Welcome back to my interview with author and speaker Randy Alcorn. You can read part one here.

Randy, apart from Scripture, what book do you most frequently re-read and why?

I do re-read some books, though there aren’t many I read more than two or three times. I’ve read Tozer’s The Knowledge of the Holy several times, as I have Lewis’s Space Trilogy and The Chronicles of Narnia, as well as Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters. Another favorite is Francis Schaeffer’s He Is There and He Is Not Silent. I’ve also gone back to Piper’s Desiring God and Bridges' The Joy of Fearing God.  

When you finish a book, what system have you developed in order to remember and reference that book in the future?

I underline copiously and scrawl in the margins. Sometimes I write notes in the front of the book, with page numbers. When doing research, I have a secretary who can read my hieroglyphic notations, type up my marginal notes, boldfacing, and yellow highlighting to distinguish from the text of the book I’ve underlined. Later in the research, I go through the file, copying and pasting possible citations, along with my notations. This becomes a very rough initial draft which I reorder as I go, cutting out the majority of both the citations and my notes. My original notes either disappear or get morphed, though sometimes they make their way as is into my final book. When I’m certain I want to quote from a source, I not only underline, but put an asterisk. To confirm bibliographic information later, I can search for the quote by key words.

If you could study under any theologian in church history (excluding those men in Scripture) who would it be and why?

I suppose Augustine or Calvin are obvious choices, but I would be more inclined toward Charles Spurgeon, giving honorable mention to John Newton. Some wouldn’t think of them as theologians per se, but their pastoral roles and life experiences brought a great deal to the table I would love to draw from.

What single piece of counsel (or constructive criticism) has most improved your preaching?

“It is impossible to make a balanced statement.”

You can spend all day qualifying what you’re saying and removing the punch from it. Jesus made many statements that have to be clarified by others (e.g. plucking out your eye and cutting off your hand, and hating your family). But it is a mistake to strip such statements of their power by immediately modifying them and saying what they don’t mean instead of what they do. I think we are free to make prophetic statements without always qualifying them.

What books on preaching, or examples of it, have you found most influential in your own preaching?

I don’t preach regularly, but speak on various subjects and texts from time to time, often related to writing I’ve done or am doing. It’s been many years since I’ve read a book on preaching, but I remember appreciating Stott’s Between Two Worlds. I love reading the sermons of Charles Spurgeon, though I wouldn’t recommend his preaching methodology. He was one of a kind.

Join me next time for the third part of my interview with Randy Alcorn.