In 1995, I purchased a little black book (and no it's the little black that people think of for men). This was (and still is) a very important book to me. It's not a book filled with phone numbers. Instead, it is a book filled sermon, bible study, and conference notes over the years. I remember sitting in a preaching class with Pastor H B Charles and he challenged us to never go to the pulpit without pen and paper, especially when you're not preaching. It was his belief that preachers should never stop learning of which I agree. So later that day I went to Word of Life Bookstore here Los Angeles and purchased my first lil black book.This past Sunday as I was preparing for church, I pulled it out of my desk and began to flip the pages. Man, this is some valuable information. I have notes of sermons, bible study lessons, and conferences from some of the greatest pulpit speakers of our day, pastors/preachers such as: my pastor Richard D Sanders, H.B Charles Jr, Kevin Willis, Maurice Watson, Ronald Saunders, Dr James Borror, Henry Brown, Kelly Taylor, Darnell Dyson, Anthony Thompson, Barry Severe, R.A Williams, Lance Mann, Reginald Payne, Bishop Noel Jones, and so many others. Man, what preaching. teaching, and conversations.
Many of these guys voices will cease when they leave from earth and into glory. Many of them will not be heard of on a national stage of media, television, internet, radio, newspaper, book writing, commentary work, or anything. But they are some good pulpiteers for all to hear.
I value this book because its been a source of invaluable information. Whenever I studied a difficult text this book was used as a commentary. When needing to provide advice to someone, this book has been a source of information. When stuck in a preaching drought, this book has helped me through (in other words, yes, I preached some of these sermons before). When discouraged, this book has been my encouragement. This book has also taught me not to judge another preacher's message. People may deliver a message like I do but that doesn't mean that it wasn't for me at that time. I've taken some of these notes and validated what was said in the pulpit is accurate in biblical intepretation . Not for judging purposes but for learning purposes.
The point is that as Christians, we should never stop learning. And I find that as a preacher, I'm still learning about God, His church, His people, myself, etc. I will soon purchase another lil black book as the pages of this book has been consumed.
I encourage you who's reading this blog to purchase yourself a lil black book and take good notes when in worship, bible study, or wherever/whenever you feel it necessary to learn.
