Category Archives: preaching

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What We Preach And How We Preach

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Manuscripting your sermon isn’t about being clever.

I am writing this post on a Sunday evening. If you preached today you know that feeling of a sense of accomplishment, plus the usual nagging thoughts of, “It could’ve been better, Lord. I tried my best.”

I am enjoying the slow process of reentering my “normal” life. Like, for instance, getting back to my reading schedule which includes books like Jared E. Alcántara’s, The Practices of Christian Preaching: Essentials for Effective Proclamation.

In his introduction, Jared reminds his readers that what matters most is what we preach and “not just how we preach” (p. 6).

He quotes Augustine:

“There is a danger of forgetting what one has to say while working out a clever way to say it” (p. 6).

As I mentioned not too long ago, I had the privilege of working with two sections of Advanced Homiletics students in PA and MD. Part of their final sermon assignment involves writing a manuscript. They preach without it, but write it to practice what they want to say to their listeners. In almost every case it makes them better preachers since the practice makes them work harder on how they speak to their congregants.

Alcántara reminds us how important it is to develop sermon content based upon solid exegesis of the passage. That’s what we have to say. That’s where our authority comes from.

But there is a place for working on how we say it. Cleverness isn’t the goal but listenability and clarity are. So allow the practice of manuscripting to aid your communication. Just note Augustine’s warning. We can’t work so hard at being clever that we forget what we have to say.

As you begin to think hard about next Sunday strike a balance between careful exegesis (what to say) and engaging orascript (how you say it). Discover the strong foundation and then build on it.

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

Randal

P.S. I am curious as to what percentage of sermon prep time do you devote to crafting your words (as opposed to the raw exegesis).

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For 30+ Years I’ve Been Telling Preaching Students…

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I remember thinking: “Everybody I’m reading quotes from C. S. Lewis and Jonathan Edwards!” What’s up with that?!?!

God has been gracious to me again this past year and given me yet another opportunity to teach preaching to students pursuing their Master’s degree as part of their training. Once again this year I said something like:

“Read and think hard to become a pastor-theologian for your faith-family.”

Each year part of my privilege involves listening to my new friends preach sermons as their final project/assignment for the semester in Advanced Homiletics. Each year I think to myself something like:

“Keep encouraging them to read and think hard to become a pastor-theologian for their faith-families.”

The sermons often contain the results of good exegesis, but many are a bit on the lighter side when it comes to theological thinking. I hear solid definition of key terms–word studies; I hear less solid thinking with respect to the why’s and how’s of our relationship to these well-defined concepts.

So, if you were interested in continuing to grow as a theologian, one easy and effective way to proceed is to consider reading Crossway’s series of leading theologians on the Christian Life. I am just completing Lewis on the Christian Life and it has been one of my top five reads in my lifetime. Really. Though not a theologian, Lewis’s thinking is unparalleled (which is not the same as saying he was a good exegete). Joe Rigney’s book, however, is excellent. And the other books I’ve read in the series are also extremely good.

It seems like modern pastor-theologians that are worth studying always quote the likes of Lewis and also Jonathan Edwards. I encourage you to join that club so our Lord continues to receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal

P.S. Rigney’s analysis of Lewis’s thoughts on the corruption of human love and how temptation works on men and women is an example of how such thinking adds theological depth to sermons.

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The Past Few Months and Months to Come, Lord Willing

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A Snippet of My Personal Journey

I am finally back to the place where I can create these short preaching posts each week.

For the past couple of months–actually since August–I have been scrambling to put the finishing touches on my Ph.D. dissertation. The deadline for attempting the oral exam was early November.

God graciously allowed me to pass that exam about a month ago and I graduated this past Friday.

I enjoyed the whole process immensely, except for the hectic pace. The Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from LBC|Capital Seminary & Graduate School included two years of course work, qualifying exams, and then approximately two years of research and writing the dissertation. The generalist approach was beneficial in that it covered both Testaments, plus historical theology (not to mention extensive language studies: ancient semitic languages such as Aramaic, Ugaritic, and Akkadian, plus modern research languages such as German and French).

I believe my preaching is the better for it since the training helped me read Scripture better. The incredible congregation of Christ-followers at Calvary Bible Church in Mount Joy, PA provide the real evaluation!

The push over the past few months, however, meant some things simply had to be delayed. Like this blog.

Looking ahead I intend to continue to provide 300-ish word posts on preaching and the connection between hermeneutics and homiletics that reflect my own practice and learning. Lord willing, I will also be presenting some of my recent research and also writing projects that have been on hold since I matriculated into the Ph.D. program.

Thank you for reading and interacting with my material through the years. My prayer is that our Lord will receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus as a result of our efforts (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

P.S. Blessed Christmas and New Year to you!

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What Sermons Can And Should Not Do

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We Have An Uphill Battle With Young People Ages 13-25!
Photo by Pier Monzon on Unsplash

“For Young People, A Church Disconnect” by Clare Ansberry appeared in the Personal Journal section of the Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, October 26, 2021. She reminded me of the uphill battle we preachers have these days.

Here are my takeaways from the brief article:

  1. Many congregations are feeling the pressure, exacerbated by COVID, of needing more “believers to sustain their congregations.” Ansberry proposed only that young people between the ages of 13-25 feel a disconnect with the churches that need them. I was reminded that the Church is God’s and He promised to build it. The current day and mindset is no match for Him.
  2. This age group cares deeply about racial justice, gender equity, immigration rights, income inequality, and gun control. And they don’t think we “care as much as they do about [these] issues that matter deeply to them…” (“The biggest disconnect involves LGBT rights.”) Concerning the statement in parentheses, we have our work cut out for us differentiating between rights of a citizen versus how a faith-family conducts itself according to God’s will. The same goes for gender equity and Paul’s reference to creation order to explain gender specific instructions for the church.
  3. Finally, Ansberry wrote, “I hear loud and clear that young people long for their churches to engage who they are, and embrace the full identity of young people.” This includes embracing their views of LGBT rights and all things inclusive.

If you and I preach and teach Scripture, our listeners will hear about a God who is very concerned with a certain kind of justice, but is also crystal clear about certain “differences” He will not accept (a part of His justice).

I am bracing myself for the uphill battle of reading Scripture in such a way that our young people will learn that God intends to transform them into a brand new identity. Then, little by little they will see that God critiques the spirit of the age, not the other way around.

Sermons can do that. Sermons should not feed the instincts of our young people with respect to their negative feelings toward a God who “discriminates.”

May we boldly and graciously preach His Word so He continues to receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21),

Randal

P.S. Some of you may have noticed my inactivity over the past few weeks. I was swamped with the task of completing and defending my Ph.D. dissertation.

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The Critical Move from Meaning to Application

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Okay, maybe not “Good Results,” but, certainly, “Good Intentions.”

Not good results because we can’t guarantee “ears to hear.” We can’t guarantee that our listeners will respond to God. But we can guarantee that each Sunday we will supply God’s intention for the preaching portion.

Tomorrow, as you begin working on your Sunday sermon, be prepared to complete the following sentence:

“This morning, we worship our Lord by _______________________________.”

You and I fill in the blank with God’s intention for the passage of Scripture. This is the foundation for all expressions of application.

So, as you begin to practice your exegetical method this week, include the search for the intention of the passage. You will have to look for clues provided by the biblical author. It’s easiest usually in the epistles; toughest usually in OT narratives.

The main thing is to ask yourself what God intends to do in what He has written. Or, you might ask it this way: “How does God intend for this Scripture to function for the church?”

If done correctly, the way you fill in the blank above will be determined by the big idea of your preaching portion. The meaning and application are organically related through God’s intention.

So, while you can’t guarantee good results (actual worship), you can guarantee you will communicate good intentions, God’s intentions for the passage.

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

Randal

P.S. I practice trying to complete the worship response as early as possible in my work week. That way, I do not have to wonder how the exegesis is functioning all week long. I am thinking about application early on in the process. And since God’s intention is the focus, I don’t have to worry about the search for application tainting the exegetical process (kind of an ole school approach!).

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Checking in on Your Wordsmith Superpower

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How’s your ability to work with words these days?

Before getting back to sermon application, I wanted to take a moment to ask you about your word smithing. I know it’s not a word. The spell-checker just rejected my one-word and spit it into two.

One of the top five books on communication that I’ve ever read is Humes’, The Sir Winston Method. He analyzes and summarizes Winston Churchill’s powerful communication style.

A top takeaway from the book is the CREAM approach to crafting words. The acrostic stands for:

C = contrast

R = rhyme

E = echo

A = alliteration

M = metaphor

You can use this acrostic to guide the development of key concepts in your sermon such as your big idea or theme.

I am not great at this, but every once in a while my wordsmithing superpower kicks in. This happened a couple of times the past two weeks.

First, while preaching in 1 Corinthians 1:17ff. where Paul teaches about the cross of Christ and how foolish that message sounds, I urged our folks to

“stick to the script.”

This would help them fight the temptation to change their message ever so slightly to make our Gospel appear more palatable.

Then, yesterday while preaching Jude 5-10 I reviewed the purpose for our series with this broad directive:

“We proclaim the Gospel out there; we protect it in here.”

The first one has a lot of alliteration and a little bit of rhyming going on. The second example has more alliteration and a little bit of contrast.

If you’re serious about practicing CREAM, you’ll enjoy Humes’ relatively short, but packed paperback (see what I did there?). My Doctor of Ministry thesis, Teaching the Skills of Preaching, is not nearly as enjoyable, but does contain examples of CREAM.

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as we put our word smithing (there it goes again!) superpowers to good use each Sunday.

Randal

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Defining Sermon Application

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Think of Application in Terms of Being a Subject in God’s Kingdom.

As you develop your sermon or lesson this week, here are a couple of ways to think about application.

N. T. Wright provides a very broad understanding of biblical application. He believes that we are inviting our listeners into a different world.

That’s a good start. Our preaching and teaching invites them to move from their world to God’s world.

I like to be a bit more specific with respect to the nature of sermon application. I define application as:

“The process by which expository preachers and teachers urge their listeners to inhabit an area of the Kingdom of God.”

One way to assess the meaning of your preaching portion for this Sunday is to ask what particular area of the Kingdom of God is being highlighted.

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as you put your exegetical skills to good use with the goal of inviting your listeners to inhabit God’s Kingdom.

Randal

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Thinking of Application in Terms of Intentionality

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The Text Signals It’s Intention By It’s Shape

Even if you were not familiar with the three tools shown above, you could probably figure out what they were intended to do. Just look at their shape. Also, think about what would happen if you tried to make their functionality interchangeable. Imagine using the saw in the middle for a hammer!

Biblical texts–our preaching portions–signal their intention by their shape. Theology is conveyed through literary structure, things like grammar and syntax, and the type of literature. That’s why I live and die by this method:

After I pray Aquinas’s famous prayer, “Grant to me keenness of mind…”, my first study minutes are devoted to tracing the argument of the passage.

Pauline epistles convey their theology through logical argumentation. Old and New Testament narratives communicate through their storyline. Old Testament poetry preaches through parallelism.

That’s all simplistic, I know, but true enough to make the point.

Our search for applications begins with a search for intentionality. Here’s the key question:

What does God intend to do to His readers in this preaching portion?

Answer that and you’ve got the foundation for any form of application from that pericope.

In order to answer that question, you have to know what to look for. The epistles or other didactic genres (types of literature) are easiest, I think. Follow the imperatives and the logical flow. Doctrinal sections intend for readers to affirm them as real, real enough to elicit praise and corresponding lifestyle.

Narratives are the worst. We can talk about that next time, Lord willing.

For now, as you head into another work week, be thinking in your first hours of study what God intends to do to His readers, your congregants so He receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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One Goal of Sermon Application: What I’m Learning from Reading Jonathan Edwards’ Earliest Sermons

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“And in a word, the Application will be found to be the Best part of the Sermon.” (J.E.)

When you read Edwards’s sermons, you soon realize that sermon application can also be called “Improvement or Use” (p. 38, Kimnach). It took me a while to get use to “improving” on a doctrine, but now I get what Edwards is trying to do.

Kimnach describes the approach:

“Application is concerning with experience and practice.” (p. 39)

Most of us think of sermon application in terms of transformation of attitude or action dictated by the Scriptures. But Kimnach writes,

“But as employed by Edwards, the Application also has a subtler use, as is indicated by his own statement in this transitional passage between Doctrine and Application of Gen. 19:14.

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

So how does Edwards do that? Here’s an example from the sermon, God’s Excellencies:

APPLICATION.

We are now come to make some improvement of this glorious truth….

How dreadful must his wrath be! If God [is] infinitely great and powerful, how terrible must his wrath and anger be; what a miserable creature–how inexpressibly miserable–must a poor, weak, sinner be in the hands of an angry and enraged God, who can shake the whole earth in pieces in a moment, and can annihilate the whole universe in the twinkling of an eye. (p. 426, emphasis added)

All of this is built off from the doctrine of the excellency of God. The logic is that sin against such an excellent Being must be extremely dreadful.

Edwards improves the doctrine by moving from the truth to an implication of that truth, an implication that his hearers must experience as real.

One more example:

“O what is a worm, to bear the weight of the anger of so great a being?” (p. 427)

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as we explain the Doctrine and then spend time on its Improvement, doing our best to help our listeners experience it as real.

Randal

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Why You Should Consider Preaching/Teaching Through Entire Books of the Bible

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I wonder if this is the way our congregants read their Bibles?

Last week I posted my final reading of the book of Numbers and today I wanted to review why I am such a fan of preaching through books of the Bible in church.

When I am asked in class why I preach through books of the Bible in church, my first answer is:

“Because preaching through books of the Bible helps our listeners see the meaning of every preaching portion within the broader context of the book.”

But let me back up for a moment and answer the question from my experience of 30 years of preaching through books of the Bible. If I counted correctly, so far the Lord has graciously allowed me to preach through 16 complete books of the Old Testament and 17 complete books of the New Testament.

[I am praying hard that Jesus will return before I have to preach either Ezekiel or Job!]

Why preach through books of the Bible?

First, the practice of preaching through books of the Bible like the book of Numbers, for instance on display in recent posts, has increased my faith in the relevance of Scripture. I can’t tell you the number of weeks when I know what section awaits me and think: “I have no idea what I am going to do to that text so it will preach.”

Second, the practice of preaching through books of the Bible has forced me to become a better student of the Scriptures. Similar to the reaction above, some sections of some books, especially OT ones, are extremely difficult to preach. That’s because they are difficult to interpret so they function for the church. Preaching through books of the Bible in both Testaments Sunday after Sunday has made me better at doing theological interpretation like no other exercise can.

Third, the practice of preaching through books of the Bible gives me the awesome privilege of being a reading guide for our faith-family. Let me connect this to my first answer above.

One huge problem I see in topical preaching is that it teaches parishioners to read their Bible wrongly. They learn to read the Bible as if it contains isolated, contextless, fragments of meaning that are designed to be applied to life that way.

In addition to that, what an honor to attempt to help them understand what God is saying in some sections of Scripture that they would never stop and consider on their own [you know, those sections that we all speed-read to get through our daily Bible reading?].

May our Lord receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21) as you guide the Bible reading of your own faith-families.

Randal