Review: Preaching with Variety, by Jeffrey Arthurs

/ Peter Mead / 2 Comments

Sub-title – How to Re-Create the Dynamics of Biblical Genres.

Arthurs Variety

I hope this book gets the recognition it deserves. This is a power-packed paperback that seeks to stimulate Biblical preachers in developing variety in their preaching through awareness of how the various Biblical genres function. Arthurs offers not only understanding of how the genres do what they do, but also many suggestions on how to reflect their diversity as we preach them.

Arthurs states, “I believe that a sermon’s content should explain and apply the Word of God as it is found in a biblical text, and a sermon’s form should unleash the impact of that text.” (p.13)

Arthurs is not arguing that the form of a text dictate the form of a sermon, even if that were possible. Rather he argues that genre sensitive preaching seeks to replicate the impact of the text. He affirms the great freedom in form available to preachers, and encourages that freedom by presenting the great variety found within the six major Biblical genres.

The first two chapters argue in favor of variety in preaching, firstly because God the master communicator uses such great variety in all His communication – not least in the diverse forms of literature used in His Word, and secondly because our listeners value variety.

The rest of the book deals with six Biblical literary forms: Psalms, Narrative, Parables, Proverbs, Epistles and Apocalyptic. In each case presenting an introduction to the genre, a helpful explanation of the rhetorical devices used to create their impact and numerous helpful suggestions on how to preach the different types of text. The result of these suggestions, if heeded, will be real variety in Biblical preaching.

Arthurs is as much concerned with rightly handling the Biblical forms as he is with prompting variety in preaching. He is urging effective understanding of the rhetorical function of Biblical genre, so that one’s preaching might also fizz with Biblical variety. This is not the definitive book on creative preaching, for there are others that suggest many exciting and bizarre possibilities. However this may well become a model book on interpreting Biblical genre (and in that divinely designed diversity is the shove we all need to vary our preaching!)

So I hope this book gets the recognition it deserves. Thomas Long’s brief paperback on literary forms has been rightly praised as a helpful introduction to the subject of genre studies with some help for the preacher. Arthur’s work may well replace Long’s, for it is a more complete introduction to more Biblical genres from a more definite evangelical stance, with much more in the way of practical suggestion for the preacher.

This book will help you say what the text says, and do what the text does!

(Peter has responded to a comment on this review) 

Preaching a Text with a List

/ Peter Mead / 3 Comments

What should you do when your passage includes a long list? For example, I recently preached 2nd Timothy 3:1-9, which includes a list of almost twenty elements in verses 2-4. With a list this length, to preach through it one element at a time would probably border on torture for the listener; “And my sixteenth sub-point is that people will be…treacherous.” Somehow the list needs to summarized effectively:

Firstly, it is important to keep a clear view of the purpose of the list. Don’t get so stuck into the exegesis of the terms that you lose sight of why the author put them there. The purpose will be determined by context. The context of the section, as well as the context of the whole book. A list is not typically dropped into a text without some form of introduction, but notice also what follows its conclusion. What was the author’s purpose? Discern the purpose and keep it clearly in view.

Secondly, within the list, notice the places of emphasis. These are almost always the start and end, as well as the middle on some occasions (especially if the structure is clearly chiastic). Notice any repetition of terms, or clustering of concepts.

Thirdly, seek to summarize the content of the list in a way that is accurate to the content and fitting with the author’s purpose. Using some form of summary or selective emphasis is important because you do not want the sheer volume of content in the list to overwhelm the main idea of the whole passage.

Finally, make sure that your summary and teaching based on that list demonstrates clear connection to the text. It would be both wasteful and dangerous to present summary and teaching on a list that bears no resemblance to the text the listeners are looking at!

So in reference to 2Tim.3:2-4? I decided to preach the list by highlighting the first two and last two elements. In this case they form an inclusio (bookends) that gives shape and meaning to the other elements: “lovers of self, lovers of money . . . lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” So the spiritually dangerous characters to avoid are discerned by their character in these first five verses; they are motivated by misdirected affections (vv2-4) and marked by missing authenticity (v5).

Review: Preaching and the Literary Forms of the Bible, by Thomas Long.

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Long Literary Forms

Thomas Long provides a solid introduction to the literary forms of the Bible and how a preacher should interact with them. The book begins with a relatively brief consideration of reading different genre and the process of moving from text to sermon. Long emphasizes that the Word is to influence not only the what, but also the how, of preaching. In effect the preacher is to seek to grasp and replicate the total impact of a text on its reader.

Long then moves into the various literary forms of the Bible. His approach for studying each genre is helpful, although not a process for preparing a message. Firstly, the genre must be recognized. Then the rhetorical function of the text is observed, with a sensitivity toward the literary devices within the text. The text is then analyzed to determine how its impact on the reader is created. Finally, Long briefly considers how a sermon might create the same impact in today’s listener. These final thoughts in relation to sermon possibilities are at times a little brief.

Long considers five genre – psalms and proverbs are Old Testament specific. Narrative covers both Old and New Testament material. Parables and epistles deal with the rest of the New Testament coverage. Sadly prophetic and apocalyptic literature are missing. Throughout the study, Long’s repeated emphasis is that the rhetorical effect of the literature is to be recreated through preaching.

Long’s relatively short book is high on value. This review does not affirm every statement in the book, but does affirm its value for anyone concerned with Biblical Preaching. To only cover five “literary forms” and not deal with the prophetic and apocalyptic forms is unfortunate. However, what is included fits the purpose of the book and is effective in making the reader think through the implications of genre study for Biblical preaching.

Before buying this book, please read the review on Jeffrey Arthurs’ new book, Preaching with Variety.

Introductions: The Essential Ingredients

/ Peter Mead / 3 Comments

What should go into a good sermon introduction? So much is won or lost in that first minute or two. In fact, so much is won or lost before you even open your mouth – but that might require a different post. So what ingredients should be present in an effective introduction?

1. Get their attention – Speakers often use a story, anecdote, “interesting statistic,” etc. (Note – you can act like a circus clown to get attention, but you then fail to establish your authority as a speaker)

2. Create rapport – Even though preaching is essentially monologue in form (typically), it requires relationship to succeed, so you are trying through demeanour as well as content to build some connection with the audience. This is where humour can be so effective, as long as it is appropriate (to the occasion, the congregation, the preacher’s personality and the subject matter of the sermon – humour should never trivialize the preaching event nor present the preacher as an entertainer).

3. Establish authority – Too much humour, or too unsure a start, will lose any sense of authority. Obviously the ultimate authority is the Word of God, and so you want to get to that fairly quickly, but for people to trust you to preach it to them, you also need to establish that you are worthy of their time and attention. This is accomplished more through a respectable demeanour than through any explicit claims to authority (only in exceptional circumstances is this helpful in the introduction to a message). [See further comment by author in reference to the term “authority.”]

4. Create or surface need for sermon – The one piece that is often missing. People’s lives are full of pressures, burdens, responsibilities, distractions, etc. It is naive to think that simply because they are sitting there in front of you, that they are fully attentive and wanting to hear what you have to say. Some introductions are especially weak if they assume interest in a subject that is not patently relevant to the listeners. For example, after getting attention and starting strongly, to transition to the message with “Ok, let’s turn to Numbers 19, and study the red heifer…” will almost certainly lose whatever has been gained in the introduction. Why does an office worker in the city, or a tired mother of small children, or a management consultant, care about a red cow in ancient Israel? That text, like most Biblical texts, is at first glance “long ago and far away” from our listeners. So it is very important to surface a need for the message within the introduction. Tell the listeners why they should care about this message, make a commitment in regards to the relevance of the message, tap into a need they feel and then promise help, surface a need they were not focused on before, but once you raise it, they do want to know how this text will help them resolve it.

There are many things that can go into an introduction, but these four elements should not be omitted – attention, rapport, authority and need.

Preaching Psalms

/ Peter Mead / 10 Comments

The other day I preached a Psalm in a University Bible study. A young lady came up afterwards and said, “I always expect to get something from the Gospels or Epistles, but I don’t expect much from the Psalms, but you brought that to life!” Now obviously I didn’t “bring it to life” since the Word of God is very much alive without needing my medical attention, but it raised an issue in my mind. What are some key points to remember in preaching a psalm?

1. Don’t let the outline kill the sermon – Often the work in the study is brought into the pulpit in the form of an outline which dominates the message. This has a tendency to make an emotive piece of writing (almost all psalms) into a source of intellectual thought and didactic material. With the possible exception of some wisdom psalms, you are not preaching a carefully constructed and tightly argued piece of thought. You are preaching the outpouring of a writer’s heart with all the emotion, reaction to God and circumstances, as well as theological perspective and so on. (This does not deny that Psalms are usually extremely carefully constructed, just that they often go beyond reasoned arguments, cognitive understanding of facts and propositional thought.)

2. If possible, go with the flow – I’m amazed how quickly some preachers resort to rearranging material. There can be good reasons to do this, but the default approach should be to study the flow of thought and preach that flow. Many psalms, when studied with reference to flow, have an almost narrative quality to them. This is where the outline helps you as the preacher move effectively through the text.

3. Take advantage of the great asset of poetic literature…imagery! – Many psalms are full of powerful imagery. With a little clarification, imagination or description, the images built in to a psalm will often add vivid colour to a sermon. Be careful not to just explain imagery so that it remains sitting on the page before your congregation – words understood are not as effective as images felt or experienced. What was it like for Asaph to come to God’s sanctuary again in Psalm 73. The constant pursuit by goodness and mercy is a deeply moving truth in Psalm 23. The barren woman given children goes through intense extremes of emotion in the space of a few words in Psalm 113. It is easy to present analysis of imagery, but develop the skill to tell it so it is both felt and understood.

4. Recreate mood, not just meaning – Since Psalms are poetic or hymnic, they do not merely convey information, but also they stir feelings, they convey a mood. In fact, many Psalms are built around the shift in tone or mood between one section and the next. It is not fair to David to preach the desperation of Psalm 22 without the confident trust of the last dozen verses. Psalm 73 turns completely on one verse. Often we preach both parts of a psalm with the same “mood” or lack of it. Or we turn a psalm of celebratory praise into a serious exhortation to worship. Think about how to enter in to, and recreate in some way for your hearers, the mood inherent in the psalm. A psalm that is felt and understood will make a far deeper impression than a psalm that is merely analysed and understood. In fact, you have to question whether analysis alone can lead to understanding poetic literature.

5. Carefully present relevance continually – The literature is written in a form that is foreign to our understanding of poetry, in a culture that is several millennia away from our own. Be careful to relate the text to our own experience whenever appropriate. A study of David’s experience through a psalm, ending with brief points of application only at the end, is likely to be a flat sermon. It is better to share that experience through the psalm, moving back and forth between 1000BC and 2007AD throughout.

(Peter has also commented on this post)

When is persuasion actually manipulation?

/ Peter Mead / 3 Comments

Paul contrasts his approach to preaching the gospel (1Cor.1-4) with the Greek rhetorical approach which relied on “persuasive words of wisdom.” Duane Litfin has argued that the significance for us as preachers is that we must not take decision-making from our listeners by employing persuasive techniques that induce a listener to yield a specific response. What we are to do is to induce comprehension of the reality of God’s claim on their life. Thus there may be some aspects of persuasion that are appropriate tools for the preacher, but others that manipulate a response by means of our own power. So here is a question that can be answered comment by comment – when is persuasion actually manipulation? For example, this week I heard a famous speaker build his presentation around a supposedly true story from his experience in another country. That story centered on a very emotive element that seemed to carry an inappropriate amount of influence over the listeners. Whether or not his point was Biblical, I felt uneasy with the tools he used to make his point. Yet at the same time I believe it is important to communicate to the heart and not just the head. So what persuasive tools are legitimate, and what tools are actually manipulative?

(Peter has commented on this post) 

Preaching OT – one more tip

/ Mike Roth / 2 Comments

Fantastic jump into a pool of muddy water Peter! It seems as though many preaching practitioners prefer the easy way out when it comes to communicating the Old Testament through homily. Short-cuts of allegorizing, spiritualizing, exhortation to imitate characters, moralizing or, with OT texts, jumping to Jesus is common and simultaneously disastrous. Your tips are a wonderful beginning point. They are helpful in assisting the preacher to think bigger and better!

Here is another tip that relates to preaching OT narrative and other biblical genres as well. Sidney Greidanus gives voice to this tip in his book, The Modern Preacher and The Ancient Text. In it, he introduces a theocentric versus anthropocentric hermeneutic for homiletics. Though this is nothing new, and has certainly been addressed in homiletic/literary circles before by Ryken, Von Rad and the like, the central idea is fundamental to consider when preaching OT narrative.

According to Greidanus, God is the central character and not any other – Saul, David, Elijah, Nehemiah are all secondary. More than this, Greidanus argues that narrative (to be clear, all of Scripture) is making a theocentric point not an anthropocentric point. Now, I am not convinced that this is the case all of the time, in every pericope of Scripture. However, it is fodder for thought.

When considering the point of narrative, it is not enough to simply consider the characters. It is not enough to consider plot – background, inciting incident, rising action, climax and denouement. All of these aspects of narrative are necessary to interpretation, however, without consideration of God, his role, interaction, characterization, etc. narrative becomes nothing more than human-driven moralizing. Certainly, we hold Scripture to a higher standard than this. It is why we refer to Scripture as Revelation, not Humanities 101.

So, enough pontificating in my first post! Here is a summary:

– When working at preaching an OT narrative, do not forget to consider God.
– Ask, what is being said about God?
– Think about how the narrative and its characters depict God.
– Wrestle with how the points being made about God within the narrative contour and give shape to what the secondary characters value and how they live.
– Finally, being that we are all characters similar to Saul, David, Elijah and Nehemiah – a part of the same biblical story, how do we relate to this God?

Missing in Action

/ Peter Mead / 1 Comment

Just a short post that might stimulate a different type of discussion. When I listen to preachers, or evaluate my own preaching, I find some things are often missing in the pulpit. For example, Robinson highlights the importance of the “Big Idea” and the “Sermon Purpose” in his book Biblical Preaching. This is essentially the same thing as Thomas Long’s two terms, “Focus” and “Function” – what a sermon intends to say and do. (Long, The Witness of Preaching, 2d ed.) These two things are often MIA – and how sermons suffer for it! While these two are two of the most important things that can go MIA, there are others too…

(Peter has commented on this post)

One tip for preaching narrative (ok, two tips!)

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Have been thinking about the issue of preaching narratives (stories) from the Old Testament. Actually, much of this would also apply to preaching from the gospels or Acts as well. It is tempting to take the short-cuts of allegorizing, spiritualizing, exhortation to imitate characters, moralizing or, with OT texts, jumping to Jesus. Maybe each of these terms need to be considered on their own. But here’s a thought that is helpful to me. It is easy when studying a passage to focus entirely on the text itself (the characters, plot, tension, problem, resolution, etc.)

Tip one, study three contexts. To understand the author’s intention in a specific story, it is important to understand it in the context of the section and the context of the whole book. Biblical writers wove stories (and other forms of writing) together for a larger purpose, there is no random collection of narratives. So be sure to think about the writer’s purpose by considering the story itself, the section it’s in, and the whole book.

This leads to tip two, the one I was thinking of when I started this post! When thinking about how your audience relates to the text, don’t compare them primarily with the characters in the story (although that can be fruitful), but rather compare them with the original audience for the text. How much is your audience this Sunday like the original recipients of the biblical text and in need of the same message?

What to do with an Old Testament story?

/ Peter Mead / Leave a comment

Last Sunday I preached in a small church not far from us. I was assigned a passage that I would never choose for myself, at least not as a one-off message. The raising of the Shunammite’s son by Elisha (2Kings 4:8-37). There are always short-cuts when preaching an Old Testament narrative, but I’m not comfortable with them. For example it is easy to tell a story and then jump to Jesus (and preach a New Testament message). But the story stood as inspired long before the New Testament was added. Or it is easy to tell the story, ignore the theological context/content and then draw out some human-level moral principle – “so let’s be like person X.” Again, that usually is not the point of the narrative. The challenge is to avoid the short-cuts and preach the intended truth of the passage in its context with the full theological implication, but to also be sure to apply the message specifically to the listener today. On one hand, it is easy to do a historical lecture, but leave your listeners untouched by the truth of the passage. On the other hand, it is easy to springboard from a story to all sorts of possible applications that do not honor the meaning and purpose of the passage. And if there can be a third hand, then it is also relatively easy to force Jesus and the New Testament back into the Old Testament and end up preaching a different passage. So how to avoid the easy options and instead preach the passage itself?