I want to mention my preferred methodology on how to preach. Obviously, I'm a young guy without a ton of wisdom, but everybody has an opinion right? I really enjoy preaching through books of the bible and I thoroughly enjoy listening to preaching through books of the bible. Here's why:
1. It helps me remain true to Scripture and avoid heresy.
2. It gives me confidence to know I have the authority of the text behind me.
3. If someone disagrees, they will have to disagree with either the text or my application because the sermon was not my idea.
4. It teaches people how to study the Bible without having to host a hermeneutics class.
5. It is much easier to follow the grand narrative of the Bible (God's redemptive plan and story).
6. It disciplines me to preach tough passages that I may have skipped otherwise.
7. It helps towards the process of preaching the whole counsel of God.
8. It helps me preach God's mind and not my own.
9. It helps me avoid preaching my personal hobby horses.
10. It eliminates Saturday night fever and worry of what to preach from week to week.
11. It allows the congregation to study ahead and prepare for the weekly gathering.
12. Over the course of a life-long ministry, I believe it will best aid in the spiritual maturity for the church.
Agree? Disagree?
**As a sidenote, Colossians is the only book I've actually preached all the way through in succession. It was awesome!
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5 comments:
interesting thoughts. reminds me of a conversation at like 1am a week ago.
what's the purpose of preaching? i think we should do whatever helps us best accomplish that. whatever God wants to accomplish in preaching i think we should do whatever BEST does that... may change with culture, time, etc...
yaknowwhati'msayin'?
i here ya man. i would say the purpose of preaching is making disciples...followers of Jesus for God's fame. i think you would say "life change." do you mean making disciples when you say "life cahnge?
" holla
yeah, basically... life change = peeps' lives changing so they follow after Jesus & live for his fame more actively.
I think the words "disciple" & "discipleship" have gotten messed up a little in our culture. when most churches talk about those words they mean a class or Bible study or something where a bunch of information is given out, etc... it's not bad, but it's DEFINITELY not making disciples!
that's where i would want to differentiate in preaching as well... if the speaker just gives out info then he hasn't won. if his talk produces life change in the peeps... seems like a win don't ya think?
so, with your purpose of preaching... do you think God wants us to use WHATEVER methodology BEST accomplishes that for his glory? even if they change with time & culture?
preaching for effective and affective change.
personally, i think we need to be careful about saying we are preaching "Gods mind" and not "our minds". The thought is basically true to a degree, but as Bible interpreters, we cant help but preach "our minds". We are part of a specific culture, time, race, gender, philosophical persuasion, etc, etc, so much so that we are at best failable "interpreters".
I can only think of the fundy preachers who say women can't wear pants because the "Bible says so" after reading and obscure text in Leviticus or something. They interpret according to their own personal agendas, etc, and we, unfortunately, are not free from that either.
those are my thoughts. i would suggest reading a book called "The Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text."
Sorry for the long comment. Good stuff, though. I like the conversation. We need to think these things through over, and over, and over again.
right on scott. i'd love to talk about that stuff with ya some time. so many different streams that it's easy for my feeble mind to get confused. but you're definitely right on. theology are OUR thoughts about God, NOT what God is truly like. Preaching is OUR interpretation of Scripture, NOT God's Words...
pretty important stuff to remember.
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