CONTEXT OF OUR PREACHING Part Five: Word

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• CONTEXT OF OUR PREACHINGPart Five Word

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ASSUMPTIONS

• You have already been to seminary
• You already know how to preach
• Everyone could use a refresher now and again

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SERMON TYPES TO AVOID

• The Ferris Wheel Goes round and round and never
  gets anywhere!

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SERMON TYPES TO AVOID

• The Texas Special Has a point here and a point
  there and a lot of bull in between.

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SERMON TYPES TO AVOID

• The Mississippi Meanders all over the
  country-side and is, at bottom, clear as mud.

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SERMON TYPES TO AVOID

• The MacBeth Full of sound and fury, truly it
  signifies nothing!

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SERMON TYPES TO AVOID

• The Porcupine Has lots of sharp points that poke
  you, but nothing to get a handle on!

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SERMON TYPES TO AVOID

• The Sleeping Pill Says nothing to offend and
  tends to anesthetize all within its effective
  range.

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SHARPENING YOUR FOCUS

• Just One Thing- Jack Palance, Billy Krystal in
  City Slickers
• The meaning of life, summarized in just one
  thing?
• What about the pericope before you?
• Is there some thing, some one big thing that this
  text compels you to preach?
• Our first responsibility is to find what the
  text means and then to preach what it says.
  Larsen, Anatomy, 67

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SHARPENING YOUR FOCUS

• Your congregation will not remember many things,
  but they might remember Just One Thing
• We live in an age that, in general, is incapable
  of listening to lengthy, logical discourses
• This is the age of the soundbite
• Impressions and Feelings may make a greater
  impact than arguments
• If you do one big thing each week, that will be
  52 big truths over the course of a year!

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SHARPENING YOUR FOCUS

• Once you have the one big thing you must develop
  or argue the central idea or proposition of the
  sermon
• Main divisions should support the one big thing
  you want to say
• Main divisions should not be too many perhaps
  2-5
• Main divisions should move logically and
  emotionally
• Transitions should be fluid and natural

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SHARPENING YOUR FOCUS
Single Focus, Direction
Rhetorical Pyramid
Conclusion
Main Point
Main Point
Main Point
Introduction
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SHARPENING YOUR FOCUS

• The Two Most Important Parts of a Sermon, (David
  Larsen, The Anatomy of Preaching, 121ff)
• The Introduction
• The Conclusion
• The Introduction
• The first two to three minutes are critical
• The Intro pulls the listener in and contracts
  with listener for further communication
• Spend no more than 10-15 of your time on the
  Intro

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SHARPENING YOUR FOCUS

• The Conclusion
• Practically, spend the bulk of your preparation
  time on the last one-third of your message!
• Objectives of the Conclusion
• Bring about Closure
• Reinforcement
• Clarification
• Achieve Climax (the emotional crescendo)
• Build Connections (transition, what follows)

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SHARPENING YOUR FOCUS

• The Conclusion Options
• Direct Personal Appeal
• Practical Application
• Summary or Recapitulation
• Appeal to Imagination
• Short Poem, Hymn Stanza
• Final Illustration
• Apt Quotation
• Return to Introduction
• Personal Testimony
• Concluding Suspense

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DRAW THEM A PICTURE
But not this way! Bad Illustration!
Main Idea
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DRAW THEM A PICTURE
Also, Bad Illustration!
Main Idea
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DRAW THEM A PICTURE
Now youre getting it! Good Illustration!
Main Idea
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NOT ROCKET SCIENCE

• The preacher of the Word is not a salesman or a
  showman he is a spokesman, Larsen, 48
• We have not prepared until we have prayed, 53
• The main points in the sermon are like
  successive golf shots to reach the green, 63
• Our first responsibility is to find out what the
  text means and then to preach what it says, 67
• Archbishop James Ussher observed that it takes
  all of our learning to make things plain, 69

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NOT ROCKET SCIENCE

• Concerning the introduction, Fred Craddock
  advises preachers that they must build the nest
  before they lay the egg, 75
• James Denney maintained that rule 1 of preaching
  is lucidity, rule 2 is lucidity, rule 3 is
  lucidity, 77
• Anything you do all the time will lose its
  effectiveness, 94

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NOT ROCKET SCIENCE

• J. Randall Nichols correctly observes that
  people do not have a burning desire to hear what
  happened to the Jebusites, 95
• The sermon which starts in the Bible and stays
  in the Bible is not biblical, 95
• Exposition without application is like a banquet
  without silverware, 96
• Blessed is the preacher whose train of thought
  has a caboose, 120

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• CONTEXT OF OUR PREACHINGPart Five Word