Preaching (Part Two)<\/p>\n
Once you know your purpose for preaching, you are ready to discern your purpose for an individual sermon. And while it\u2019s important to note the diversity that exists in the possible purposes of\u00a0preaching (and thereby recognizing that no single purpose can be the only purpose of preaching), it is\u00a0equally important to recognize that no single sermon can accomplish all these purposes. Every text of\u00a0Scripture contains more than one sermon, yet a preacher should only preach one sermon each Sunday. As\u00a0you prepare a sermon, you will make some choices, both about the specific theological claim you want to\u00a0make and about the purpose you want that theological claim to have on your audience. Thus, one of the\u00a0marks of good preaching is that it seeks to say one thing well. As you work on a sermon, there will be\u00a0much that you want to say \u2013 many theological claims about God, many aspects of your issue, many\u00a0implications for your context, and many things you want your hearers to do \u2013 but you simply cannot do\u00a0all of them. And if you try, the odds are likely that you will not do any of them. Therefore, ask, \u201cWhat\u00a0single theological claim do you want to make, and what specific purpose do you want to attempt to\u00a0accomplish in your sermon?\u201d1<\/span><\/p>\n You must know where you are going in order to get there. That maxim is true when driving to the store and preaching a sermon. If you do not know the destination, you should not begin the trip. Sermons\u00a0are formed from end to beginning. Sermons are not propelled by powerful beginnings but are evoked by\u00a0significant ends.2 <\/span>The theological issue of every sermon is \u201cWhat right does the preacher have to call for\u00a0action at the end of the sermon?\u201d The theology of the text makes a claim for the audience in their context.\u00a0The theology in the text is like a live electrical wire. If you touch it, you will experience it. In some cases,\u00a0if you touch it, it will kill you. While the historical context of a passage likely will not correlate with\u00a0today, the live wire of theology will. The live wire shapes the sermonic claim of the sermon. What do you\u00a0want the congregation to think, feel, or do in response to the sermonic claim? Or to modify Alexander\u00a0Bain\u2019s definition, a sermon signifies belief in such a way that a community is prepared to act.3<\/span><\/p>\n Preaching (Part Two) Once you know your purpose for preaching, you are ready to discern your purpose for an individual<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1225],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-preaching","comments-off"],"yoast_head":"\n\n