Practical or Doctrinal Sermons?
Author: Sherman Haywood Cox II (587 Articles)
Sherman Haywood Cox II is the director of Soul Preaching. He holds the M.Div with an emphasis in Homiletics and a M.S. in Computer Science.
He tells the story of a preacher who said:
I am going to leave the theological instruction to your faculty here, but today I just want to be practical!
The author of the post, Peter Mead, disagrees with the sentiment and states:
People need to understand that the most theological or doctrinal passages in their Bible have real-life relevance to them. People need to recognize that instruction purporting to be practical and relevant but lacking a solid biblical grounding is inherently weak.
This reminds me of something a preacher said. Charles Brooks said, “If God Said it, It is relevant.” I agree with Mead, there can be no distinction between the practical and the theological.
Now there is a danger to present the theological without making any practical application. That is very problematic, but the alternative is not to attempt to preach a practical message without any theological connections. Such would not be a sermon at all.
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