Thinking on Thursday: How to Think for Preaching

I love to teach the Bible. One of the things I love about interactive Bible teaching is when I get to say, "Hmmm... I never thought of that before." I love to be challenged in my thinking. Often in preaching you don't get a whole lot of reaction from the people you are speaking to... My mentor once told me not to judge people's attention by their faces. "The look of confusion and the look of conviction can often be the same," he said. I've found that to be true. The person who looks lost often chimes in with a perceptive at-the-door comment. The guy who looks asleep asks, "what did you mean when you said ___________?"

I love that. It means that people are thinking about the text. I'm hoping that folks from Harvest, and my pals from the web (facebook friends and random readers) will help me think through the Bible text on a weekly basis... assisting me to find applications, observations, even challenging the assumptions of the text. The Word is strong enough to withstand any scrutiny.

So here are some Questions to ask from the Text to pursue its meaning for preaching and Bible study. I've used a personally challenging sermon from another pastor to frame the questions (all the explanation is mine, the headings are his, though of course there is overlap):

Framing Questions, From Pastor Mark Driscoll's Sermon, "Preaching Jesus"
1. The Biblical Question: What does the Scripture say? What is the meaning of this particular section of text? Why is this section of Scripture in the Scripture (or, what unique idea or truth do we gain from it?)
2. The Theological Question: What are the implications of the text? This is not to ask the postmodern what-does-this-mean-to-me question, but to ask "What did it mean to the original audience?" "What does God want us to know?" How can we apply this?
3. The Homiletical Question: How do I communicate this text? (Honestly... skip this one in discussion on this blog... instead, write your own sermon, and share it in a youth, sunday school, or pulpit situation.) Ask how does this text communicate with our culture? What common elements are there? What major ideas?
4. The Apologetical Question: Preaching is a kind of war. We resist the truth as it is proclaimed to us. So we need to ask, "How will people fight the truth of this text?" "What questions will people have? What objections?" Paul did this often in his writing (Rom 6:1, 15), which makes me think he did it in his preaching.
5. The Missional Question: Most of us know that the Bible applies to our lives. Go one step further and ask "How does this apply to God's community? To marriages? Families? Cities? How does this change and challenge the community? What are the implications for the community if we don't live this text out? What if we fail to apply this?
6. The Christological Question: How does this text teach that Jesus is the answer? How does it exalt his character or point to his cross, his resurrection and second coming? How does it point to his present work and his future reign?

These aren't all the questions we could ask, but they are sufficient to pry the meaning out of a text and to start conversations about its meaning.
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