Posted in Audience Analysis, Christianity, Homiletics, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Expository Preaching on July 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
When it comes to the application of a message, there are many options. One is to ignore it completely and leave it up to the Holy Spirit (not a good option since it’s part of our job as preachers . . . by this logic why do we preach at all?) Another is to be [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Audience Analysis, Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Expository Preaching on July 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The question “why?” is critical for good preaching.
Why did the author write the passage? Wrestling with the intent of the author is critical if the goal is to understand the passage. This means not only asking “what does the passage say?” – that is, content. But also asking “why did the author write it?” – [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Christianity, Delivery, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, Stage 6 - Message Idea, Stage 7 - Message Outline, tagged Expository Preaching, Order, Progress, Unity on June 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Unity. Order. Progress. Three essentials in effective communication of a message. Yet it strikes me that we can sometimes take these for granted when we are preaching on a single passage. Unity? One passage. Order? Moving through the passage. Progress? Getting closer to the end. If this is all we have, then I suspect our [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Christian Faith, Expository Preaching, John Lennox on June 6, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Probably it’s a combination of attending an apologetically driven conference and being scheduled to preach on faith this Sunday, but I’m pondering preaching for faith. I suppose that is always close to the heart of the matter in Christian preaching. Anyway, here are a couple of thoughts, although this could be a series of posts [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Audience Analysis, Christianity, Delivery, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Expository Preaching on June 5, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Yesterday my wife had to spend the day in the hospital having blood taken every hour. So I received regular updates by text message (SMS). She was listening to some CDs she’d been sent. Teaching on the subject of the family. I received a sort of running commentary by text message. The bottom line? This [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Audience Analysis, Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 6 - Message Idea, Stage 7 - Message Outline, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Developing an Idea, Developmental Questions, Donald Sunukjian, Haddon Robinson on June 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Okay, that should be “developmental questions,” but they are dynamite. Sunukjian and others have followed Robinson in making quite a fuss of these three questions. I would encourage you to do the same. The questions represent the three ways in which a stated idea can be developed. There are no other ways to develop an [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, tagged Expository Preaching on May 8, 2009 | 4 Comments »
It is so important to understand the text before you preach it! I don’t mean just knowing what the big words mean. I don’t mean just having a collection of exegetical insights to share. I don’t mean even having a sermon vaguely based on certain parts of the text. I mean really understanding what the [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, tagged Expository Preaching, Prayer on April 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
There are a couple of short-cuts taken by many preachers that need to be highlighted for the sake of Biblical Preaching. Please be sure to read the explanation as well as the heading (it’s amazing how people miss the point of what’s written sometimes!)
1. Prayer. Prayer is not a short-cut. It is a necessity. It [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Audience Analysis, Christianity, Homiletics, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, tagged Expository Preaching, Greg Haslam, Westminster Chapel on February 26, 2009 | 1 Comment »
In the last two posts we’ve considered Greg Haslam’s list of eight reasons why preaching is ailing. I’d like to add a couple more to the list, from my perspective. Feel free to add your thoughts.
Some don’t know how to interpret the Bible. Some preachers have the best intentions, and even good presentation skills, but [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Christianity, Delivery, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 6 - Message Idea, Stage 7 - Message Outline, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Affective, Affective Theology, Expository Preaching, Ron Frost, Spreading Goodness, spreadinggoodness, Trinitarian on February 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
My post today is not here, but you can get there from here. It’s a guest post on a blog I appreciate very much – spreadinggoodness.org. It is a blog by Dr Ron Frost. I commend the blog to you, and I’m not just saying that because Ron has kindly invited me [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Old Testament, Preaching, Religion, Specific text, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Bryan Chappell, Christocentric, Edmund Clowney, Theocentric, Walter Kaiser on January 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
There is a lot of discussion about whether preaching is anthropocentric or theocentric (man or God-centered). Some like to get into the theocentric versus christocentric debate (God or Christ-centered). I am not getting into that one in this post (although I will mention a helpful category I heard recently from Walter Kaiser – christocentric is [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, tagged Expository Preaching on December 26, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I emphasize the need to preach a single text in most sermons. There are exceptions, but generally one text is the way to go. I want to be clear why I make this suggestion (today) and address a possible misunderstanding (tomorrow).
I strongly suggest preaching on one text most of the time, because it is so [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, tagged Grudem, How Long, Sermon Preparation, Time Wasting, Wayne Grudem on December 16, 2008 | 1 Comment »
As I wander through Preach the Word, I am taking advantage of little nuggets here and there to prompt posts. Today I’m influenced by Wayne Grudem’s article on “Right and Wrong Interpretation of the Bible.” He makes a point that I have probably made before, but it bears repeating.
Grudem writes, “It is possible to do [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Christianity, Genre, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 6 - Message Idea, Stage 7 - Message Outline, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Bible as Literature, John Drury, Leland Ryken, Literary Hermeneutics, Preach the Word on December 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I’d like to share another post in light of the chapter by Leland Ryken in the book he co-edited entitled Preach the Word (in honor of Kent Hughes). In writing of the importance of understanding the Bible literarily and not just theologically or historically, he states the following:
A biblical scholar who caught the vision for [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Christianity, Genre, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, Stage 6 - Message Idea, Stage 7 - Message Outline, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Gordon Fee, Leland Ryken, Literary, Literary Forms, Literary Types, Preach the Word on December 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday I noted Leland Ryken’s comment that expository preaching “keeps its focus on the announced text instead of escaping from it to other material.” Another feature of expository preaching, in his mind, is as follows:
2. “Expository preaching interacts with the chosen text in terms of the kind of writing that it is instead of immediately [...]
Read Full Post »
The first half of the preparation process is focused on the passage only. What is in it? What is its structure? Why did the author write it? What was his main idea? Then the second half switches focus from passage to message. I suggest that at that mid-point (between stages 4 and 5), is the [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Audience Analysis, Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 6 - Message Idea, Stage 7 - Message Outline, Stage 8 - Message Detail on November 22, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Perhaps you have already thought it through in this way, or perhaps this will be helpful to you. The eight stage preparation process can be stated in the form of questions:
1. Passage Selection – Which passage will you prepare to preach?
2. Passage Study – What does the passage say and mean? (What is the content [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Christianity, Delivery, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 6 - Message Idea, Stage 7 - Message Outline, Stage 8 - Message Detail on November 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I just read a post on communication that related to content versus visuals in their relative importance. The conclusion was that neither trumped the other, but in fact connection trumped them both. In the more specific realm of biblical preaching, we have to give precedence to the content, but that does not mean we neglect [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Old Testament, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, tagged Hebrews on November 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I don’t mean preaching your sermon based on another contemporary preacher’s sermon. I mean preaching a sermon based on a Scriptural sermon. There’s lots of them. It can be fascinating to wrestle with a sermon in its context since you would expect to find a sense of context, purpose, application, explanation, etc. If you haven’t [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 6 - Message Idea, Stage 7 - Message Outline, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Bryan Chappell, Haddon Robinson, Preaching Books, Ramesh Richard, Sermon, Sermon Preparation on November 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
So the critical matter of the role of the Spirit raised issues concerning evaluation of past “fruit,” and more importantly, the dynamic tension between good stewardship and self-reliance. Now another objection:
Doesn’t homiletics create a methodological strait jacket? People with years of experience in reading a passage, soaking in it and then coming up with something [...]
Read Full Post »
As you head forward to preach today, are you clear on your aim? A great main idea that is fired indiscrimately is not as good as a great main idea fired at a specific target. Do you have a specific statement of sermon purpose? Is it something you want listeners to do? Is it something [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Christianity, Delivery, Genre, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, New Testament, Preaching, Religion, Specific text, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 6 - Message Idea, Stage 7 - Message Outline, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Clausal Layout, Diagramming, Exegetical Outline, Syntactical Analysis on November 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Here in London you can visit the British Library and look at such priceless items as Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Alexandrinus. While it is a privilege to see them, they are not the easiest things to read and understand. Written in uncials, ITISNOTEASYTOREADTEXTWITHOUTGAPSORPUNCTUATION. Never mind the fact that it is in Greek, just the running [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Audience Analysis, Christianity, Delivery, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Old Testament, Preaching, Religion, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 6 - Message Idea, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Prophet Joel, Thomas Finley on September 11, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I was just reading a little commentary on Joel by Thomas Finley. On page 38 he makes a comment that is worth our attention as preachers. It’s not new, it’s not profound, but it’s easy to leave this out of the equation as we evaluate our ministry.
According to Finley, the prophets, such as Joel, “had [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, tagged Jay Adams, Preaching with purpose on September 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I am continuing to read Jay Adams book Preaching with Purpose (1982). Chapters 5 and 6 concern selecting a preaching portion, but point beyond stage 1 to the oft-neglected stage 3 in my process – passage purpose. Adams points out that a preaching passage has unity not because of literary convention, or by rhetorical fiat [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Jay Adams, Preaching with purpose on September 9, 2008 | 2 Comments »
This morning I am pondering purpose. Honestly I am pondering the purpose of the spyware and virus that is pushing me closer and closer to replacing my pc – why do people write these evil things? Hopefully my character can be shaped by the frustration. But as my pc is scanned for the tenth time, [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Audience Analysis, Christianity, Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preacher's Personal Life, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 6 - Message Idea, Stage 7 - Message Outline, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged Authorial intent, expository, Expository Preaching on August 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I split the preparation process into two. Stages 1-4 focus on the text. Stages 5-8 are concerned with forming the message. Before beginning to think about the message, it is a good idea to consider the listeners (audience analysis). Until this point the focus is on the text. From this point on the focus is [...]
Read Full Post »
When we preach, our desire is for God’s Word to truly mark the lives of those listening. We want them to learn, certainly, but more than that, we want them to be changed. We want them to apply the Scripture in their lives that they will not be hearers only, but doers also. We want [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Christianity, Homiletics, Preaching, Religion, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 6 - Message Idea, Stage 7 - Message Outline, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged 12 Skills, Sermon Preparation, Spiritual Preaching, Wayne McDill on August 12, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Periodically I come across people who think it is wrong to study preaching, or to prepare in any specific way for a sermon. Perhaps there are more, but they don’t make themselves known to me – quite possible. I like this succinct paragraph from Wayne McDill’s 12 Essential Skills for Great Preaching (p219):
Some preachers are [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in Homiletics, How to . . . ?, Preaching, Religion, Specific text, Stage 1 - Passage Selection, Stage 2 - Passage Study, Stage 3 - Passage Purpose, Stage 4 - Passage Idea, Stage 5 - Message Purpose, Stage 6 - Message Idea, Stage 7 - Message Outline, Stage 8 - Message Detail, tagged 1Peter 4, Spiritual Gifts on July 21, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Monday’s a good time to pause for thought. Perhaps you preached yesterday. Perhaps you’re preaching again next Sunday. Let’s always remember that God, in His grace, has given gifts to every believer. To some of us He has given “speaking” gifts. In 1Peter 4:10-11, Peter urges everyone to invest their lives in each other through [...]
Read Full Post »
The second stage of passage study is all about interpreting the details in the passage. This stage is not complete until you get to the idea, which is actually stage 4. In order to distinguish the stages somewhat, I tend to view stage 2 as determining the flow or outline of the text’s [...]
Read Full Post »
