Category Archives: illustrations

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Preaching For Life-Change: A Guest Post From Dr. Roger Raymer

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Our First Reunion Since The Late 80’s!

I am writing this from Puebla, Mexico. Michele and I have the privilege of visiting with veteran missionaries, Bryan and Lori Smith. Bryan invited us to come and speak to their annual Intermission Conference. What a surprise to hear that a guy named, Roger Raymer, was also here! Roger was part of the Pastoral Ministries department at Dallas Theological Seminary while I was attending in the mid to late 80’s. We had a great reunion together. He graciously agreed to write a guest post for me.

First, a little about Roger. He he earned a ThM degree from Dallas Theological Seminary and a DMin from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. For more than 30 years Roger served as a senior pastor and as an adjunct faculty member at Dallas Theological Seminary. Currently, Roger and his wife Judy serve with Avant Ministries providing pastoral care for missionaries in Mexico and at Rio Grande Bible College in south Texas. Roger also continues to teach in the Doctor of Ministry degree program at Dallas Theological Seminary.

Now, Roger’s guest post:

Preaching is daunting. We stand before our congregations preaching the Word of God by the power of the Spirit to change lives. I know that I cannot do that through imparting biblical facts alone. It is helpful to remind myself of the principles of persuasive rhetoric. Aristotle’s “pathos, logos and ethos” are truly “old school” but essential to communicate persuasively. The more modern terms are emotional, intellectual and ethical proof.

We use intellectual proof to convince our listeners of the accuracy of our interpretation through exegetical evidence and the logical argument of the text. Our congregations buy what we are saying intellectually.

Pastors have a high degree of credibility or ethical proof. Our personal integrity, education, and pastoral care cause our congregations to trust us and believe us.  

Where we often fall short is in the crucial area of emotional proof. Pastors in the non-charismatic, evangelical tradition have tended to avoid almost any form of emotion in worship and preaching.  However, emotion is not foreign to the biblical text. The Old Testament prophets voiced powerful emotions to touch hearts. We should touch the hearts of our congregations as well.

Emotional proof is more than tears and laughter. “Pathos” appeals to one’s hopes and aspirations through vivid word pictures of the positive consequences of obeying God’s Word. We touch hearts when we relive real emotion as we share a personal experience or illustration that affects us emotionally. If we tell a story with real emotion in our voice our listeners will be moved emotionally as well.

Why is this important? Usually, individuals will not base a life changing decision on information or logical facts alone. Intellectual understanding will move someone toward a decision but it often takes emotional proof for life change to take place.

Clearly, spiritual growth is the work of the Spirit. Our responsibility is to provide the rhetorical elements that the Spirit can use to change lives. After all, that is our goal – to change lives.

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Edwards’s Unique Angle On Application: What I’m Learning From Reading Jonathan Edwards’s Early Sermons

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I’ve learned that Edwards referred to the application of a sermon as “improvement or use” (Kimnach, p. 38). The improvement section of the sermon was usually the longest of the three that we explored in previous posts (text, doctrine, application).

Listen to how Edwards transitions to the application section of Genesis 19:14 defines application:

“The Improvement we shall make of this doctrine shall be to offer some considerations to make future punishment seem real to you” (p. 39).

What we normally think of as application–putting Scripture into practice or applying life to the Bible–includes helping our listeners experience the reality of a Scripture. In the case of Genesis 19:14 the Lord was about to bring judgment down on the city, but Lot’s son-in-laws didn’t take the warning seriously. Edwards feared some of his listeners would not be able to experience the reality of God’s judgment.

So, Edwards will create hypothetical situations that help his listeners imagine what it’s like to enter God’s story. He calls this the

“willing suspension of disbelief” (p. 39).

Edwards reminds us that, deep down, we struggle believing God’s reality as described/prescribed in Scripture. So the improvement of a biblical text involves helping our listeners suspend their disbelief so they will believe and obey God’s Word.

[Remember, every act of disobedience is first and foremost an act of unbelief. So we attack disobedience by attacking unbelief.]

Edwards shined at creating these hypothetical situations through analogy. In his first sermon, Christian Happiness, he helps us experience not being “afraid of any temporal afflictions whatsoever” (p. 301) with this analogy:

“the pain of the prick of a pin” (p. 302).

Edwards reasons that the prick lasts a minute but yields seventy years of prosperity. The prick of a pin is nothing to fear in this case. The same goes for seventy years of trouble in this world compared to “an eternity of the highest happiness” (p. 302).

Trust me. That section will have you feeling differently about temporal troubles!

So, before Sunday, look at your sermon application and see if you are helping your listeners suspend their unbelief for a moment so they embrace God’s world as their own. And He will receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Using Analogies To Add Clarity: What I’m Learning from Reading Jonathan Edwards’ Early Sermons

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One of Jonathan Edwards’ favorite rhetorical reasoning tools is an analogy. Here’s an example from his sermon, Christian Happiness. Edwards is arguing that a godly person does not need to be afraid of any troubles on earth.

First, “what need a man be afraid of storms and tempests without, that has so good a shelter?” (Kimnach, p. 301) Edwards is referring to a Christian having God and Christ watching over him.

Then, “And is there any man here present that would be at all afraid of the pain of the prick of a pin for a minute, if he knew that after it he should enjoy a life of–suppose–seventy years of the greatest prosperity imaginable, without the least molestation?” (pp. 301-302). Edwards is referring to suffering a little during one’s earthly life versus enjoying eternity pain-free.

Those are two quick examples of how Edwards gains clarity and adds strength to his arguments. And he does this a lot.

Me, not so much. But I’m learning.

I’m learning that analogies are a great way to explain and argue for the truth of Scripture. Analogies like the second one above force the listener to say:

“No person in their right mind would ever allow their fear of a little needle stick to keep them from getting a vaccine that would save their life.” (That was my quick attempt to create a variation of Edwards’ analogy)

And that’s what we want to happen in our listener’s minds. We want the force of our argument to force our congregants to agree with God’s Word.

Finally, I was thinking that Edwards’ analogies are functioning like a kind of illustration. Usually, illustrations in sermons can take a while. What I like about Edwards’ version is they don’t take up lots of message minutes, but they are effective.

Anyway, before Sunday see if your Scripture and sermon can use the help of an analogy to add clarity and strength to your argument so God receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

P.S. Merry Christmas!

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What I learned From Listening To Someone Else Preach

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Due to sickness earlier in the week, my Elders strongly suggested I only preach once yesterday. That meant I had the privilege of listening to one of my colleagues preach. Like many of you, I don’t get the opportunity to listen to someone else preach live too often. I learned that:

  1. Our relationship with our listeners is an important part of preaching. My friend has great rapport with our faith-family and it showed in his preaching and our worshiping in the Word.
  2. Powerful illustrations can overpower the sermon point. He told a “killer” (literally!) story about Zwingli’s brutal treatment of Anabaptists. The next thing you say after the story is over is critical for regaining attention back to the message. That’s the time for a succinct, well-worded sentence or two of how the Text affects the listener’s relationship with God. If you don’t do that, the sheer force of the illustration can hijack the sermon.
  3. Don’t break eye-contact when you arrive at your key statements. You probably have them written down in your notes. You want to say them just right, but you also need to impress it on your listeners and that happens best while you’re looking at them.
  4. Work extra hard to maintain good energy while covering a long list of commands. In the preaching covered yesterday there were at least seven commands in a row. It is difficult, next to impossible to keep a congregation engaged as you explain each item. Carefully consider how you’ll pace yourself through the list. Think about an approach–cover each equally (say a minute and a half each?), focus on a few, or group some of them. Whatever you decide, remember how difficult it is to keep a sermon’s energy high as you move through the list.
  5. My mind wandered during the sermon. I know, right?! But it did. It’s difficult to keep our listeners with us as the minutes go by. It’s critical, then, to keep bringing them back, especially by reminding them of the big idea.

May these takeaways add to God’s glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal

P.S. For what it’s worth, that sermon was very good!

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A Rhetorical Reason for Using Personal Illustrations

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You’ve seen this happen. You’re preaching hard so that your listeners understand the theology of a Text. As soon as you start into your illustration (“When I was growing up in rural Maine…”) you see the heads of several listeners lift. They are now with you in the illustration in a way they were not with you during your explanation.

Illustrations have tremendous power, especially when you tell a story about yourself.

In Gallo’s book, Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-speaking Secrets of the Word’s Top Minds, he devotes a section to mastering the art of storytelling. Gallo writes,
“Hasson and his colleagues have discovered that personal stories actually cause the brains of both storyteller and listener to sync up. Sync up is my term; Hasson calls it ‘brain-to-brain coupling’” (p. 50; another term is “mind-meld”).
So, there is a rhetorical reason for using personal illustrations: they create a special bond between us and our congregants.
It’s true that illustrations illumine an idea. Illustrations are powerful tools for communicating truth. They are also effective in creating a deeper relationship with our congregants. And that deeper relationship is a huge factor in effective preaching.
One more thing Gallo writes about is the connection between our ability to tell personal stories and our ability to lead a church. He writes,
“The ability to tell a personal story is an essential trait of authentic leadership…” (p. 53)

Good leaders tell stories about themselves because they know that these stories reveal our humanness, our genuineness. And that is a huge part of building trust that ultimately builds up the Body of Christ.

So, before Sunday, when you’re thinking about adding illustrations to your sermon manuscript (You do write out your sermons during the week just like you were preaching on Sunday, even though you do not carry your manuscript to the pulpit, right?), consider their rhetorical effect.

And God will receive His glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal