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.
Comments?

What is the task of Preaching? Updated: Now with corrected spelling.

Going through scraps of paper in my giant pile, I found something I wrote down while talking with a pastor friend from Ohio.

"The Text has given prominence to an Idea."

Thinking about preaching the Word of God, this is the task of study: What is the text saying about the idea contained there?

It is easy to read all kinds of things into Bible texts. We can use texts to prove things that they were never intended to say. The task of preaching is to find the author's emphasis in the text, expose those ideas to God's people in a way that connects to them and their lives, and show them how they apply in real life.

This is the question I try to ask myself every week: Am I making these points because I want to seem brilliant or creative or to wow my audience, or... is this what the authors (God, and the human author, working by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) intended to say here?

The Scripture is unique, and yet like other books. It is unique in that it is the sword of the Spirit, the very living and active Word of God which accomplishes God's will and desire in the world. On the flip side, it is very much a book, with syntax and grammar and authorial intent. We can never say that the bible means something other than what it meant when it was written.

(Of course, prophecy can be produced to prove this point otherwise, but the exception proves the rule.)

The Text has given prominence to an Idea.

In God's strength I pray I never bring His people anything but that.

Well... I'm Not in Favor of Boring...

I don't know that I'm willing to concede that preaching should be boring... but I'm okay (as some of you have noted...) with long.

See what Michael McKinley has to say on the subject.