I suppose we had to address this at some point, and today is the day that we talk about

preaching gestures.

Behind the pulpit, Pastor John, you'll hop, you twist, you point, you chop, and I think

for every Greek preposition, there's at least one trademark pepper gesture.

Have you always used gestures where did they come from and what role do those gestures

play in your preaching?

I think a better preface, anything I say about my gestures by pointing out that my

hero, Jonathan Edwards, in the two or three contemporaneous descriptions of his

preaching, was known for being amazingly still.

Edward's scarcely gestured, and at one point in his ministry, he would put his elbow on

a cushion, hold his notes in his right hand, and read them.

Same thing with Thomas Chalmers, who had such a great effect in Scotland, one of the

Princetonians, and I forget who it was, Alexander maybe, went to Scotland and listened to

Chalmers, and when he came back, they said, what is the key to Chalmers' effectiveness

in preaching?

And he said, his blood earnestness.

In other words, Chalmers read his manuscripts, and if you're reading your manuscripts, you

don't have a lot of freedom to move around or do very much.

So it is possible to leap and wave and holler and entertain and say nothing and be, you

know, entertain people and be useless.

And I don't want to do that.

And therefore, gestures in my mind are not of the essence of the demonstration of the

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