SCM Studyguide to Preaching

Peter Stevenson

Description

A step by step guide to learning about preaching and more importantly how to craft and deliver a sermon. It offers a student friendly, jargon-free introduction that requires no prior knowledge of the subject.

Informations

• Publié par: Hymns Ancient & Modern
• Date de parution: 20 février 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780334056140
• Langue: English

Extrait

SCM STUDYGUIDE TO PR EACHING




SCM Studyguides
SCM Studyguide to Theological Reflection
SCM Studyguide to Christian Ethics
SCM Studyguide to Old Testament
SCM Studyguide to The Books of the Old Testament
SCM Studyguide to New Testament Interpretation
SCM Studyguide to Biblical Hermeneutics
SCM Studyguide to Christian Doctrine
SCM Studyguide to Christian Mission
SCM Studyguide to Pastoral Theology
SCM Studyguide to Science and Religion
SCM Studyguide to Early Christian Doctrine and the Creeds
SCM Studyguide to Church History
SCM Studyguide to The Sacraments
SCM Studyguide to Anglicanism
SCM Studyguide to The Psalms
SCM Studyguide to Preaching
SCM Studyguide to Practical Skills for Ministry
SCM Studyguide to Christian Spirituality
SCM Studyguide to Liturgy





SCM STUDYGUIDE TO PREACHING
Peter K. Stevenson






© Peter K. Stevenson 2017
Published in 2017 by SCM Press
Editorial office
3rd Floor, Invicta House,
108–114 Golden Lane,
London EC1Y 0TG, UK

Hymns Ancient & Modern® is a registered trademark of Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd
SCM Press is an imprint of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd (a registered charity)
13A Hellesdon Park Road, Norwich,
Norfolk NR6 5DR, UK
www.scmpress.co.uk
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, SCM Press.
The Author has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the Author of this Work
Except where indicated, scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Other Bible versions used are:
The Good News Bible, published by The Bible Societies/HarperCollins Publishers Ltd UK © American Bible Society, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992.
The Holy Bible, New International Version, 2011 edition. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica (formerly International Bible Society). Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, a member of the Hodder Headline Group.
The Holy Bible, Today’s New International VersionTMTNIV® Copyright© 2001, 2005 by the International Bible Society®. All rights reserved worldwide. TNIV Thinline Copyright©2005 by the Zondervan Corporation.
The New Testament in Modern English by J. B. Phillips copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Administered by The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. Used by permission.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
978 0 334 04374 4
Typeset by Regent Typesetting
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd




Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part 1: Preaching Matters
1. Why Bother with Preaching?
Part 2: Preparing to Preach
2. A Journey into Three Worlds
3. Looking for Trouble
4. Preaching in Context
Part 3: Designing Sermons
5. A Recipe for Preaching
6. Creating a Sequence
7. Telling a Story
8. Painting a Picture
Part 4: Preaching and Performance
9. First Steps on the Preaching Journey
10. Performing the Sermon
Part 5: The Preaching Life
11. The Fully-Alive Preacher

Appendix 1: Extract from Service Broadcast on BBC Radio Wales on Sunday 6 July 2014
Appendix 2: Guidelines for Lectio Divina
Appendix 3: Funeral Sermon 1 and Funeral Sermon 2
Appendix 4: Sermon Preached at an Ordination Service in August 2009
Appendix 5: Identifying the ‘Slides’ that form one of the ‘Moves’ in the Sermon on Isaiah 6
Appendix 6: Using the Plot in Nehemiah 4 in a Sermon
Appendix 7: Finding the Plot in Ruth 2
Appendix 8: Dismantling a Sermon?
Appendix 9: Questions for Sermon Listeners

Bibliography



Acknowledgements
The experience of changing jobs and moving from one capital city to another has meant that this book has had a much longer period of gestation than originally planned. On the plus side, that delay has provided space for continuing learning about preaching.
I am grateful to Natalie Watson for the invitation to prepare this Studyguide and for her patience as new duties and responsibilities delayed progress. I also appreciate the way David Shervington has recently picked up the baton and helped me get across the finishing line.
Many people have helped to shape the ways I go about the business of preaching. In my early days of Christian ministry in Bedford, I benefitted greatly from the imaginative biblical preaching modelled by the Revd Peter Ledger. The invitation from the Revd Dr Michael Quicke, to design and teach a module in preaching at Spurgeon’s College in London, helped stimulate a deeper interest in preaching and in the growing body of homiletical literature. The experience of teaching and writing about preaching with my Spurgeon’s colleague, the Revd Dr Stephen Wright, ensured that the learning process continued. I also gained a great deal from lively conversations about preaching with Professor Mike Graves during his visits to teach in London, which have provoked further thinking about narrative preaching.
It has been a privilege to share my enthusiasm for preaching with generations of students at Spurgeon’s College and more recently at the South Wales Baptist College in Cardiff. Many of the ideas in this Studyguide have been road-tested with them, and I am grateful for the feedback they have given along the way. My Cardiff colleague, the Revd Ed Kaneen, has provided valuable advice on aspects of biblical interpretation and has kindly allowed me to draw on some of his lecture material in Chapter 10.
While no longer in local church ministry, I continue to preach regularly and am grateful for the churches who invite me to preach, and sometimes invite me back.
Living in a two-preacher household, my deepest gratitude goes to Susan, my partner in marriage and ministry, for her ongoing love, patience and encouragement.




Introduction
Getting ready for a family holiday in northern Spain, we not only booked the ferry and the accommodation but also ordered a guidebook and some detailed local maps. They proved a good investment, as they alerted us to things to look out for on the way.
This Studyguide is a kind of guidebook or road map for the preaching journey, for the process of preparing and delivering a sermon is always a journey of discovery.
To begin with, preachers embark on a journey of discovery as they venture into the strange world of the Bible as explorers of the different ‘worlds’ of the text. On behalf of the congregation, the preacher explores the biblical terrain carefully and prayerfully in order to discern what God may want to say through the ancient text to people today. Such an engagement with Scripture helps to remind the Church of its core identity and its place within the mission of God, so that it can better resist the temptation to be squeezed into the world’s mould.
The process of moving from the biblical text to a sermon that connects with the contemporary context is one that presents certain challenges. With that in mind, Chapters 2 and 3 offer some strategies for using the Bible in preaching.
Paying careful and prayerful attention to the biblical text is not, however, the final stage of the preaching journey, for if the sermon is to connect with the concerns of people today, then it is also important to interpret the context in which it will be delivered. Conscious that good preaching is not only biblical but also local and contextual, Chapter 4 affirms the importance of interpreting context and taking time to understand the different kinds of people within a particular congregation.
The hope is that a clear message begins to emerge from this process of exploring both the worlds of the text and the congregation. This leads on to the next stage of the preaching journey, which involves designing the sermon.
It is clear that the Bible contains many different kinds, or genres, of material. For example, interpreting the Psalms will demand different hermeneutical strategies from those needed when interpreting passages from the book of Revelation. Similarly, no one way of designing sermons will necessarily be a good fit for sermons based on different parts of the Bible. A sermon structure that functions well when used with a narrative passage from the Gospels may not be the best fit for a sermon based on one of Paul’s epistles.
With that in mind, this Studyguide does not impose one method of designing sermons, rather in Chapters 5 to 8 it offers several strategies that can be used. Working through this material may lead to the conclusion that one of these ways of structuring sermons is the natural, instinctive way you approach the preaching task. However, alongside discovering a default approach that feels comfortable, it is also helpful to be aware of other approaches that can enrich your preaching repertoire. Perhaps you will want to experiment with preaching four sermons, using each of the approaches outlined in Chapter