[methodology for preparing a sermon - ed]
Steve Lawson, a highly praised teacher of expository preachng, formerly at Masters Semminary, insturcts his hearers as to HOW he prepares a sermon. We are in the age of the HOW in evengelical churches and seminaries. Everything is methodology. Mr. Lawson, being old fashioned ignores all the advances done in computerized Bible study. He, a man of his generation, uses paper only.
He advises us that he has been preaching for 50 years. We will use quotes from his advise to those who wish to "prepare” sermons. He begins with a piece of paper divided in half. On one side he plcaes the passage, on the other, the Greek or Hebrew words or prepositional phrases. We shall continue in his words:
...in the middle of the page next to these words that I've looked up that I've written down and looked at the meaning it really just an explanation of what this means what was the intent of this and as I'm going I'm also making application and I'm writing that out in the in the right hand margin how I would show the relevance of what is being said from this passage and as I'm progressing occasionally I'll draw a horizontal line to show the Division I I think structure and divisions and sermon headings are vitally important for almost every preacher unless you're just extraordinarily gifted and so I'm putting together a first pass at an outline and I'm writing that out in the left hand margin as well as I go and as I go through this...
Of couse, even from a purely traditional exegetical approach, just looking up the meaning of certain Greek or Hebrew word is not enough. There are things like word order in the sentence, the tenses of the verbs and participles, etc.
Then of course after this, he will consult all the thoughts of men:
...once I'm finished I'll then open study bibles and commentaries what did I miss what did I misinterpret what do I need to add so I want to do my homework first my spade work I want to walk the land of this passage and then bring in outside help so that I can see how I can strengthen but when I have pulled out of this passage and then I will I will scribble out and this is in essence almost like a rough draft...
He then, like a good Greek or Roman Rhetorician, or Sophist must think of his presentation:
I will scribble out and an introduction and there's certain things that make for a strong introduction and then I'll write out the conclusion and so I'll just staple it all together and then proceed to write what I would call a manuscript which is for me when I would take into the pulpit it's probably about 70% of what I'll say in the pulpit maybe 80% I'll be adding 20 to 30% in the heat of the moment and drawing upon you know over 50 years of studying the Bible and there are there will be flashes of insight that will come while you're in the pulpit so you never want a manuscript that's 100% everything you're gonna say you've got to have some elbow room if you will while you're preaching and so but I'll write out my manuscript I always start with Roman number one and move consecutively through the passage then I will write the introduction then I will write the conclusion and as you write your manuscript you wanna write it not like a term paper or a theological journal article you wanna write it like you can hear yourself preaching it you want a conversational tone to it this doesn't need to be dense and highly technical this this needs to have some energy and some vibrancy to it as CS Lewis said great writers do not write with their eyes they write with their ears they can hear themselves delivering this message and so as I'm writing the the manuscript it's it's to be set up almost like a trampoline effect that it will propel me forward to say with a preacher's tone and and a preacher's fire what needs to be said as I come to this part with the passage of scripture so that's just as brief of a fly over David that I can give you I mean I teach an entire class in seminary when I just walked you through so you know that would be like 40 class hours I just gave you in about 40 seconds so there's so much more obviously that can be said but that's kind of the succinct version of it...
We could go on, but why? This man has already proven that he relies on the appeal to the flesh and not the Spirit. How foreign is this approach to the preaching to any Old School Baptist preacher! Brethren, you will look in vain for the most important and essential aspect of any preaching - THE SPIRIT WILL OF GOD! Apparently, the Holy Spirit is only ancilliary to the preaching of the Gospel! We have known Old School Baptist preachers that sat down after speaking only a few minutes, telling the congregation that he has nothing to say! This is called dependance on the Holy Spirit! To produce this kind of man-made preaching demands education. So it is no surprise that we read him saying:
...I mean I teach an entire class in seminary when I just walked you through so you know that would be like 40 class hours I just gave you in about 40 seconds so there's so much more obviously that can be said but that's kind of the succinct version of it...
How sad! These men can go on pretending to be ministers of the Gospel believing this and preparing themselves in like manner. There is not difference between how a professor would prepare for an academic lesson and this kind of preaching!
Of course, we find no such methodology in the New or Old Testament. There men spoke without planning, or an outline with three points, and spoke as they were led by the Holy Spirit! There is a bigger question, however, as to the origin of "sermons," or even "preaching" among Christians. Frank Viola explains:
...many pagan orators and philosophers were becoming Christians. As a result, pagan philosophical ideas unwittingly made their way into the Christian community. Many of these men became the theologians and leaders of the early Christian church. They are known as the “church fathers,” and some of their writings are still with us. Thus the pagan notion of a trained professional speaker who delivers orations for a fee moved straight into the Christian bloodstream. Note that the concept of the “paid teaching specialist” came from Greece, not Judaism. It was the custom of Jewish rabbis to take up a trade so as to not charge a fee for their teaching. The upshot of the story is that these former pagan orators (now turned Christian) began to use their Greco-Roman oratorical skills for Christian purposes. They would sit in their official chair and “expound the sacred text of Scripture, just as the sophist would supply an exegesis of the near-sacred text of Homer.” If you compare a third-century pagan sermon with a sermon given by one of the church fathers, you will find both the structure and the phraseology to be quite similar. Viola, Frank; Barna, George. Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices (pp. 91-92). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.
We compare this advice on how to prepare sermons with a passage from a book by Frank Viola, George Baran, Pagan Christianity:
The sermon is the bedrock of the Protestant liturgy. For five hundred years, it has functioned like clockwork. Every Sunday morning, the pastor steps up to his pulpit and delivers an inspirational oration to a passive, pew-warming audience. So central is the sermon that it is the very reason many Christians go to church. In fact, the entire service is often judged by the quality of the sermon. Ask a person how church was last Sunday and you will most likely get a description of the message. In short, the contemporary Christian mindset often equates the sermon with Sunday morning worship. But it does not end there. Viola, Frank; Barna, George. Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices (pp. 85-86). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Viola goes on:
...the apostolic preaching recorded in Acts possessed the following features: It was sporadic. It was delivered on special occasions in order to deal with specific problems. It was extemporaneous and without rhetorical structure. It was most often dialogical (meaning it included feedback and interruptions from the audience) rather than monological (a one-way discourse).
This kind of "preaching" did not originate with the apostles:
The earliest recorded Christian source for regular sermonizing is found during the late second century. Clement of Alexandria lamented the fact that sermons did so little to change Christians. Yet despite its recognized failure, the sermon became a standard practice among believers by the fourth century. Viola, Frank; Barna, George. Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices (p. 89). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Viola goes on to understand this kind of preaching which to Baptists, was influenced by that fountain of many errors, the Catholic Church, which imitated te pagan Greek and Roman world:
To find the headwaters of the sermon, we must go back to the fifth century BC and a group of wandering teachers called sophists. The sophists are credited for inventing rhetoric (the art of persuasive speaking). They recruited disciples and demanded payment for delivering their orations. The sophists were expert debaters. They were masters at using emotional appeals, physical appearance, and clever language to “sell” their arguments. In time, the style, form, and oratorical skill of the sophists became more prized than their accuracy. This spawned a class of men who became masters of fine phrases, “cultivating style for style’s sake.” The truths they preached were abstract rather than truths that were practiced in their own lives. They were experts at imitating form rather than substance. Viola, Frank; Barna, George. Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices (p. 89). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.
We wish we had time to write more on this subject, but we atrongly recommend you purchase this book on Amazon:
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