Category Archives: big idea

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Our Dual Role as Exegetes and Theologians

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Preachers function in the dual role as exegetes and theologians.

Recently, I gained the privilege of teaching a Ph.D. class this fall for Lancaster Bible College | Capital Seminary & Graduate School. The course is BIB 909 Old Testament Hermeneutics and Theology.

One of the many stages of preparing to teach includes selecting major textbooks. One of my choices is Bruce Waltke’s, An Old Testament Theology: an exegetical, canonical, and thematic approach.

[If you plan on preaching from the OT, then this is an excellent resource to have on your shelf. I can’t say enough about the quality of Waltke’s scholarship. Despite being only 100 pages into the book, I am glad I purchased it!]

Near the end of chapter 3, The Method of Biblical Theology (Part 1), section 3 is, “Abstract Themes, Ideas, and Messages.” The last paragraph reads,

“After the exegete has interpreted the text and mined its message, the theologian through critical reflection interprets that message from its old horizon to the new horizons of the canon and then of both to the contemporary church. In other words, the theologian builds his or her interpretation that unites the ancient message with the contemporary world after the exegete has done his or her interpretive work….In this way godly theologians inform the conscience of the church.” (p. 92)

Notice, pastors have a dual role as exegete and theologian for the faith-families they serve.

It is true, then, that interpretation doesn’t end with our exegesis. It extends to our ability to locate the message that functions for the church.

You’ve stopped short of that dual role if you cannot articulate what God intends for your preaching portion to do to the church, to your listeners (“the contemporary world”).

Remember, the meaning of your text for this coming Sunday should combine content (exegesis) + intent (theological interpretation). When meaning combines content and intent, you are functioning in your dual role as exegete and theologian.

And our Lord will continue to receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

P.S. Waltke basis this understanding of our roles on the nature of the Bible. He writes, “The Bible is more than concepts about God….It is God’s address to his people and his encounter with them. His ‘ideas’ and ‘principles’ are true and call for a personal response to obey and participate in the truth, the divine reality.” (p. 91).

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At the Start of a New Homiletics Class I Am Reminded That…

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There’s nothing better than studying preaching together!

I am extremely fortunate for another opportunity to meet a class of preaching students at LBC|Capital. We are just completing week #2 and are headed into residency week. It will be great to see everyone face-to-face.

Gearing up for the course and evaluating the work being turned in provides a chance for me to review some of the more important aspects of preaching. So, at the beginning of this new Advanced Homiletics class I am reminded that…

  1. it’s extremely helpful to think about intention as a part of your exegesis. That way you don’t separate your exegesis from your application and application doesn’t have to come last in the process.
  2. the amount of verses you select for preaching can either help or hinder your ability to identify the theology of a preaching portion. Cutting the text too short or too long can create problems.
  3. your method of sermon preparation should include a way for you to distinguish between big and little ideas in your text. And, then, of course, you need to be able to show how all sized ideas interrelate to make meaning.
  4. finding the meaning of a passage begins, not by searching for what the meaning is, but how the meaning is made (how the structure of the particular genre of your preaching portion communicates).
  5. when Christ-centered preaching is done well, your listeners will never leave church as good moralists.

That’s probably enough for now, but I do love thinking about some of the key elements to developing a sermon that represents God well.

And may our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus as a result of the way in which you read and communicate the sacred Scriptures (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal

P.S. If you’re free this coming Friday or Saturday, whether for the day, half-day, or even an hour or so, find PAS 513 Advanced Homiletics in LBC|Capital’s Lancaster campus (2nd floor of the academic building).

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The Connection Between Shallow Sermons and Too Much Content

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I saw this caption on what is supposed to be a funny t-shirt. I said, “supposed to be,” because it’s describing the practice of a surgeon. Yikes!

But according to Carrell’s analysis in, Preaching That Matters,

“the reluctance to eliminate content seems to be the primary preparation obstacle for most who preach wide sermons” (p. 109).

Evidently many of us struggle with cutting anything out of our sermon preparation notes. And it hurts us and our hearers.

Carrell records the different ways preachers rationale keeping everything in and delivering it all on Sundays:

“It’s such good material!”

“The more material the better!”

“The more material, the better chances there will be something for everyone!”

The problem: the more material, the greater the risk you will lose your listeners. Listeners simply get worn out trying to keep up with all that good stuff.

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of sitting down with one of our Elders who was going to preach on a Sunday morning. We met to go over his sermon notes. We talked about the best way to accomplish his goals for the sermon–the preaching portion’s goal for the worshiper. Apart from rearranging a few key segments, we spent most of our time deciding on what to leave out. We did that because cutting some things out would allow him to stay focused on what the preaching portion intended to do to the church.

Before Sunday, begin to look for some of the good, biblical information that may keep true transformation from taking place. And God will receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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When Exemplars and Christ-Centered Combine: Preaching Ruth (part 3)

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I know some pit Christ-centered preaching versus exemplar preaching (“go and do likewise” in the case of good examples or “go and do otherwise” in the case of bad examples). But it’s hard to deny that Ruth contains some narratives that provide good examples for Christians to follow (think, Boaz). But Ruth also functions for the Church by placing us in a narrative trajectory that leads to our Savior, the Source of God’s favor. It’s both/and, not either/or.

Boaz was the source of favor for Ruth and Naomi. Chapter 2 opens by drawing attention to him: “a worthy man…” He’s the kind of man God creates and is there for us to emulate. The narrative does more than provide an exemplar, but not less than.

Campbell suggests, “the Ruth story is basically about extraordinary caring and concern, kindness that is above and beyond the call of duty.” In the overall message of Ruth (discovering God as “the restorer of life”), what happens to Ruth and Naomi provide a picture of how God restores life by extending kindness.

The theme of the narrative is located in Ruth’s statement about her spiritual instincts: that she would “find favor” in someone’s field (cf. 2:2, 10). Often the statement of a main character contains the seeds of the big idea for a narrative scene or series of scenes.

To make sense of the chapter, focus on the concept of “favor.” You could outline it this way:

The source of favor (vv. 1, 4-5, 8-9, 14-16, 19-20) is Boaz and the laws God put in place to care for those in need.

The need for favor (vv. 2-3, 6-7, 13, 17-18, 21-23; these two main points could switch places, even though the source of favor occurs in v. 1) is a picture of every one of us spiritual unfortunates.

The reason for receiving favor (vv. 10-12; if you like theological challenges, you’ll love the reason provided in v. 12, “The Lord repay you for what you have done…”) is the faith Ruth had in the “system” God put in place.

As I said above, Ruth’s Gospel does more than provide Boaz as an example to follow. Naomi describes him in v. 20, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.” It’s a great opportunity to remind everyone how God extended favor to us in the person of His Son, to restore life.

Preach well for the sake of His reputation in the Church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Preaching the Unique Circumstances Surrounding Samson’s Birth

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One of the highlights of preaching through the book of Judges is reaching the Samson narrative.

[If you haven’t seen Sight & Sound’s production of Samson, you would enjoy it thoroughly. Their imaginative exposition is always insightful.]

Two things are unique about the Samson birth narrative:

(1) God’s people are incapacitated. Judges 13:2 says, “And his wife was barren and had no children.” There was no courageous judge on the horizon. God’s plan for redeeming His world often included couples who could not conceive children. Think of these famous names: Sarai, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, and Elizabeth. In his excellent little commentary, Davis writes,

“hopelessness…where there is no human energy or ability to serve as a starter.”

Samson is going to be a miracle baby. God would miraculously place him on history’s stage and use him to deliver His people from the Philistines. Our situation is so dire that we can never achieve deliverance in our own strength and ability.

(2) God demanded a special (read, holy) judge. Verses 4-7, 12-14, and 24-25 record instructions delivered to Samson’s mother about what she was to eat and drink during her pregnancy. All because Samson would “be a Nazarite to God from the womb” (v. 5). Those instructions are restated three times in the chapter to signal their importance.

Added to the miracle is a strong dose of holiness. The savior of God’s people would be set apart to God throughout his life, “a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death” (v. 7).

This is the kind of savior God sent for His people; this is the kind of Savior, of course, that He ultimately provided in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s no surprise that when the angel arrives in another nativity scene such as Luke’s gospel, we have similar circumstances.

These prenatal instructions guide our worship. We don’t encourage, “Be like Samson,” or “Don’t be like Samson” in these early scenes. Maybe later in the chapter. For now it’s simply telling God how much we love Him for rescuing us from our tendency to leave Him for other loves.

Preach well for the sake of His reputation in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal

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Some Challenges of Using the Big Idea Method for Preaching

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This is the second of two posts devoted to encouraging readers to consider making the big idea hermeneutic/homiletic a part of their weekly study routine. The contents of the post come from the paper Jeff Arthurs (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary preaching prof) and I presented A couple of weeks ago at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Homiletics society held in Fort Worth, TX.

The paper was titled: The Rewards and Challenges of Teaching Robinson’s Big Idea Method.

Last week I wrote about the rewards; this week I’ll list some challenges. And, yes, the difficulties are well worth the effort.

  • It takes some time to learn and to be able to use the genre clues that lead to the subject of preaching portions. This starting point does not always comes easily. Would-be big ideas are coiled, ready to spring out like a Jack-in-the-Box. It takes discipline to let the Text dictate dominant meaning.
  • Not all brains are wired for this. Over the years we’ve discovered that some students learn this method very quickly while others struggle. It’s not because of intellect or training. Some simply don’t think in ways that lend themselves to this kind of analysis.
  • You will need to continue to work on your exegesis skills. The big idea method is hard work because it is the result of rigorous exegesis of ideas (how phrases and clauses form meaning), not fragments (e.g., word studies). We’re better at micro-exegesis than we are at macro-exegesis. We find there’s still a gap between hermeneutics classes and homiletics classes.
  • Prepare yourself for repetition. If you’re preaching through large portions of the Old Testament, you will encounter many preaching portions contain similar big ideas. That is true in the Joseph narrative in Genesis. You will find the same in Psalms and Proverbs. Resist the urge to find new ideas in every section. Only by doing your big idea analysis early on in your study can you map out a sermon series that takes into account such repetition/restatement.

But these challenges are well worth it. So I hope you will consider making the big idea method the focus of your Monday morning hours and add to God’s glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Why You Should Consider Using the Big Idea Method to Guide the First Hours of Each Week’s Study Time

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Michele and I just returned from attending the annual Evangelical Homiletics Society conference held on the beautiful facilities of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX. I had the privilege of co-authoring and presenting a paper with my Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary teaching colleague, Dr. Jeffrey D. Arthurs.  The paper was titled, The Rewards and Challenges of Teaching Robinson’s Big Idea Method.

Shameless promotion alert: our presentation won the Keith Willhite Award for best paper of the conference.

Here’s a summary of our work. I’m including this because I hope you will consider making the big idea method a part of your weekly sermon preparation. The summary might help move you in that direction if you aren’t already a disciple.

Rewards…

  • Pre-exegesis. The method helps guide my study time at the beginning of every week. I don’t start with micro-exegesis (word studies), but with macro-exegesis or pre-exegesis (learning how meaning is being made through the relationship of ideas within the preaching portion).
  • Discovering the interrelationship between ideas. The method excels at identifying how various sized ideas create meaning in a pericope. Not to mention, this is the time to locate dominant and subordinate thoughts in the passage.
  • Preserves Authorial Intention. This method helps me learn what the writer of Scripture meant and keeps me from reading into or over what he has written. If you preach or teach the Bible then you use some method. I really like this one.
  • Sermon Structure. While you are doing your pre-exegesis according to this fashion, you are beginning to see the author’s structure emerge. The process of finding the big idea leads to the identification of the main points or logical moves of the author and this leads to initial sermon form.
  • Big Idea By-Products. If your analysis is correct within the first few hours of study, you have gained significant sermon by-products. You have your theme or big idea. That means you have direction for both your introduction and conclusions. You also have a sense of what the sermon is supposed to do to the listeners (sermonic purpose).
  • Aids Listener Comprehension and Retention. As your sermon stays locked into the big idea, sermon unity and clarity will help listeners  understand and remember the sermon.

That’s the rewards you can expect if you try the method. If you’re not sure how to put this method into practice, please read or reread my book, Preaching With Accuracy: Finding Christ-Centered Big Ideas for Biblical Preaching (Kregel, 2014).

Preach well so God receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

P.S. Next time I’ll list some of the challenges that go along with the method.

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Preaching Gideon Vs. Midian As A Paradigm For Salvation

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If and when you preach through Judges, you will discover that God spent a lot of biblical real estate on the Gideon narrative. God gives tons of detail on Gideon versus Midian, probably because that contest functions as a paradigm for our salvation. Gideon is a highly unlikely military leader; his victory over the Midianites was a highly unlikely victory. That’s the point.

You’re familiar with how unsure Gideon was about God’s plan and how he asked God more than once to confirm the plan with a miracle (“the fleece”). Where’s his faith anyway?! It’s comforting to see how God did not chastise Gideon for his doubts. No lecturing; just confirming. Of course, Gideon’s example is not instruction for us to “go and do likewise.”

But the key to the narrative and its theology is God’s instruction to Gideon to whittle down his army, “lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.'” (cf. Judges 7:2). This is one of those examples of how the narrative provides a huge clue to meaning.

And be careful how you explain the Lord’s way of decreasing the size of Gideon’s army. God doesn’t tell us why the “lappers” are chosen, but not the “kneelers.” Whatever God’s reason, His intention was to take away any cause for Israel to boast in their strength. So contrary to many preachers’ explanations, the 300 who are selected are a sign of weakness, not strength. Plus, note that they take “trumpets” (v. 8, 22), not spears or bows. The soldiers were turned into fierce instrumentalists!

But God gives His people the victory over the Midianites. And it’s a great reminder of the fact that our salvation is all of God and none of us. We have a strong Savior who continually delivers us from overpowering forces that threaten to undue us. He graciously saves and sanctifies us. He does it all by Himself so we can only boast in the cross of Christ.

Preach well for sake of His reputation in the Church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Preaching What’s Definitely Wrong in the Narrative (part 8 of preaching Daniel)

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Daniel 5:1-31 presents a challenge due to its size. But it only takes the first four verses to see that something’s definitely wrong. The something that’s wrong the ultimate act of idolatry. Verse 4 concludes the party scene with: “They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.” It’s a slap to God’s face.

The writer of Daniel let’s us know that this is wrong by recording Daniel’s speech to the idolatrous king in verse 23: “but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven….And you have praised the gods of silver and gold….but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored.”

So, in verse 23 God provides us with the problem and solution. Our sermon is a time to urge all the faith-family to “go and do otherwise.” Genuine Christians do not follow the king’s example. We keep ourselves from idolatry of all kinds, especially the American idols. We praise “the God in whose hand is [our] breath.” We honor Him and Him alone.

The famous scene of the divine handwriting on the wall and Daniel’s interpretation of that pen-on-plaster describe God’s reaction to the king’s arrogant idolatry. It also advances our application and links us to the Gospel.

First, each one of us at the judgment will be weighed in the balances. Apart from the righteousness Christ, all of us will be “found wanting” (v. 27). But the cross shows us a Savior, the only human ever to live a perfect life, found wanting because of our sins. Because God found Him wanting due to our sins, we have the assurance of facing the judgment without fear. Genuine Christians live a life that reflects the fact that we praise and honor God alone.

For anyone who wonders whether this decision is the right one, give them a good look at how Daniel fares in this chapter.

Preach well so God receives the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal