Today’s post is found here. Glen Scrivener offers a guest post on Cor Deo and I think you should read it. It has massive implications for preachers. Enjoy!
Author: Peter Mead
Is a Theme Sentence a Main Idea?
It all depends what you mean. Some people use the notion of a theme sentence to refer to exactly the same thing as the main idea or big idea of the passage or message (the exegetical idea or homiletical idea in Robinson terms). Others mean something entirely less specific.
The main idea, or big idea, or theme and thrust, or proposition, or whatever you want to call it, should express both what the passage is about (the subject of the passage), and what it says about that (the complement of the passage).
When we have only the theme without the thrust, that is, the subject without completing it, then we may have a theme sentence of sorts, but really it is something significantly diminished. The theme without specificity is perhaps a title (though probably a weak one), but it is not the succinct, pregnant, clear, focused distillation of the details in the passage that is a main idea sentence.
If you have a theme sentence that is a couple of words long, and may not even be a sentence (i.e.a title lacking a verb or completion), then you do not have a sermon ready to expand into the time available. You have a title. You have a start. But to have the single sentence summary of the whole passage that is worth it’s weight in gold, be sure to complete the sentence, complete the thought. You’re preaching about God’s love? Great. What is the passage saying specifically about that?
Extended Sermonic Incubation
I’ve been struck again recently by the challenge of regular preaching. Sometimes regular preachers might look with envy at those who only get to preach every two or three months. Weeks on end to ponder a passage before preaching it. For too many of us, the sermon for next Sunday is not really considered until the Tuesday before (and for some, later than that).
A friend recently suggested that without enough incubation time, the preacher will end up preaching while they have a mass of information accumulated, like a firework box of ideas going off all over the place. Better to give it the necessary time for your heart and mind to stabilize and settle on the main idea of the passage. Amen.
Then there’s another reason for preparing over a longer period of time. It simply takes time for passages to work in our lives, as God’s Spirit moves in us using that Word on which we are dwelling. So if you start your preparation on Saturday night, there is no time for the passage to be truly owned, because it has really gripped you. It hasn’t. You may be excited to preach it, but it hasn’t got hold of you and worked itself out yet. So five days is better than one.
But ten days is better than five. Haddon Robinson advocates the notion of doing the first day’s worth of passage reading and study in the Thursday of the week before you start preparing the sermon (day’s worth may not equate to eight hours, of course, it may only be one or two). Then you press on with this week’s sermon prep, before returning to it the following Monday or Tuesday. Perhaps refer to yesterday’s PEPPERS approach to reviewing the text for added blessing!
Several weeks are better than ten days. As well as the above approach, I really appreciate knowing what passage I’ll be preaching on in a month or two or even longer. Knowing that I’ll be preaching on Mark, or Acts, or Proverbs, or whatever, allows me to pick at the text and gradually accumulate over the course of time – accumulating not only helpful resources, articles, illustrations, etc., but accumulating the experience of that text starting to work in my life.
Personally Engaged Preaching Passage Easy Review System (PEPPERS)
It sounds like an acronym from NASA, something with a massive federal budget and cosmic goals. Actually I just made up the acronym, it requires the smallest budget, but it does have eternal goals.
Most preachers don’t have great blocks of time in which to prepare their messages. Even if we did, it would still be good to spread the preparation out over at least five days, if not more. Taking small bits of time and working on a passage allows it to work on us (this is why more than five days is even better). Part of that process is getting the passage into us as we get into it.
A friend was recently describing his habit of seeking to memorize the passage he is going to preach. This is a great habit and I commend it, although I don’t tend to memorize the next passage I’ll be preaching. But his suggestion sparks one from me. One of the best ways I have learned to review and potentially memorize a passage. To live up to our image for the day, let’s call it the PEPPERS project (ok, could have gone with the vegetable look, but didn’t.)
Typically we tend to read and re-read a passage when reviewing it or memorizing it. I have found it very helpful to write out a set of acronym style notes instead. So for verse 1-2 of Psalm 1, for example, I would have on the page (this is NIV in case you look it up):
1. Bitmwdnwitcotw, ositwos, ositsom,
2. bhdiitlotL, aohlhmdan.
I follow the capitalization and keep the punctuation, but only put in the first letter of each word. Then when I want to review the passage, it forces me to engage my mind, instead of simply scanning over words while thinking of something else. It allows for a small card or note to be carried, instead of a lengthier piece of paper. This note would be a very useful way to engage quickly, but effectively with a passage in the days of preparation, during those times when you have to be doing something else. In the line at the bank, pull out the notecard. Waiting for a haircut, pull out the notecard. You get the drift.
Shotguns and Sniper Bullets
Generally speaking I urge preachers to stay in their preaching text as they prepare, and as they preach. It is too easy to drift into another passage (or ten) and dissipate the impact of the passage we said we would preach. However one of the exceptions that I do tend to mention is when the passage you are preaching quotes or alludes to or relies in some way on another Bible passage. What then?
Actually, the more we know our Bibles, the more we see by way of allusion as we look at the text. I did an exercise with a group of pastors where we worked through Ephesians 2 and thought about Old Testament passages that might have been in Paul’s thinking as he wrote, or even specific wording that he used. We were coming up with Old Testament passages for almost every verse in the chapter! What to do?
1. In preparation, go to OT passages that may be helpful, but don’t lose your focus on your preaching text. It can be a rich exercise to go back and see the text and context of the fall in Genesis 3, the possible wording from Genesis 6, the session of Christ in Psalm 110, the far and near reference in Isaiah 57, the background of circumcision language in Genesis 17 and elsewhere, etc. But remember that you need to be able to preach Ephesians 2! I may feel like a sawn off shotgun has scattered marks all over the canon, but that is my blessing, not my listener’s burden!
2. In preaching, only go to one or two OT passages if they are genuinely helpful, but don’t lose your focus on your preaching text. Listeners simply cannot handle masses of other references. It turns a sharp and pointed message into an annoying multi-point prodding. If one, or maybe two, are particularly helpful, then use them carefully. In Ephesians 2:1-10, for instance, I’d be inclined to go to Genesis 3 in the early verses, but I wouldn’t chase multiple other references. Perhaps Psalm 110:1 in reference to being seated with Christ. Probably no more. Better to hit home specifically than to scatter shot everywhere.
My personal goal includes getting to know the Word of God as much as possible (not as an end in itself, but since through the Word I can know God). My goal in preaching is not to show that off, but to help people be impacted by this particular text.
Pulpit Sin
Generally I’m very hesitant to add sins to the lists we are given in the Bible. I’d rather preach the power of life transforming grace than the pressure of legalistic righteousness. But forgive me this one time, I am going to add a sin to our lists. It’s a sin some preachers commit. It’s a sin we should never commit:
In my opinion preaching that is boring is a sin! There, said it.
There is nothing spiritual or godly or Christlike or commendable about preaching in a boring manner. The Bible is not boring! Our task is neither to make it interesting, nor to add illustrative extras to make it interesting (add them for legitimate purposes, of course, but not because you think the Bible is boring!)
How can we avoid boring preaching? There are many ways, but here are two pairs to bear in mind:
Avoid boring with poor content. Look for ways to preach in a manner that is visual, i.e. that will make listeners respond with “Oh, I see what you’re saying!” So in your explanation seek to help people “see what you’re saying.” And in your application help people to “see what you’re saying.” What does that involve? It involves doing more than merely presenting information, or stating propositions, or making points. It involves painting pictures with words of the imagery in a passage, or vividly describing the action in a narrative. It involves painting pictures with words when describing application of the message. Preach vivid so the listeners can see what you mean to say!
Avoid boring with poor delivery. Look for ways to add energy to your presentation. There are two primary areas to keep in mind. The vocal needs energy. And the visual needs energy. Be sure to vary your volume, your pace, your tone, your use of pause. Be sure to add energy to your eye contact, facial expression, gestures, movement, your whole presentation. It is very easy to turn vivid and compelling content into a boring message by forcing it through the filter of poor delivery. There is no virtue in looking and sounding as if the passage has been nothing more than soporific in your preparation. Did Jesus preach in a bland voice and without expression? I suspect not. So let’s try to be more Christlike in our preaching!
Guardrails and Bridge Width
Some time ago I referred to Timothy Warren of DTS who used the analogy of guardrails for guarding the application of a message from straying off target. I’d like to use the same analogy with slight modification in respect to preaching a text.
The preacher builds a bridge between the Bible text in its world and the listeners in theirs. It may be helpful to imagine a guardrail either side of this road. One guardrail is the intended audience, the other is the purpose of the communication. On the Bible side of the bridge, the intended audience were the church or individual receiving the inspired text (i.e. the churches of Galatia). The purpose was specific in terms of Paul’s intent for those churches.
By the time the preacher gets over to today, he is also thinking of an intended audience (the congregation of Community Church this coming Sunday) and also has a purpose in preaching this text to them on this occasion.
Now if the audience this Sunday shares significant characteristics and cultural experiences with the original audience, then the guardrail comes straight across the bridge. And if the purpose for the sermon matches Paul’s purpose for his letter, then that guardrail also comes straight across.
But what if the audience is different (perhaps they haven’t gone after another gospel), and therefore the purpose is slightly different (encouragement with some warning, rather than open rebuke), then I imagine the guardrails shifting the road direction slightly (think of how your lanes are changed when there is construction on the motorway/freeway). The message of the text is not significantly changed (there are limits), but the sermon is adjusted from what the original did.
If this were applied to preaching a passage from Leviticus, then I imagine the considerable change in audience and purpose would be reflected in the less direct application of the text (a six-lane road narrowing to a two-lane road since we can’t apply it freely and directly), yet the road remains the same.
You cannot preach any truth from a particular passage. You can only preach the truth of that passage. However, the ease of transfer depends on the consistency of audience situation and sermonic purpose. Adjusting these guardrails will adjust the message (but the message must still be the message of the passage).
Idea as DNA
The goal of the passage study process is the single sentence summary that distills the message of the passage into a short statement. This sentence then acts as sheriff of the sermon preparation process, determining whether each element of the message should be there or not. The sermon is all about the effective delivery of the main idea.
If you have thirty seconds to preach, then the main idea is the message. Given the bonus of two more minutes, then you can give an overview of the text to support the main idea. Given the frivolous extravagance of an extra thirty or forty minutes, you can develop every element of the structure in order to drive home the main idea as effectively as possible.
In the message preparation process you begin with one concise, pregnant sentence. As you move through the process, the message grows and develops.
My wife has been pregnant four times. Each time it is exciting to consider the growth of the child inside. Now it is too small to see, now it is the size of a peanut, the size of a strawberry, like your fist, the size of your outstretched hand, etc. When that baby is born it seems so tiny, but then it grows and grows. All the necessary information for that unique individual is contained in the individual imperceptible cell at the beginning of the journey.
The same is true of a message. The short, pregnant sentence of the message idea is ready to grow and develop into the message. So no time spent on the formulation of that sentence is wasted. Rather it is an investment in the message to come, with all its uniqueness and biblical potency.
Tranlsation Error? Sure?
I’ve mentioned this before, but let me drop it in again. Be very careful before you tell a congregation their Bible translation is wrong. I was in a church a while back where somebody corrected the translation with the comment, “the NIV committee pulled a fast one here.” Very unhelpful. Whatever decisions they made that we might disagree with, I doubt they “pulled a fast one.” What’s more, it was clear from the explanation given that the person commenting didn’t know his Greek almost at all.
1. The notion of word for word direct equivalence is naïve. Each word in the Greek has its own semantic domain (essentially a range of potential nuances/connotations/senses and potentially appropriate glosses or equivalents in English). So word X might be translated as A or B (to keep things simple). Word Y might be translated as C or sometimes B. To say the translation is wrong because they translated Y as B when you think it can only be C would be naïve and unhelpful.
2. Listeners are naïve. Generally speaking, when the speaker makes some judgment of the translation or comments on the Greek, the listeners will mostly assume they have someone with some level of expertise before them. This is massively naïve. I tend to see those who are very capable in the Greek barely letting it show in any overt way, while those who refer to it often are desperately lacking in Koine competence.
3. Preach your passage. Does your passing comment about the translation really help people understand the passage? Really? Is it worth undermining their confidence in the translation for that insight? And honestly, although this is hard to answer, do you have enough competence in translating the Greek to make your critique (or second-hand critique) stand up with integrity?
Tempting as it may be, for several reasons, to correct the translation you are preaching from, it is typically better to avoid overt critique and simply allow your insight to shape your explanation of the text.
Comments on God Speaking and the Bible – Be Careful
Does God speak through the text, as distinct from analyzing and understanding it? Is it that when the Bible speaks, God speaks, or when the Bible speaks, God also speaks?
It is true that there is more to understanding a Bible passage than just analyzing the technicalities of the propositions the grammar. However, let’s be careful not to create a notion of exegetical accuracy versus some supra-biblical revelation. This notion can come from well-meaning comments like “we can study what the text means, but let’s be open now to hearing what God has to say.”
I heard of a song leader who struck up a chord after the message with the comment, “now let’s hear what God has to say.” Unfortunate, albeit amusing in some ways.
But the same separation can occur within the preaching. The preacher can give the sense that there is the meaning of the text, and then there is God speaking to us as we look at the text.
Cold non-relational exegesis is certainly problematic. But so is supposedly relational non-exegetical Bible reading. Let’s not offer the notion of non-exegetical devotional Bible reading, nor the notion of non-devotional exegetical Bible reading. Whether our goal is personal devotional reading, or technical pre-teaching study, let us be sure to keep together the relational aspects of reading God’s Word with the technical aspects of studying God’s Word.
Biblical Preaching 