One of the joys of pastoral ministry is camaraderie with pastors of ages past. Bearing similar strains and experiencing similar joys creates a special affection between pastors that is no less present when we reflect on examples from the past. Chiefly situated among these “strains” and “joys” of ministry is the weighty responsibility of preaching.
In this first article of what I hope will be a series of lessons from William Buell Sprague’s Annals of the American Baptist Pulpit, I examine the practice of preaching among early American Baptists.[1] I will focus on four questions, and allow the biographies to speak for themselves in answer to these questions as much as possible.
How did they prepare to preach? How long did they preach? Did they use manuscripts? What kind of sermons did they preach?
How Did They Prepare to Preach?
The typical pattern of early American Baptist sermon preparation is exhibited by Hezekiah Smith (1737–1805), a Baptist minister of New York, who “went into his study on Thursday morning, and devoted the residue of the week to careful preparation for the duties of the Sabbath” (101). Stephen Gano (1762–1828), the pastor of the First Baptist Church of
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