Preaching

Every preacher has one good sermon.

–Allin’s reply to Barbara Bush on a Saturday night when asked if his sermon was going to be good the next day. 77

Allin’s style was to preach from the pulpit using simple and direct language to break open the Word, from time to time employing personal stories and giving examples for emphasis. Allin began his ministry using notes as a preaching tool, but while working in prison ministry in New Orleans, he was forced to stop using notes because there was no pulpit. Most of his sermons and homilies were based on notes, often jotted down as a list of ideas. Allin would occasionally use the pulpit as a platform from which to get across programmatic material from the larger Church, such as when he preached an Easter sermon on the five ideals of SWEEP – service, worship, evangelism, education, and pastoral care – that Allin felt every Episcopalian should embody. Video clips of Allin preaching in varying degrees of formality and during different periods of his ministry illustrate his preaching style.

Preaching