Category Archives: sermon delivery

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What Kind of Questions Are You Asking This Sunday?

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I just completed three weeks of learning with some excellent Doctor of Ministry students. One of the things I was watching for during their in-class sermons was the kind of connection they were making with their listeners, one of which was me.

More than once, a question was asked in such a way that did not get any reaction from any listener. In other words, the preacher asked a question, but was not wanting or expecting an answer. They asked the question while looking down and did not wait for any response. They quickly moved on to the next statement in their sermon.

I strongly believe that asking the right questions in the right way is one of a preacher’s most important rhetorical devices. So many good things can happen pastorally when we take time to bring our listeners along with the right question asked in the right way (the right way meaning, asking the question in such a way that your listeners know you want them to think and answer quickly).

Last weekend I preached James 5:13-18. One scholar reminded me that James asks over 20 questions in 5 chapters, a lot of questions for that little letter. When you’re studying James, take a look at the kinds of questions he asks. One thing I learned is that James was aiming for an immediate response. For instance, in James 2:4, after telling us not to show partiality, he asks, “have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” Yikes! We want the Holy Spirit to do just as much convicting during our preaching as was happening when James was first heard. Asking the right question in the right way may be one way to achieve that goal.

So, how many and what kind of questions are you asking this Sunday?

Preach well for the sake of His reputation in the Church and in the world.

Randal

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Why Our Study Skills Are Inadequate and How to Buttress Them

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word-and-spirit

Last month, Michele and I made our trek to the Evangelical Homiletics Society annual conference. This year it was hosted by Talbot Seminary on the campus of Biola University near Los Angeles. The conference theme was, Spirit-led Preaching, and our plenary speaker was Jack Hayford. If you’re not familiar with Jack’s ministry, he is probably the most well-known and well-respected Pentecostal pastor in the U.S. The plenary sessions contained heavy doses of anecdotes, sprinkled with insightful one-liners. Hayford, for instance, described praying over your preaching portion as “interfacing with the One who breathed the Book.” In preparing to study he would pray, “Let me breathe in what you breathed on.”

Hayford gave me a passion for the Spirit’s active presence in my study. He helped me realize that my grammatical-historical-literary-rhetorical-theological method is inadequate. Hayford firmly believes that a passion for the Spirit’s active presence in my study contributes what good study habits can’t (the concept is his; I added and emphasized the word, active). He made me a believer, too. I’m sure you know that it is the Holy Spirit, for instance, that brings the Word alive. Think about what difference, if any, exists between the interpretation of an unregenerate scholar and a Spirit-led scholar. Then, think about the difference between a sermon preached by an unregenerate preacher compared with a sermon preached by a Spirit-led preacher.

Except for the grace of God, it’s possible that I could be working in my study just like a non-Christian theologian/pastor. I have been trained fairly well and possess adequate study skills. But, in the end, those study skills are inadequate. I want to buttress them with a passion for the Spirit’s active presence in my study and during the sermon. So, I’m trying to remember to pray for the:

  • Spirit’s help before I begin studying
  • Spirit’s help during my study
  • Spirit to change me during my study
  • Spirit to show me Christ and how faith in His work sanctifies (cf. John 16:14 “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”)
  • Spirit’s help right before I preach so that my learning and growing occurs in the moment.

Share your ideas about Spirit-led preaching.

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Do you learn during the preaching event?

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I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist. That usually means agonizing over my studies so that I have everything “figured out” by Sunday morning. It didn’t take me long to realize that I never have the preaching portion all figured out. In more recent years I’m becoming more comfortable with the reality that all my interpretations are partial at best. I’ve also been able to look forward to what God will teach me during the teaching time. Virtually every weekend the preaching event, including the important interaction I enjoy with active listeners, adds to my understanding of the preaching portion. This means that my accuracy increases while I’m preaching. In Preaching & Preachers, Lloyd-Jones states, “…you never know what is going to happen to [the sermon] until you get into the pulpit and start preaching it….You will find that the Spirit Who has helped you in your preparation may now help you, while you are speaking, in an entirely new way, and open things out to you which you had not seen while you were preparing your sermon” (p. 99). Barth adds, “We should not try to master the text. The Bible will become more and more mysterious to real exegetes. They will see all the depths and distances” (p. 128 in Homiletics). I hope that you are finding this to be true of you–that you are learning while you preach.