Category Archives: Preaching

What can we learn from the ‘new homiletic’?

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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’).…

Exegetical versus homiletical outlines

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Stephen D. Mathewson, (The Art of Preaching Old Testament Narrative, p25f) writes:

Some evangelicals preach through an Old Testament narrative text by using the “captioned survey” form. Basically, this sermon develops through the points of an analytical outline. Usually, the preacher will state these points clearly so the listeners leave the sermon with an outline in their minds or at least on paper. For example, the sermon I preached several years ago on 1 Samuel 7 chewed its way through the following outline:

    1. The Repentance of God’s People (7:2–6)

      1. The determination to seek the Lord (v.

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There is no form inherent in expository preaching

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The following gave me a bit of an ‘Aha!’ moment:

‘There is no form inherent in expository preaching. Richard Mayhue is on target when he writes, “Exposition is not so much defined by the form of the message as it is by the source and process through which the message was formed.  To put it another way, there is no such thing as an expository sermon form. Ideally, the form should come from the text.

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Liefeld: 5 characteristics of expository messages

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Walter L. Liefeld suggests that an expository message:

  1. deals with one basic passage of Scripture.  One passage of Scripture (or a very few, I would suggest) is accorded central place in the sermon.  The sermon is not a ‘string of pearls’, consisting of a diverse texts.
  2. has hermeutical integrity.  It presents the gist of the chosen passage, consistent with its original meaning and emphases.  The sermon must be true to the genre, original purpose, flow of narrative or argument, intended meaning and application of the text.
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Preachers and their preaching – J.A. Broadus

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John Albert Broadus (1827-1895) was both a celebrated preacher and a teacher of preaching.  His Treatise on the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons was for decades the most widely-used and influential manual on preaching.

Hershael York claims:

‘Nearly everything written on expository preaching is derivative of Broadus’s Treatise to some extent, often massively so.’

Broadus espoused, in the face of incipient modernism and liberalism, theological orthodoxy allied to a firm belief in the infallibility of the Bible.…

Narrative preaching

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The essence of narrative preaching is that the sermon is in the form of a story.

1. Types of narrative sermon

(a) In a ‘pure’ narrative sermon,

‘the story is in no sense explained to the hearer, or commented on, outside the bounds of the narrative. In such a sermon, no introduction or conclusion outside of the story is used. The story’s introduction is the sermon’s introduction; the story’s conclusion is the sermon’s conclusion.’

(b) In a frame narrative the preacher provides some kind of introduction which sits outside the story itself. …

Iceberg preaching

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I like Jonathan Pennington’s idea of ‘iceberg preaching’.  Consider, he says, what an iceberg might look like:

In the first triangle, almost all of the iceberg lies above the surface of the water.  This represents the sermon in which the preacher tells his hears everything he knows about a text or subject.  He knows nothing else.  There is no more that he could have said.  There is no unstated knowledge, or insight, or understanding that has helped him form his message.…

Notes, or no notes?

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For many years I was tightly bound to rather full notes in my preaching.  However, I came to se that this is to walk with crutches, and that it would be better to do without them.

Jeffrey Arthurs discusses the pros and cons of preaching from notes.

He quotes Fred Cradock:-

Every method pays a price for its advantages. Those who prefer the freedom and relationships available to the preacher without notes will not usually rate as high on careful phrasing and wealth of content.

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Trinitarian personalism and preaching

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We preach Christ, and not just the benefits that he offers.  This is part of the commitment to ‘Trinitarian personalism’ advocated by Scott R. Swain.  He concludes:

Often the commitment to being “Christ-centered” in preaching leads to sermons whose central point is the atonement or justification. Now mind you, one cannot preach Christ without preaching the atonement and justification. But there is a marked difference between preaching the crucifixion and preaching “Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2).

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Preach like Jesus

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I have returned, from time to time, to the question of what the preacher can learn from the greatest teacher of them all.

Mark Stibbe explores this in his chapter ‘Learning from Jesus’ in Preach the Word! (ed Greg Haslam, 2006, pp87-97).

Stibbe identifies ten characteristics of Jesus’ preaching.  Here’s a summary.

1. Revelatory in content

Notwithstanding some formal similarities with rabbinic teaching, in content Jesus’ message was completely original.  It came from the Father.

Jn 12:49f – “I have not spoken from my own authority, but the Father himself who sent me has commanded me what I should say and what I should speak. 

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