The Big Idea approach to preaching is birthed from an understanding of the nature of communication.  That is, when we communicate, we are not just firing words out into nowhere.  Rather, we are seeking to have the other party get the idea of what we are saying.  Communication is about ideas.  We want the other to say, “I see what you are saying.”

Ideas change lives.  People give themselves to ideas.  Christianity is a content-based faith.  Which is why a very high view of Scripture tends to resonate with a commitment to expository preaching.  That is, bringing out from the text the meaning that is there and seeking to effectively communicate that truth to others with an emphasis on why it matters to them.

But I don’t just want to extol the virtues of a “big idea” approach to preaching.  I also want to highlight a couple of potential misapplications of it.  Let’s use a very simple “communications” model:

WRITER > MESSAGE > RECIPIENTS

1. It is not just about the writer to the original recipients.  It is possible to be committed to discovering what the writer meant by what he wrote to the original recipients, and then to preach that.  Just that.  This can come across as textually accurate, but distant and irrelevant.  It can lose sight of the present and living nature of God’s Word.  We can become lecturers in ancient manuscript interpretation, even if we add on application by extension.  It is important to not lose the accuracy of original intent, setting, context, etc., but also to give a very clear sense that this is for us today.

So to tweak the model:

WRITER > MESSAGE > RECIPIENTS

                                                                                 including the message to Us

2. It is not just about the human writer, it is part of God’s self-revelation in the Word.  This is where I’ve seen Big Idea preaching misapplied and fall short.  Understanding, distilling and effectively communicating the main idea of a passage is not the whole deal.  We are not trading in brilliant information transfer, back then or today.  We are handling the inspired Word of God, given to us to reveal His heart to us.  When the text becomes opaque, when the personal nature of the Trinity grows distant, then all our meticulous accuracy and sermonic craft is wasted.  We don’t just preach the written word, we preach Christ.  Our preaching must be theocentric, for the Bible is all about God.

Final tweak?

The Revelation of God, who inspired the                                                                                                                       .

WRITER > MESSAGE > RECIPIENTS

                                                                                   including His message to Us