The Revolution of the New Way of Preaching

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The Revolution of the New Way of Preaching

• Craddock, Lowry, Buttrick

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Old Wineskins for Preaching

• Conceptual Method an argument in support of an
  idea
• Development by a Series of Points
• Model of Rational Persuasion

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Old Style Preaching Result of Several Factors

• 1. The linear way of thinking from the printing
  press
• 2. Aristotelian Rhetoric original narrative
  preaching of 1st century corrupted by
  Aristotelian model in 2nd century

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Deductive and Inductive

• deductive movement is from the general truth to
  the particular application or experience while
  inductive is the reverse Craddock
• The minister says all men are mortal and meets
  drowsy agreement he announces that Mr. Browns
  son is dying and the church becomes the church.

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New Vision lead the congregation to experience
the dynamic of the text

• A hearer oriented homiletic
• (think Craddock)

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CREATIVE VISION

• Invite the congregation to participate in the
  preachers journey of discovery and draw their
  own conclusions (postmodern?)

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For Craddock, that Homiletical Genius

• Two Eureka Moments (when you discover the thrust
  of the passage when you envision the strategy
  for preaching it)
• Two Chairs the analytical chair the intuitive
  or imaginative chair

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What is the text doing?

• The text may be lamenting, praising, singing,
  criticizing, blessing
• Then why not design the sermon to imitate the
  text and do what it does

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So

• Be indirect
• Use story
• Leave it unfinished, inviting the hearer to
  complete
• Dont use points but have a point, a destination

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PREACHING AS STORYTELLING

• Christians are people who know some stories and
  tell them to others
• Buechner in The Magnificent Defeat
• The models for preaching as storytelling are in
  the Gospels themselves (Amos Wilder, Early
  Christian Rhetoric)

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AFRICAN AMERICAN PREACHING

• IS IMAGINATIVAE, NARRATIVE AND PRONE TO GENERATE
  EXPERIENTIAL ENCOUNTER
• Henry Mitchell
• MLK told the story of a people

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Question after Black Sermon

• CAN THE PREACHER TELL THE STORY?

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Three Important Emphases of the Revolution

• 1. Inductive Approach (movement to a point rather
  than from a point)
• 2. The Sermon Design itself a narrative
• 3. A favored attitude toward Narrative texts

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Lowrys Contributions

• doing time in the pulpit
• Freedom in the pulpit
• Participatory
• The beginning should upset and create a
  homiletical bind
• Preaching must dare to dance on the edge of
  mystery
• Sermon should be a plot, an evocative event

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The Lowry Loop

• 1. Upsetting the Equilibrium OOPS
• 2. Analyzing the Discrepancy UGH!
• 3. Disclosing the Clue to Resolution AHA!
• 4. Experiencing the Gospel WHEE!
• 5. Anticipating the Consequences YEAH!

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Outcome

• Has found a hearing
• Makes a Lasting Impact on Preaching
• Has rooted the Sermon in the experience of the
  Text

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But more is needed than narrative form
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Limitations of the New Way of Preaching

• 1. Works best in a Christian culture with hearers
  immersed in the Christian tradition. Biblical
  illiteracy grows. Congregations are more shaped
  by the values of a secular culture
• 2. The Church finds itself in exile, surrounded
  by a culture of consumer capitalism, moral
  relativism, narcissism

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Critique Continued

• 3. Focus on technique (form, design, strategy)
  to the neglect of a larger theological agenda
• 4. Tendency to Ignore the other biblical genre,
  having found its model in the parable
• 5. Hearers hearing only narrative preaching will
  have little grasp of the reflective dimensions of
  the Christian faith

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And a few more limits

• 6. Reluctance to speak with authority or make
  claims for change in the lives of the hearers
• 7. The NT includes both story and rational
  persuasion. Even narrative gospels include
  discourses (as Mt.). We now realize that
  Aristotelian forms appear in the NT in the 1st
  century.

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WHAT IS MISSING?

• PAUL AND HIS LETTERS !
• (21 of the 27 books of the NT are epistolary,
  not narrative)

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Paul, a Forgotten Mentor

• Dependence on the Power of the Gospel
• The Preachers Captivity to the Word of God
• The Preachers Awareness of the Larger Agenda of
  Preaching
• James Thompson, Preaching like Paul

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Preaching Paul in a Worship Service

• 1. Witnessing to the Power of the Gospel.
• a. So ponder how Paul saw manifestations of
  the power of the gospel
• b. So look for the fulfilment of the promise
  in the concreteness of our lives

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2. Since worship is a celebration (1 Cor. 58)

• Worship should be reoriented toward a
  congregational celebration of the present
  manifestations of God
• The the community of believers can perceive its
  vocation to the world
• Daniel Patte, Preaching Paul

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Preaching like Paul

• 1. Should be pastoral (2 Cor.)
• 2. Should be evangelistic (kerygma) the
  declaration of Gods saving events
  (Thessalonians)
• 3. Should be deductive arguments that make a case
• 4. Should contribute to he continued formation of
  community. Sermons are to churches and not just
  to individuals.

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Fresh Pauline Visions

• 1. Vision of a countercultural existence
• 2. Vision of alternative values
• 3. Vision of the transformation of a community
  into a holy people

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Preaching as Remembering (Rom.1515)

• Preaching in a non-Christian land in which people
  do not know the stories

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The Better Way (1 Cor. 13)one thing that can
restore community

• Your church may not face conflict over gifts but
  competing ministries
• (We search for the better way) traditional or
  contemporary worship, social justice or
  evangelism, Bible study or action?
• 2. (What matters is love)

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3. (What is love?) (p 155)

• 4. (Love endures forever) Duane Thomas asked
  how does it feel to play in the ultimate game