald Chambers’s Theology of Preaching: Expository, Wesleyan-Keswickian, and Practical A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the School of Theology Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Ministry by Patrick R. Findley May 2018 Copyright © 2018 Patrick R. Findley All rights reserved. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has permission to reproduce and disseminate this document in any form by any means for purposes chosen by the Seminary, including, without limitation, preservation, or instruction. APPROVAL SHEET OSWALD CHAMBERS’S THEOLOGY OF PREACHING: EXPOSITORY, WESLEYAN-KESWICKIAN, AND PRACTICAL Patrick R. Findley ______________________________________________________ Matthew McKellar, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Preaching, Faculty Supervisor ______________________________________________________ Deron Biles, Ph.D., Professor of Pastoral Ministries and Preaching, Director of Professional Doctoral Studies, School of Preaching, Doctor of Ministry Committee Member ______________________________________________________ Kyle Walker, Vice President for Student Services, Assistant Professor of Preaching, Doctor of Ministry Committee Member Date __________________________________ To Becca, my best friend and co-laborer in ministry To Katie and Micah, my strong-willed, snuggly, awesome kids To Hamlin Baptist Church in Springfield, Missouri, who helped me begin this journey, To Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Springfield, Missouri who helped me finish it & to Fans of Oswald Chambers everywhere Abstract Oswald Chambers’s Theology of Preaching: Expository, Wesleyan-Keswickian, and Practical This dissertation demonstrates Chambers’s theology of preaching as expository in nature within the historical-theological context of the Wesleyan and Keswickian views on sanctification. Chapter 1 introduces the thesis, defines “expository preaching” and “theology of preaching,” and explains the methodology and viability of the dissertation. Chapter 2 seeks to place Chambers in his correct historical context. Special consideration is given to the establishment of the Bible Training College (1911-1915). Chapter 3 seeks to place Chambers in his correct theological context. Special consideration is given to comparing and contrasting the views of personal sanctification, according to Wesley and Keswick, toward understanding where Chambers stood. Chapter 4 examines Chambers’s lectures to his students for evidence he was a professor of expository preaching. Chapter 5 evaluates Chambers himself as an expository preacher by evaluating four of his expository sermons. Chapter 6 provides a summary of the research conclusions, proposals for further research, and applications for continued ministry. Patrick R. Findley, D. Min. Supervisor: Matthew McKellar, Ph.D. School of Theology Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2018 Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction to Oswald Chambers’s Theology of Preaching: Expository, Wesleyan-Keswickian, and Practical ................................................................. 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 Thesis Statement ............................................................................................... 2 Expository Preaching Defined .......................................................................... 3 Theology of Preaching Defined ........................................................................ 4 Methodology ..................................................................................................... 6 Uniqueness of Topic ......................................................................................... 9 Ministry Need ................................................................................................. 10 Chapter 2 Chambers in His Historical Context ................................................................ 11 Biography of Oswald Chambers ..................................................................... 11 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...26 Chapter 3 Chambers in His Theological Context ............................................................. 28 The Complex Issue of Entire Sanctification ................................................... 28 Towards a Summarization of Wesleyan Perfectionism and Keswickian Theology Pertaining to the Preaching of Oswald Chambers…………….30 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...58 Chapter 4 Chambers the Expository Preaching Professor ............................................... 60 Chambers’s Lectures to His Preaching Students…………………………….61 Chambers’s Purpose for Teaching Preaching ……………………………….65 vii Chambers on the Purpose of Preaching……………………………………...67 Chambers on God’s Call to Preach………………………………………......75 Chambers on the Nature of Scripture ………………………………………..81 ` Chambers on Exegesis …..…………………………………………………..87 Chambers on Preaching Without Notes……………………………………...93 Chambers on the Preacher’s Obedience...…………………………………...96 Conclusion..………………………………………………………………...102 Chapter 5 Chambers the Expository Preacher...……………………………………104 Genesis 22:1-3—“The Supreme Climb” .…………………………………..105 Isaiah 6:1-8—“The Painful Path to Power”.………………………………..110 Matthew 5:1-20—“His Teaching and Our Training” ……………………...116 Matthew 19:16-22—“The Philosophy of the Perfect Life”………………...130 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………134 Chapter 6 Conclusions, Future Plans, and Applications for Preaching…………………..136 Conclusions ………………………………………………………………...136 Recommendations for Further Research …………………………………...138 Applications for Preaching Today …………………………………………139 Bibliography.……………………………………………………………………………144 viii Chapter 1 Introduction to Oswald Chambers’s Theology of Preaching: Expository, Wesleyan-Keswickian, and Practical Introduction David McCasland’s biography of Oswald Chambers begins with Chambers’s death, in 1917, at only forty-three years of age from the complications of an emergency appendectomy. At the time of Chambers’s death, he had published only three books— none of which were his well-known devotional My Utmost for His Highest, which “has been continuously in print since it was first published in 1927.”1 Curious, however, is the fact that Oswald Chambers did not personally pen the devotional for which he is so well- known, nor did he write most of the books bearing his name. How then did his books come to be? At the time of Chambers’s death, he and his wife, Biddy, had been married seven years.2 Trained in Pitman Shorthand as a young girl, Biddy took verbatim notes of almost everything her husband preached and taught during their marriage.3 Biddy took the notes 1 The brief biographical information mentioned here is a summary of what is written by David McCasland, Foreword, in The Quotable Oswald Chambers, ed. David McCasland (Grand Rapids: Discovery House, 2008), 10-11. Where the details come from the in-depth look at Chambers’s life recorded in David McCasland, Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God (Grand Rapids: Discovery House, 1993), those references will be noted. 2 “Biddy” was a nickname given to her by Oswald. Her real name was Gertrude (Hobbs). 3 McCasland, Abandoned to God, 140. 1 2 merely to aid her listening.4 However, after Chambers’s death, she sensed God calling her to share her husband’s words with the world. McCasland writes, “Without her work, his words would never have existed on paper or in published form. Even so, she put Oswald’s name on the cover. She saw herself as a channel through which his words were conveyed to others.”5 The foreword to the first edition of My Utmost is simply signed with the initials B. C. (Biddy Chambers).6 What does all this have to do with a dissertation on Oswald Chambers’s theology of preaching? It has everything to do with his theology of preaching! From 1911-1915, Chambers was the principal and primary teacher of the Bible Training College in London. While we do not have copies of his sermons and lectures themselves, Biddy’s publishing of her husband’s lecture notes provides the modern reader the opportunity to sit in on his lectures by proxy. The books and pamphlets published from this timeframe offer an overall picture of the curriculum Chambers taught and what he believed mattered most for those being trained for ministry. Thesis Statement Chambers is known for the devotional bearing his name, but many people are unaware that, for four years, Chambers was a professor of theology and preaching. A scholarly analysis of the kind of preaching he prescribed has yet to be published. This 4 Ibid.,180. 5 Ibid., 281. 6 Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, in The Complete Words of Oswald Chambers (Grand Rapids: Discovery House, 2000), 734. 3 dissertation will reveal that Oswald Chambers’s theology of preaching is expository in nature within the historical backdrop of the Wesleyan and early Keswick views of personal sanctification. This is not a “three-pronged” thesis, but rather the defending of Chambers’s theology of preaching as expository within its proper historical-theological context. For Chambers, faithful preaching and faithful ministry are inseparable. As will be shown, Chambers was not merely a professor of preaching, but he was also a professor of expository preaching in which orthodoxy (biblically accurate doctrine) and orthopraxy (biblically faithful conduct) are inseparable. Expository Preaching Defined For the purposes of this dissertation, the term “expository preaching” must be defined