Convinced that knowing the Word of God is fundamental to preaching, John Stott here presents brief studies of five New Testament metaphors that characterize preachers: steward, herald, witness, father, and servant. In the course of these five studies, Stott discusses the message and authority of preachers, the character of their proclamation, the vital necessity of their own experience of the gospel, and their motives and moral qualities, particularly humility, gentleness, and love.

A biblically faithful portrayal of what preachers are supposed to be emerges from Stott's reflections —as he says, "a portrait painted by the hand of God himself on the broad canvas of the New Testament."