Conclusion: Preaching to Create Culture
I have attempted to explore an alternative to “warfare” as the paradigm for cultural engagement in preaching. My premise is that the church can have its most powerful impact on culture not by fighting it, ignoring it, or even merely conversing with it, but by presenting it with an alternative—a culture that embodies God’s truth in consistent practice. I contend that a key player in this process must be the preacher who intentionally and carefully constructs a culture that reflects truth both in its patterns of meaning and its strategies for action.
Meaning Made Visible: Symbols
Symbols embody the meaning of story and world view in a tangible way, making them visible in the life of a community. There is no culture without symbols, and preachers who would take on the task of cultural architecture must also explore and define the symbolic world of the culture in which they live, and the culture they wish to create.
Frame: Worldview Questions
As we preachers talk about and practice our craft, we sometimes treat “story” and “precept” as mutually exclusive categories. As in, “are you a precept preacher or are you a storyteller?” But this is a false dichotomy. Jesus taught in parables, but he also made clear and concise declarations such as, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” If we are to take seriously the task of cultural architecture, we need both story and precept.
The story must be told, and it must lead to precept.
Jesus: Culture-Maker
Even as Jesus observed the traditions and habits of his received culture, he subverted it. In subtle ways, he planted an adjusted worldview in the minds and hearts of his followers, and undermined many of the cherished assumptions, as well as the political powers, of his society. This subversion, though subtle, was significant and apparent enough that it led to his death. It was also effective enough that the result was a distinct culture, a new community, that over the course of a few hundred years, in the face of persecution and poverty, proceeded to permeate and transform the collection of cultures known as the Roman Empire.
What Kind of Literature?
True fishermen never stop looking for just the right combination of bait and technique to catch a fish in any given pond or stream. Lure, minnow, worms or stink bait? Spinner, jig, or fly? They study fish and habitats endlessly, to make the best possible choices, and increase their chances of catching the “big one.”
I’m no fisherman, but I think I understand their drive. As a preacher, I’m always looking for the “big one” — the big idea of a given passage. But each passage is unique, and it swims in a particular pond or stream. Different kinds of texts work differently and communicate their truths in distinctive ways. If I am to coax the right truth consistently out of every text, I must learn to read each text according to its own rules. Like a fisherman who never stops studying fish and habitats, a preacher must make a life-long endeavour of studying literary genres and forms.
The Story Around the Text
Politicians and marketers may deliberately take words out of context to serve their own purposes, but could preachers do the same thing? We should give one another the benefit of a doubt. We need not assume deliberately malicious intent. But we should acknowledge that we sometimes pluck words, phrases, and verses out of their context to make a point that we want to make, regardless of their actual meaning.
Here’s the good news: Ignoring the literary context of a passage may be the most frequently-committed exegetical error among preachers, but it is also the easiest to correct. Here are some steps you can take to get the context right.
Warriors, Pacifists, and Diplomats: Preachers and Culture
A handful of choices define every preacher. From where will the message come? Will it offer answers gleaned from the social sciences, public opinion polls, celebrity talk show hosts, or political dogma? Or will it flow from the acts and words of God discovered and experienced in the Scriptures? What will the preacher’s sermons do? Will they instruct, leading to better informed hearers? Should they offer perspective, encouragement and comfort, leading to better adjusted hearers? Will they admonish and exhort, leading to better behaved hearers? Or will they seek transformation, leading to simply better, reborn, hearers?
These and other key issues fill the pages of every good Homiletics textbook. One question, however, which can, in subtle but powerful ways, define and drive a preaching ministry, is often overlooked: What is the preacher’s, and the sermon’s, relationship to culture? The answer to this question will make all the difference in the direction a preacher’s ministry will take.
Which Comes First — The Need or the Text?
Where do you begin your sermon preparation – with a contemporary need, or with a biblical text? This is a trick question, and you should not fall for it. Be careful neither to emphasize human need to the neglect of the text, nor to emphasize the text to the neglect of human need. To do the former is to wallow in a quagmire of questions with no real answers. To do the latter is to try to preach the Bible while missing the point of the Bible.
Living in Contentment: Philippians 4:10-20
As Paul brings his epistle to a close, he offers a heartfelt “thank you” to the church in Philippi for the gift they had sent to alleviate his distress. In the middle of this “thank you,” however, he assures them that the primary reason for his joy in their giving is not because of the benefit that he had gained by receiving it, but the benefit that they had gained by giving it. At the core of this attitude was his deep contentment in life …
Review: Biblical Theology and Preaching
Must Christ be preached from every text? Is it realistic, or even right, to expect that every sermon should proclaim the Gospel? Can you be true to the original intent of the human author behind the text while also tying it to the grand intent of the divine author over the text? Graeme Goldsworthy would answer each of these questions with a resounding “yes!”
Beating the Bane of Monday
I used to have a cartoon clipping on my desk portraying the weekly evolution of a pastor. It was a chart, patterned after those old “evolution of man” illustrations. On Monday, the pastor was collapsed like a puddle on the floor. On Tuesday, he was crawling. Each day he progressed a bit more until Sunday, when he was erect, composed, dressed and in his right mind, ready to take on the world. Then, on Monday, he was a puddle again, and the whole thing started over.
If you’re like me, you’ve experienced those Mondays. The highs and lows of Sunday have left you physically, mentally, emotionally, and perhaps even spiritually depleted. I’m pretty sure Jeremiah wrote Lamentations on a Monday. A lot of preachers I know take Monday off, but I never did — just because I didn’t want to spend my day off feeling so worn out. Besides, taking Monday off just postpones the inevitable. Yesterday’s sermon is history, but Sunday is only six days away. Better to go ahead and get back to work.
What does the “Big Story” Do?
We are all shaped by a story. The question is, which story will it be? For disciples of Jesus, this life-shaping story is the Gospel. Before we turn to specifics of how to integrate the “big story” into our preaching, we should ask another question: What are the goals of Big Story Preaching?
How do we expect the grand narrative of the Scriptures to form disciples of Jesus? I will focus on four ways: The big story defines identity, shapes worldview, informs and guides mission, and creates community.
Review: Reading for Preaching
One of my missionary supervisors once told me that the first step towards connecting with the secular Europeans with whom we wanted to share the Gospel was simply to “be an interesting person.” Cornelius Platinga’s book, Reading for Preaching, has just such a goal in mind.
“Big Story” Preaching: Making Disciples in a Post-Christian World
How do we make disciples in a post-Christian world?” I am convinced that the answer must begin with the story we tell. I’m not talking about merely “telling stories,” that people like to hear. We must tell the story — the grand narrative of the Scriptures that shapes our view of the world, of ourselves, and of history. Why? Because the single most important factor for forming identity, character, and purpose is how we answer the question, “In what story am I living?”
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.
Gospel-Driven: How?
Is it realistic to say that every sermon should be gospel-driven? What do we do when the text doesn’t seem to be about the gospel at all? Do we just bend it and squeeze it until a gospel presentation oozes out? Does this mean that every message should be evangelistic? Shouldn’t some sermons just teach, exhort, encourage, or comfort?
Cultivating Sermon “Seeds”
I’m on record as being strongly opposed to preaching someone else’s sermons. So why would I have a “Sermon Seeds” category in this blog, where I give you preaching ideas?
Living in Partnership: Philippians 1:1-11
The opening verses of Philippians weave together the language of deeply affectionate relationship, and Christian maturity. Paul writes of the Philippians partnership with him in the Gospel, of their being partakers of grace with him in suffering, and of the deep affection he has for them. In the same sequence he writes about their anticipated completion in Christ, and prays through the steps by which they will move on to maturity. A study of the intertwining of these ideas will highlight the close relationship between Christian community and spiritual growth.