Speaking of preaching, we have another question on the topic.

This one from a podcast listener named Caleb who writes and asks this,

Pastor John, the teaching style of look at the book is extremely helpful.

As you mark up a Bible text on a screen on videos available at Desiring God,

would you ever consider adopting this method for when you preach a sermon?

Why or why not?

What would you say to Caleb?

I will probably lose this battle because of how omnipresent visual media are in our day.

And I love to use them in their right place.

But I suspect I'll fight this battle till the day I die.

No, I don't encourage the use of any visual media in preaching,

including what I do in look at the book.

Look at the book for me is an exposure for others to see of what I do in private

to get at the meaning of texts and to get ready to preach or teach.

It's not a replacement for preaching.

And I do think there is a place for it, namely look at the book type analysis of text

with an overhead projector or some kind of media.

I do think there's a place for that in the church and I would encourage pastors

in Sunday school and Sunday school teachers to do it in classes and other settings

that are not considered the heralding of God's word,

but rather the more informal explaining of texts.

In other words, I don't think preaching is the only important form of communication

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