What Stephen Olford Taught Me — E.A. Johnston

My message today is entitled What Stephen Offord Taught Me. There were some very important lessons I learned from knowing Dr. Offord. Stephen Offord was my homiletical mentor, colleague, and friend. He taught me how to preach.

I was in the first graduating class of his school of preaching. We wrote a book together on preaching on his homiletical mentor, Graham Scroggie. I even still serve on the Board of Offord Ministries today.

Upon reflecting on his life and ministry, I want to share with us today what I learned from Dr. Offord. I don't think you can spend much time with a great prophet of God without some spiritual importation taking place.

Spiritual Influence Through Godly Mentorship

That occurred with Elijah and Elisha, and I can say my own life is better for having known Dr. Stephen F. Offord. I want to list several areas where Stephen Offord impacted my life and those lessons I'd like to share with you today.

The Necessity of a Daily Quiet Time

Number one, he taught me the importance of having a daily quiet time. This is critical. Dr. Offord used to say, a man was only as tall in the pulpit as he was long on his knees before God and prayer. He wrote a little booklet which I still have entitled, Manna in the Morning, and it is a Christian classic on the necessity of having and maintaining a daily tryst with God.

Dr. Offord used to say that he learned through research that the average pastor only spent ten minutes a day in prayer, and he thought that was shameful. Dr. Offord was first and foremost a man of prayer, and he taught me the vital necessity of spending quality time with God.

That was the number one influence of his life poured into mine, and that was teaching me how to have an effective, vital, daily, and regular quiet time with our Lord. The reason I maintain a daily quiet time today is because of Stephen Offord.

Graham Scroggie's Golden Hammer for Sermon Preparation

Number two, he taught me sermon construction by teaching me Graham Scroggie's Golden Hammer. Scroggie was Stephen Offord's homiletical mentor when he was a student in London. The Golden Hammer is as follows in regard to sermon preparation.

Read the passage in question over and over again. Research the passage in question, observing three principles. Number one, the historic principle. Number two, the contextual principle. And thirdly, the grammatical principle.

This is where the beauty and dynamic of the Golden Hammer comes in. You then relate the passage in question and activate the Golden Hammer through these next three questions that need to be asked and answered.

Number one, what is the dominating theme? Number two, what are the integrating thoughts? And number three, what is the motivating thrust? The motivating thrust is the doctrine or challenge of a sermon.

So I sat at the feet of my homiletical mentor, Stephen Offord, as he had sat at the feet of his homiletical mentor, Graham Scroggie. The third lesson I learned from Stephen Offord was to pursue a life of holiness.

Pursuing a Life of Holiness

Dr. Offord's hero was Robert Murray McChain. And on the wall of Dr. Offord's study was a framed quote of McChain. And it was, Lord, make me as holy as a saved sinner can be. That was Dr. Offord's pursuit, a pursuit of holiness.

And I feel this is the missing ingredient in many preachers today. I recall Manly Beasley relating the following incident in the life of Stephen Offord. Dr. Offord was scheduled to preach at a church in the Dallas area.

And a seminary student was to go to the airport and pick him up. The seminary student asked the pastor of the church if he had a photograph of Stephen Offord so he would be able to recognize him when he got off the plane.

The pastor replied, no need for that. Just go to the airport terminal and wait for the passengers to emerge. When you see a man that looks like he has God all over him, that is Stephen Offord. Well, the seminary student went to the airport and as Dr. Offord emerged in the crowd, the student knew instantly he was the man of God.

The importance of a life of holiness is what Stephen Offord demonstrated to me. I know I've fallen in some ditches in my time and I've made imperfect tracks along the narrow way. But bless God, I'm still on the way.

Holiness must be a pursuit aggressively sought. I remember Dr. Offord explaining to me one day in a study how he lived a life of victory always under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And if even any thought entered his mind that was displeasing to God, Dr. Offord would stop what he was doing and say, nail it Lord, nail it.

Ministry Empowered by the Holy Spirit's Anointing

I like that. The fourth thing Stephen Offord taught me was the absolute necessity of having an anointed ministry of the Holy Spirit that to even try to preach without the anointing was futile. I recall meeting with Dr. Offord in his study one day and he said to me, give me some time brother to regather myself.

I must regather myself. I just got through preaching and virtue has left me. My mind went to the passage in the Gospels of the woman with the issue of blood and how she touched the hem of Jesus' garment.

And she turned and said, who touched me? For I feel virtue has left me. That was Stephen Offord. He was a man anointed by the Spirit of God. And he knew full well that one must tarry until one was endued with power from on high.

In the Gospel of Luke in chapter 316 it reads, John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I cometh, the latched of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose.

He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. This speaks of two baptisms, one of water and one of fire, the Holy Spirit. I can sit and listen to a man preach and within five minutes I can tell you if he has the anointing of God on him or not.

This was one of the most important aspects of ministry that Stephen Offord taught me. Never enter a pulpit without the anointing of God upon you. And to do that you must maintain a close walk with God and live a holy life unto Him.

The saddest day in the church in America to me was when seminaries began to teach their students how to preach but not how to get the anointing. I vividly recall sitting in a preaching class taught by a prominent professor of preaching and I could tell that the student next to me was upset.

When class was over the student approached the preaching professor and said, You taught us today how to project our voice and be professionals in the pulpit, but when I study the ministry of Jonathan Edwards I see he had the power of the Holy Spirit upon him.

When he preached the seminary professor answered the student by saying, You sir are no Jonathan Edwards. But I believe that seminary student knew a whole lot more about preaching than that stuffed shirt of a professor.

Living for Others and Eternity

That's why so many of our pulpits in the land lack power. They have no anointing from above. Stephen Offord taught me better. The next thing I learned from Dr. Offord was that he lived for others. There was a wooden plaque on his desk and it had one word carved into it, others.

He lived for eternity and others. His favorite saying was that a CT stood, only one life shall soon be passed, only what's done for Christ will last. I recall when I was a student at his preaching institute that he was to meet with a few of us for some casual table talk on ministry.

Well he turned the corner and the floor had just been polished and as soon as he turned the corner he slipped and his feet went up in the air and he crashed to the ground. He was 84 at the time. I helped him up and we sat down at the dining room table.

He kept rubbing his wrist but he refused to leave and go see about it. He just kept talking to us and ministering to us for an hour and a half. The whole time he continued to rub his painful wrist. He put others in front of him when it came to ministry.

Longing and Praying for Revival

That should shame the rest of us. We have it turned the other way around. The last thing I learned from Stephen Offord that I wish to share with you today is the fact that he was a man of revival. He longed to see revival in his day.

He studied it, wrote wisely upon it, and prayed for it continually. I can vividly recall the times of prayer he and I had as we prayed for God to breathe once again his Holy Spirit of revival into the church and land.

Stephen Offord took my first book that I wrote on revival and edited it for me and gave it its title, Reality of Revival. He even wrote the foreword. He was a man first and foremost of revival and he taught me to be one as well.

I hope these attributes and lessons from the life and ministry of Dr. Stephen F. Offord have helped you as they have helped me to be a better and more effective laborer in the kingdom of Christ. May God bless you.