Preaching and Teaching with Imagination

W. Wiersbe Warren

Description

No more dreary three-point sermon outlines! Wiersbe coaches preachers to creatively proclaim the living Word so hearers experience God's truth changing their lives.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian worship

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 février 1997
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781585588497
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

© 1994 by Warren W. Wiersbe
Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakerbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2011
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 for example, electronic, photocopy, recording without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-5855-8849-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Unless otherwise stated, all Scripture is taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture marked NKJV is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked NASB is taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org
Scripture marked WMS is taken from the Williams New Testament, In the Language of the People, by Charles B. Williams. Copyright 1937; renewed 1965, 1966, 1986 by Edith S. Williams. Copyright 1995 by Charlotte Williams Sprawls. Used by permission.
Scripture marked KJV is taken from the King James Version of the Bible
Highly recommended as a beginning text in preaching. A very solid and substantive yet spritely contribution to the discussions being held today as to our direction in preaching.
David L. Larsen
Biblical preachers are often anxious when “imagination” and “preaching” appear in the same sentence. They worry that imaginative preaching means departing from the text and thus becoming unbiblical. The result is often “biblical” preaching that is unimaginative, lifeless, and dull. The fact that Warren Wiersbe a preacher whose biblical credentials are impeccable has written saying that imagination is not only permissible, but necessary, should allay some fears and greatly enhance a lot of preaching.
Stuart Briscoe
This book should be a winner! As a significant evangelical contribution on the role of imagination in preaching, it is long overdue. . . . While holding uncompromisingly to sound hermeneutical control in preaching, Wiersbe chases away the scare-bears of those who fear that imagination is threatening, if not fatal, to truth. . . . The book itself is a model of imaginative art. I found it nearly as delicious as a Father Brown whodunit.
Richard A. Bodey
His words have already stimulated one of his sons in the ministry to make the creative connections that get the video of the imagination turned on about spiritual reality. Thanks for the courage to carefully wrestle with the need to understand figurative language.
David Wyrtzen
After presenting an excellent overview of the need for imaginative preaching and an overview of imagination in the Bible, Wiersbe discusses how to use imagery in various kinds of sermons. This book trumpets a significant message that preachers need to read and heed.
Roy B. Zuck
Dedicated with affection and appreciation to the congregations of the three churches I have been privileged to pastor:
Central Baptist Church, East Chicago, Indiana Calvary Baptist Church, Covington, Kentucky The Moody Church, Chicago, Illinois
and to the many conferences and congregations in various parts of the world where I’ve been privileged to minister.
Thank you for listening, for praying, and for encouraging. I wish that I had preached better sermons, but I know I couldn’t have preached a better Gospel.
“The great teacher is the one who turns your ears into eyes so that you can see the truth.” Eastern Proverb
“Ears that hear and eyes that see the Lord made them both.” Proverbs 20:12
“For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.” Matthew 13:15
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Endorsement
Dedication
Preface
I. Imagination and Life
1. The Tale of Two Preachers
2. What Hushai Knew: People
3. What Hushai Knew: The World around Him
4. What Hushai Knew: Words
5. Preacher, Tell Me a Story
6. Skeletons in the Pulpit, Cadavers in the Pews
7. The Hidden Destroyers
8. The Mystery of Metaphor
II. Imagination and Scripture
9. Pictures in the Pentateuch
10. Pictures in the Historical Books
11. Pictures in the Poetical Books
12. Pictures in the Prophets
13. Jesus, the Master Teacher/Preacher
14. Pictures in the Book of Acts
15. Pictures of the Church
16. Pictures in the Apocalypse
III. Imagination and Biblical Preaching
17. If You Don’t Talk to Your Bible, Your Bible Might Not Talk to You
18. Taking Things Apart and Putting Things Together
19. Imagination and Biographical Preaching
20. Imagination and Comfort
21. Messages for Special Days
22. Imagination, Humor, and Preaching
23. Imagination and Evangelistic Preaching
24. Imagination and Creativity
25. Preaching the Bible Biblically

APPENDICES

Appendix A Questions Preachers and Teachers Ask
Appendix B A Short History of the Imagination
Appendix C Imagination and Myth

Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index of Subjects
Index of Persons
Index of Major Biblical Images
Back Cover
Preface
F irst of all, I want to thank my wife Betty for all the help and encouragement she gave me in the writing of this book. Most authors put this at the end of the Preface, but since this is a book on imagination, I’m putting it at the beginning to show the reader how creative I can be.
This is a book about preaching and teaching the Word of God. Its aim is to help us so proclaim the Word that the people who hear us will experience the power of God’s truth changing their lives.
I’m sharing with you the burden of a preacher, writer, and occasional seminary instructor who got weary of bringing skeletons into the pulpit and producing cadavers in the pews. I have a concern to challenge our preachers and those who train preachers to move out of the academy into the marketplace and to start communicating God’s truth the way God communicated it to us in His Word. We’ve analyzed and outlined the Bible to death. Now it’s time we released the living Word to accomplish its powerful ministry in our needy world.
These chapters record the attempt of an amateur to bring together insights from many disciplines to help us find out how to do biblical preaching. Biblical preaching is far more than the proclamation of Bible truth, although that’s certainly an important part of it. Biblical preaching means declaring God’s truth the way He declared it , and that means with imagination .
I repeat: this book is the work of an amateur. I readily admit that I’m not an expert in the disciplines from which I’ve drawn material for this book. If I had waited until I mastered semiotics, hermeneutics, and all that’s involved in modern literary theory, this book would never have been written. I’d become like the fellow who attended university year after year and kept postponing his graduation. When his father was asked what his son would be when he graduated, the father replied, “An old man.” At my age, I can’t afford to play such a waiting game.
So I send this book forth. I trust that others, better qualified than I, will catch the vision and write better books that will correct my mistakes, explain things more precisely, and teach us how to be more effective preachers and teachers of God’s truth. This book is a courageous attempt on the part of a novice to point out some neglected paths on the homiletical landscape. My prayer is that better guides will also come along.
It was Dr. Warren S. Benson, Vice-president of Professional Doctoral Programs at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deer-field, Illinois, who first challenged me to investigate this subject and then to teach it in Trinity’s Doctor of Ministry program; I’m grateful to him for his encouragement. I’m also grateful to the students whose varied responses and insightful questions helped me find my way through the frightening maze. Some of them taught me far more than I taught them, for it’s in the give-and-take of honest discussion that all of us learn more. Obviously, Dr. Benson, Trinity, and the doctoral students are not responsible for the errors and deficiencies in this book, although they can certainly take credit for making it a better book.
I also owe a sincere thank-you to my friend Mark Sweeney, Corporate Vice-president of Scripture Press Publications and Publisher of Victor Books. Mark often discussed the book with me and encouraged me during the difficult process of writing it, and I’m grateful. Some publishers don’t seem to know what authors go through, but Mark is an exception. Thanks too to Robert Hosack who oversaw the editing of the manuscript and gave me many valuable suggestions.
Our pastor son David W. Wiersbe read the manuscript carefully and gave me many excellent suggestions. I find that as I get older, I need to keep in touch with the ideas and insights of the younger generation of preachers; David has helped me do that. I’m also grateful for the help given by other friends who read the manuscript and graciously shared their suggestions.
Let me add one word of caution: if you’re tempted to skip Parts I and II and dive immediately into the “practical discussion” in Part III, don’t yield to temptation. It’s important that you get the theoretical and biblical foundation first; so keep reading, and you will see that all of the text relates to what we’re all seeking: more effective communication of the Word of God.
I’m only too conscious of t