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Audio 48 – Allowing The Parables To Really Speak
The Parables have power, but how do you preach them? Do you preach them as a monument to the status quo? Do you preach them after a few minutes of analysis? Do you preach them simply to illustrate pretty tame points in your sermons? Or do you let them attack us in our deep beliefs [...]
Audio 47 – Is Black Preaching Just For Black Folks?
Black Preaching. “Isn’t that racist?” “Good Preaching Has No Color!” “I’m Glad Jesus Loves All Races Unlike You.” Yep, I have heard statements like these as well as other more pointed ones. Yes, I have been called a racist for addressing “Black Preaching.” But even some of my supporters miss what I am attempting to [...]
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Black Preaching Myths – Black Preaching And Style
We are going to begin a series of posts about the myths of Black Preaching. There are a number of these that we need to clarify if we are going to understand how black Preaching helps us. the first of these myths is that Black Preaching is primarily about preaching style. Often when one thinks [...]
You Need Training – A Basic Program
It is interesting how many budding preachers turn on the television and think that copying the various personalities is effective preaching.  They end up with superficial copies of some preachers. Sometimes they even copy preachers with incorrect or superficial theology. So you end up with a superficial copy of a superficial original. Certainly I am [...]
How One Sermon Was Remembered
I was talking to a laymember the other day who was very excited about a sermon he had heard. The member gave me all four of the points of the sermon and was excited about applying the sermon to his daily life. Interestingly enough, he searched on the internet to try to find this sermon [...]
Don’t Commentate….Preach!
Peter Mead is running a series on his helpful website on the subject of “Preaching Epistles.” People ask me to bring different perspectives, so here is one that I read from time to time.
At any rate, one of his points for preaching epistles effectively is:
I wanted to “riff” on that quote for a moment. If I understand the quote, I agree completely. To avoid confusion, I must first say that I do believe that one can attach ones points effectively in something that looks like a “running commentary” as you read the text. But this, I believe, is not what Mead is talking about.
What I believe Mead is getting at is the tendency to talk about all kinds of things that are not relevant to the point of the message (if you even have one). When we preach effectively, we have constructed a sermon around some tightly connected points. Don’t dilute the point by talking about “interesting facts” that have nothing to do with the message or the people. Just because it is true and in the text does not mean that you are to preach it in this message.
Some preachers like to demonstrate their knowledge of the Bible period of original languages by adding a lot of stuff to the sermon that is not really all that helpful.
I think knowing the languages are helpful, but does quoting a Greek work really help your people understand the point? In most cases no. Does referring to a technical theological term really help your people understand the point? Sometimes yes, the vast majority of time, no.
Preach to the people in front of you, they are not Bible scholars who have spent 8 years of schooling to get advanced theological training. They are people of today. They have lost their job this week. They have a spouse who has declared that divorce is imminent. They have children in jail. They have lost grandma. They have experienced real joy and real hurt this past week. PREACH TO THEM!
We must understand the past if we are going to make it relevant to today, but we also must recognize that we have some work to do before we can talk about the Biblical past in an understandable manner.
I am not totally sure if my riff on Mead’s thought is totally in agreement with his thoughts on homiletics. But I do believe that we agree that preaching is not just providing a commentary on the text. The preacher must form and fashion the insights of exegesis into a sermon that is designed to address the contemporary audience with the ancient text that God has given to us.
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