You may have seen this picture. There’s two ways of looking at it. You can see the left side of a young woman’s face looking away from the camera or you can see an old hag looking sideways at you. If you can’t see both, don’t panic. The post may still be helpful.
Years ago I learned from Haddon Robinson that there were two ways to look at preaching. I paraphrase it this way:
Preachers don’t talk to parishioners about the Bible. They talk to parishioners about them from the Bible.
Last Thursday afternoon I enjoyed the privilege of meeting with other preachers and teachers of Scripture to talk about a strategy of keeping our sermons aimed at the listeners. In other words, how can we function as preachers, not lecturers when we’re trying so hard to be biblical.
- Review your style and see how many sermon minutes are spent talking to our listeners about the Bible. You’ll be surprised how many.
- In the introduction, tell your listeners how your preaching portion is intended to facilitate worship (what will this Scripture do to them). Don’t wait for the “application” section.
- Throughout the sermon, repeat and restate that intention. Usually we think about repeating and restating major points or major themes. Don’t let them forget that God is speaking to them.
- Include background material sparingly. David Buttrick wrote, “The gospel is not biblical background” (Homiletic, p. 347). Some of us need to be reminded of that. My rule is: only give background information that is absolutely necessary for understanding the meaning of your preaching portion. If you use that rule, you will discover you can save precious preaching minutes.
Before Sunday, while you’re working on your sermon manuscript, check your stance. Is it mostly “about the Bible” or “about them from the Bible”? Expository preachers never let congregants forget that God’s Word is aimed at them for the sake of His reputation in the Church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).
Preach a good sermon, will ya?
Randal
Maybe my philosophy is wrong…. but I live in a country (Poland), where there are few resources for biblical study–commentaries, institutions of higher learning, etc. Some years ago, I realized that unless i taught the people _how_ I come to my conclusions, and how I studied to prepare my sermons, they would never really be able to learn on their own. I won’t be here forever. I’m just a blip in time. However, the folks to whom we minister will be here after we are gone. It is up to me to not only teach the “what” but the “how” and “why.” Therefore, I came up with the goofy idea of limiting my study materials to what they would have available. With that in mind, I began searching for whatever literature I could get my hands on, buying as much as I could (we also created a library, and we sell books when we can), and limiting, for the most part, my preparation material to these resources. my main resources are, of course, my Bible, and an extensive set of cross references, including those that are printed in our Bible. BTW, I also limit my prep to my Polish Bible. As I study, I attempt to be thorough and clear in my steps, and investigate every thread. Once I have my point (skeleton) and the sermon fleshed out, I turn to my English language material to check and verify, and, on occasion, adjust what I’ve done. And then, on Sunday, I tend to share my entire process in the course of the sermon. My goal is to make what I do as transparent as possible, and as useful as possible so they can see that what I did, they can do also. Not everybody cares, obviously, but for those who care (and they tend to either take notes, or have very good memories. One man tends to bring up things I said months later, when he’s going back over a passage–usually earlier in the series–and he never takes written notes) it seems to matter to them.
Essentially, I guess, I break pretty much every rule for homiletics (although I do try to have only one, main point that everything works toward), but I’ve been doing this for the past ten years or so. The irony is that despite what it may seem on the surface, it does focus my attention on them, not on the Bible. How so? I guess because always, at the back of my mind, I’m thinking of them. How what I’m saying and what we are reading will affect them, change them, open their eyes, draw them closer to God–recognize HIm and His will. It also tends to keep me in mind that we won’t always be here–and that creates an urgency that runs very deep–to make sure I leave behind for them, something that will last–something that they can apply and live on.
That said, what you said is something for me to write out and paste somewhere visible while I study. Thanks for another valuable post.
It sounds like you have a very effective sermon-system in place. Thank you for reading and interacting with the post. For what it’s worth, I am delighted that you are trying to preach big ideas and hope some of my material has helped you create a method for finding them in Scripture. I also believe that all effective preaching pastors break homiletical rules (that should make us a little skeptical of hard and fast hom. rules!). So you join an elite group (*smile*). It’s good that you keep your listeners in mind while preaching and I encourage you to continue to keep your preaching posture a dialogue with them about them from God’s Word. After several minutes of talking to them about the Bible (how you’ve come to some conclusions), remind them how God’s Word for the day is addressing them. Again, thanks for adding depth to these posts. Keep up the good work of faith.
Thanks. Good points to apply. Thanks!