Sample Analysis: Narrative
I have suggested a path towards analyzing the “structure” of a biblical narrative by focusing on setting, characters, and plot. Let’s try this out by analyzing a story that you may have never considered preaching a sermon from – the sordid tale of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38. Our tendency might be to pass this one by as too steamy for a general audience, and maybe not even that important. It appears oddly inserted in the middle of the Joseph story as something of a detour that may be best ignored. Think again. On careful analysis, it may be one of the most important stories in this part of Genesis.
What Kind of Language? Outlining a Preaching Text
Most biblical texts fall into one of three broad language categories: Prose, Poetry, or Story. Though they often overlap in many ways, each of these communicates, challenges, and shapes us differently. In fact, like the three modes of transportation to Australia, they give us such different journeys that the perspectives they give of the same truth might seem widely divergent, even when the destination is the same.
In your preparation process, these differences become impossible to ignore the moment you begin to try to outline the meaning of the text. Let’s think about each of these language categories specifically from the perspective of how we would outline the text.
How to Tell the Gospel Story in Every Sermon
So far in this series of posts, I have tried to make a case for story-shaped preaching. I hope the message has come through clearly that the most compelling reason for story-shaped preaching is that “story” is the shape of the gospel. The question now becomes, “How do preach in such a way that every sermon is a retelling of the gospel story, applied to some aspect of contemporary life?”
Why Story?
Let me tell you the story of my journey with story…
It began with a practical need. I was teaching preaching in Portugal, and asking myself, “How can I equip my students to preach effectively to their generation?” The traditional method I knew best was fine as long as they were preaching to congregations filled with believers. But I became convinced that, when it came to skeptical, post-modern, anti-authoritarian Europeans, a deductive frontal assault was usually ineffective. So I began to look around for a different method, a more post-Christian-friendly rhetoric.
Story-Shaped Preaching, Part I
I believe that preaching in a post-Christian context will require, as a rule, a story shape. I have some good reasons for this, which I will share, but I recognize that I am swimming upstream in our Evangelical sub-culture. The weakness of some narrative preaching is no reason to discard the Bible’s most prominent form
Perhaps the best starting point for this series of posts on Story-Shaped Preaching is to define what it is, and what it isn’t. I’ll do this by answering three myths that I sometimes hear about narrative preaching.
Qualities of a Good Sermon
What would make your list of qualities of a good sermon? For some, the priority is on the substance of the message. Others recognize that it doesn’t matter what you intend to say if you can’t say it clearly enough for the message to be understood. For others, interest is paramount — whatever the sermon is, it should not be boring!
Which perspective is correct? Like many either-or questions, the answer is “yes!” All of the above! So, here is my current list …