Following the lead of Haddon Robinson, a generation of preachers has been urged to detect the one ‘big idea’ in a passage of Scripture (the ‘exegetical big idea’) and then turn it into a proposition (the ‘homiletical big idea’) which will form the basis of the sermon.
It is time to subject this appoach to a bit of critical thinking. I do so here with the help of: Abraham Kuruvilla, ‘Time to kill the big idea?…
Haddon Robinson offers the following as ‘a comprehensive check-up: questions to ensure you are covering the essentials.
I think that such questionnaires are useful as starting-points. However, when used as prescriptons for preaching excellence, they can lead to sermons that are predictable, formulaic and unimaginative. In other words, they can be helpful servants, but rotten masters. Preachers should used such tools regularly at the beginning of their ministry, and occasionally thereafter. Once these ‘essentials’ have been covered, much interest and helpfulness can be generated precisely by the intelligent and creative breaking of some of these rules.…
Textual preaching is notoriously difficult to define with precision. This is partly because of the name itself (shouldn’t all preaching be based on the biblical text?), and partly because it overlaps someone with other types of preaching (expository and topical).
But even if precision not possible, we can note some of the leading characteristics of textual preaching, and then talk about possible benefits and pitfalls.
Notable exponents of textual preaching include: John Wesley, Charles Simeon, C.H.…
On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons, by John A. Broadus (4th ed., Vernon L. Stanfield, editor), chapter 25.
Here is a precis.
The preacher may have the highest intellectual and moral attainments; but these are insufficient without a sanctified imagination.
The imagination sees. It brings history, facts, people, to life. It takes the accumulated effects of experience, observation and knowledge and from them forges something new.
What is the role of imagination in preaching?…
On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons, by John A. Broadus (4th ed., Vernon L. Stanfield, editor), chapters 10-12.
What follows is a precis, with a few original examples included in italics.
1. Classification by homiletical structure
(a) The textual sermon
The divisions come from the text itself.
Example: 2 Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich.”…
According to Shedd (Homiletics and Pastoral Theology), there are just three basic types of sermon.
1. The topical sermon. The sermon has one definite subject, which can be expressed in a single statement or proposition.
Shedd cites a sermon by Robert South (see here), on Number 32:23 – ‘Be sure your sin will find you out.’ In Shedd’s summary:
…The proposition of the sermon is this: “Concealment of sin is no security to the sinner.”
In Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages (3rd ed.), Haddon Robinson outlines the main forms, or shapes, that sermons can take.
Here’s a precis.
1. Deductive arrangements
The main idea is stated at the outset, and the body of the sermon explains, illustrates and applies that idea.
(a) An idea explained. For example, Alexander MacLaren preached a sermon on Colossians 1:15-18 on the supremacy of Christ, explaining from his text that Christ is so because he is ‘the image of the invisible God; because he is ‘the firstborn of all creation’; and because he is ‘the head of the body’.…
We cannot expect our hearers to remember everything that we say to them. But how can we increase the chances that they might be able to call to mind, and perhaps benefit at a later date, some of the key ideas that we wish to communicate?
In other words, what are some of the ways in which we can create ‘sticky statements’?
Here’s a helpful acrostic on the word PREACH:
Picture – Is there a word picture or metaphor?…
How may the written Word of God become a living word for hearers today? This is the sort of question raised by the ‘new hermeneutic’, and also, in the context of preaching, by the ‘new homiletic’.
We do not need to accept (or even understand!) all of the philosophical underpinnings of the new homiletic. But we can agree that the preacher must have a deep understanding both of the biblical text and his modern hearers (this is simply to agree with John Stott that the preacher must engage in ‘double listening’).…
Stephen D. Mathewson, (The Art of Preaching Old Testament Narrative, p25f) writes:
The Repentance of God’s People (7:2–6)
The determination to seek the Lord (v.
