The Dynamics of the Sermon

In this course, we define preaching as “authoritative public discourse, based on a text of Scripture, centered in the death and resurrection of Christ for the forgiveness of sins, for the benefit of the hearers in faith and life.” This definition focuses upon the content and the function of the sermon. It encourages us to evaluate sermons on the basis of their words and actions (what they say and what they do), considering how faithful these words and acts are to God’s institution of the office of preaching. While this understanding is vital to preaching, we will also want to consider the sermon as a rhetorical experience. That is, we will want to consider the sermon as an oral event in time. When you consider the sermon as an oral event, you notice that the sermon is composed of two basic experiences on the part of the hearers: (1) progression, in which the preacher moves the sermon forward toward an end or a goal, and (2) development, in which the preacher moves the sermon deeper into one single idea or experience. These two movements create the event in time that we call a sermon. At times, the preacher moves forward like a pilgrim on a journey; he walks through the verses or events of a text, the teachings of the faith, or the lives of the hearers, and ultimately brings his people home. At other times, the preacher stays in one place, like a pilgrim before a holy place; he stands still and looks around, contemplating one particular verse or event of a text, a teaching of the faith, or a life experience of his hearers, until the hearers join with him in truly knowing, having grasped an idea or considered an experience not only cognitively but experientially as well. The basic dynamics of the sermon, therefore, are progression and development, movement forward toward a goal and movement deeper into focused contemplation. The beginning preacher, therefore, needs to master both the skills of progression (sermon structures) and the skills of development (creating rhetorical units) in order to create that experience in time known as a sermon.

1 Progression: in representing the sermon on paper, one can picture the movement forward as a movement horizontally across the page. As the sermon progresses in time, it progresses in thought and experience. These horizontal movements are called sermon structures and many different logical or dynamic forms can create this progression of the sermon. A sermon can move forward by walking verse-by-verse through a text. A sermon can move forward by logically setting before the hearers a listing of the effects of a teaching upon Christian living, moving in a crescendo from those effects that are personal and private to those effects that are corporate and change the world. A sermon can move forward by plotting out the movement of a narrative from conflict to rising action to climax to falling action and then to a final resolution. As the hearers enter into the story, they are propelled forward by its action. Many different ideas and experiences can form the structure of a sermon. In each case, however, the structure is an organization of the ideas and experiences that move the sermon forward toward a conclusion or a goal.

SERMON STRUCTURE

Development: as the progression or movement forward can be pictured horizontally across the page, the development of the sermon, the moments of stationary reflection, can be pictured vertically down the page. In this case, the preacher stays focused upon one main idea or experience and deepens the hearers perception, experience, consideration, and reflection upon that event. This could be reflection on one verse of a text, reflection on one effect of a teaching upon Christian living, or reflection upon a conflict that is being portrayed in the sermon. Instead of leading the hearers on to another verse, another idea, or another experience, the preacher takes a moment to invite the hearers into deeper reflection on just one matter of importance. They focus in upon a single concept or experience and then move deeper and deeper in reflection. Just as there are many methods for moving a sermon forward,

2 so too there are many methods for helping hearers stay in one place and reflect for a moment on one aspect of the sermon. Such reflection can be designed in a logical manner. It can happen as the preacher tells a story or a series of stories. It can occur as the preacher paints a picture for the hearers or gives witness to how a single person would have experienced this idea or event. Regardless of the method, the hearers pause for a moment and come to deeper understanding, a holy knowing, of what is said.

D D D E E E V V V E E E L L L O O O P P P M M M E E E N N N T T T

You will find that the methods of development are very similar to the sermon structures. They rely upon methods such as logic, story, images, and experience. The difference, however, is that this time the methods are being used to help the hearers enter more fully into one idea or experience rather than move forward from one idea or experience to another. The question is not so much what method are you using as it is how are you using it. Sometimes, you are using a method to lead the hearers forward and sometimes you are using a method to lead the hearers deeper into a moment’s reflection upon something of importance in the sermon.

3 Methods of Progression (Sermon Structures)

A sermon structure is the purposeful ordering of ideas and experiences in the sermon. There are a variety of sermon structures that have been and can be used in preaching. Each structure has strengths and weaknesses in respect to the four threads of discourse in the sermon (i.e., textual exposition, theological confession, evangelical proclamation, hearer interpretation). For example, a verse-by-verse sermon structure (i.e., expository preaching) can work well in establishing the meaning of the text (textual exposition) but may cause the hearers to be unsure of the primary teaching of the sermon (theological confession) or lose sight of the evangelical proclamation. A propositional discourse structure (i.e., thematic preaching), however, can work well in communicating one main thought for the hearers (theological confession) but may cause them to overlook some of the material in the text (textual exposition). The preacher, therefore, chooses the structure wisely. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of various structures, he seeks to use those structures that enable him to accomplish what is appropriate for his particular preaching occasion. The more familiar a preacher is with the sermon structures that are available, the greater ability he will have to choose that structure which fits his preaching situation. In general, sermon structures arise from one of three components that are present on the preaching occasion: the teaching, the text, or the experience of the hearers.

Propositional Structures:

Propositional sermon structures are those structures that arise from the central teaching of the sermon. They use logical means to convey progression forward in the sermon for the hearers.

Classification Analogy

Definition Problem/Solution

Cause/Effect Paradox Maintained

Process Question Answered

Comparison/Contrast

4 Textual Structures:

Textual sermon structures are those structures that arise from the text. They may be structures that follow the text in a verse-by-verse fashion or divide the sermon into an experience of the text and then an experience of its application. Textual structures, however, may also arise from the genre of the text. In this area, there are as many structures as there are genres of biblical literature. For the sake of illustration and because of present interest in the form and function of story in preaching, I have focused upon structures that arise from the genre of biblical narrative.

Verse-by-verse

Text-Application

Narrative Texts – Storied Discourse Structures

Single Story Format

Story Told

Story Interrupted

Story Framed

Delaying the Story

Applying the Story

Framing the Story

Multiple Story Format

5 Dynamic Structures

Dynamic sermon structures are structures that arise from the experience of the hearers. These structures use the experience of the hearers, their spiritual and cultural modes of knowing, as a way of organizing the progression of the sermon. They seek to use the rhetorical experiences of the culture in service to the proclamation of the gospel.

Law-then-Gospel Structure

The Narrative Structure Lowry Loop

Epic Form

Multiple Narrators

The Proverbial Structure

The Imagistic Structure

Frame and Refrain

Devotional Contemplation

Multiple Image Structure

6 Methods of Development (Rhetorical Units)

Creating a Rhetorical Unit:

A rhetorical unit is a section of the sermon that focuses upon developing one particular idea or experience for the hearers for a sustained period of time. At this point in the sermon, progression from one idea to another or one experience to another slows down and the preacher takes time (1) to state a single focus for the hearers and (2) to develop that focus within their consciousness using one or more of the methods below.

(1) Statement of main idea or experience:

At some point in each rhetorical unit, the preacher will clearly state the main idea or experience for the hearer. Such a statement is often simple so that it is easily remembered and repeated in order to focus attention upon it. Depending upon where the preacher places this statement, the rhetorical unit is either deductive or inductive. Development that is deductive states the focus at the beginning of the rhetorical unit; development that is inductive states the focus at the end of the unit. Either way, by the end of the rhetorical unit, the hearers will have reflected upon one simple focus for an extended period of time and the preacher will have used one or more methods to develop it.

(2) Development of main idea or experience:

In developing this main idea or experience, the preacher uses one (or sometimes more) of the following methods of development. The preacher should remain aware that when he desires to communicate an idea, to develop an experience for his hearers, he is making a rhetorical choice. There are many ways to develop the same idea for a group of hearers. For example, a preacher could communicate that “Christians live in hope” by using narration or serial depiction or an image or explanation. The art of preaching is learning to choose that method of development which best communicates an idea for a particular group of hearers on a particular day.

7 A. Narration: this method develops an idea or experience by offering the hearers a story wherein the idea or experience is placed into action. In narration, there will usually be temporal movement for the hearers and a conflict that is brought through climax to resolution. Often, the focus of the rhetorical unit is connected to the climax of the story. In narration, the preacher needs to manage the use of concrete details carefully, so that hearers are not distracted from the focus that is being developed.

B. Serial Depiction: this method develops an idea or experience by offering the hearers a series of examples that clarify and reinforce the idea through repetition. In serial depiction, the preacher has the opportunity to cover a wide range of experience, demonstrating how this focus is apparent in a variety of situations or contexts. Often these examples are connected by a simple refrain. The preacher needs to order these experiences carefully, however, so that there is some development, logical (e.g., ordering from corporate to personal) or experiential (e.g., climactic ordering), in the sequence of examples and so that no one example overpowers all of the others.

C. Image: this method develops an idea or experience by associating it with a central image for contemplation. In developing an image, the preacher offers the hearers concrete details that enable visualization. Sometimes a story may lie behind an image and give the image force because of the event that it relates to. In such cases, however, the image remains central and the story secondary. In contrast to narration, there is often no temporal development in the use of an image. Instead, the hearers are focused upon a static moment in time. If one were to use the language of film, a story is the movie itself and an image is a single frame. The image gains significance from the context in which it is placed, from the use to which it is put, or from the transformation it undergoes in the process of development.

8 D. Character: this method develops an idea or experience by viewing it from the stance of a particular individual. The hearers are able to enter into the life experience of an individual and consider how this idea or experience manifests itself in daily lived experience. Development by character offers the hearers a living witness of the focus of that rhetorical unit. The value of this method is that it personalizes the focus and relies on hearer empathy to generate a personal association with the idea or experience.

E. Dialogue: this method develops an idea or experience by placing it within a conversation enacted by the preacher and overheard by the people. Often this conversation takes the form of disagreement (e.g., a debate or series of questions and answers) or agreement (e.g., a collaborative endeavor of mutual discovery wherein each speaker makes significant contributions to the dialogue) and places into conversational speech the anticipated reactions of one’s hearers. Luther was particularly adept at placing his proclamation of the gospel in dialogue form as Christ or the Christian encounters Satan and answers him with a testimony of faith.

F. Explanation: this method develops an idea or experience through the use of logical explanation. Using reason, the preacher offers the hearers a series of statements that hold together by the logic of definition, classification, cause-effect, comparison/contrast, process, problem-solution, analogy, or example and explanation. Thus, any of the logical means by which an entire sermon can be ordered can also be used as a means for developing one particular moment within that sermon.

9 Integrating Structure and Development

As one begins to work with rhetorical units, it becomes clear that the logical and dynamic processes that can be used to structure of the sermon are the same logical and dynamic processes that can be used to form rhetorical units within the sermon. The preacher can use story to organize the whole sermon or to develop one main idea within the larger structure of the sermon. This explains why sometimes when preachers are working on a sermon and developing one minor point in that sermon they end up discovering that they have written a whole sermon out of that one point. What originally was intended to be a rhetorical unit became the structure of the sermon as it was developed more fully for the hearers. Hence, it is important to plan your sermon. You will want to be aware of how you are using these techniques within the sermon (as the structure or a rhetorical unit) and also to be aware that, at the end of the process, you may need to reevaluate what is your structure and what are your methods of development throughout the sermon. In preaching, it is helpful to vary the methods of development that one uses throughout the sermon. A sermon that only uses explanation can be very demanding for the hearers and might lose those hearers who are visual learners. A sermon that offers only stories for the hearers, however, can be just as frustrating for the hearers who are persuaded by reasonable explanations. The preacher, therefore, seeks to use a variety of methods of development in the course of the sermon, offering hearers several ways of understanding the concepts and experiences he seeks to proclaim. Any sermon, therefore, can be diagramed according to it progression and development. The preacher should be able to identify what the major structure of the sermon is (what constitutes its forward progression for the hearers) and what the individual rhetorical units of the sermon are (what various methods of development are used to communicate the main ideas and experiences to the hearers).

10 The following diagram represents a sermon based upon the proverbial structure that uses a variety of methods of development for each rhetorical unit of the sermon.

Proverbial Sermon Structure

S I E E M X R A P I G L A E A L N A D T E I P O I N C T N C I A A O R U N R S A E T I E O F N F E C T