I
took my first official preaching course in the Fall 1999 semester. In that course, I was introduced to a text
that laid the foundation for my communicative practice in preaching, tips and
tricks that I still use today. A decade
later, when I taught my first introductory preaching course, I used that same
book, Preaching that Connects by Mark
Galli and Craig Larson (both, then, journalists with Christianity Today). Their material
was simple, basic, almost common-sense. It
was pulled from a combined decades of journalism, writing stories with punch
that related to the everyday reader. Although
not necessarily preachers themselves, they wrote a book that, in my opinion,
every preacher must read. It is not a theory book; it is a mechanics
book, yet one that will absolutely help your development.
You see,
when it comes to preaching, to the art of crafting sermons, it comes down to 3 “Ds”:
design, development and delivery. Design has to do with the scaffolding or
main structure that the preacher chooses to build the sermon on. The design is the “bones” of the sermon. Whether it is inductive (moving from general
to specific), deductive (moving from specific to general), narrative (following
a plot) or some other syllogistic form, all sermons, when deconstructed down to
their base parts look exactly the same. It’s
basic rhetorical design, something that has been with us since Aristotle.
Now,
development deals with the “stuff” that
goes into our weekly sermons: textual commentary, illustrations, points of
doctrine, and practical applications. This
is the blood, muscles and tissue of the sermon.
It’s the stuff that keeps our sermon alive long enough to be presented
to a congregation, small group or digital audience.
Then,
there is delivery, or the way the sermon
or message is presented. To finish off
the anatomy lesson, this is the skin of the sermon. It’s the presentation, how the sermon looks
and sounds to the audience. If we do our
jobs correctly, the audience should come away with a captivating,
transformative experience that leads them closer to God and challenges them to
better resemble their faith in Christ to their fellow humans.
Most
books in preaching, essentially, land in one of these three camps, such as The Four Voices of Preaching by Robert
Stephen Reid (design) or Speaking with
Bold Assurance by Bert Decker and Hershael York (delivery). Some, such as Expository Preaching by Harold Bryson, Preach by Mark Dever and Greg Gilbert or The Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text by Sidney Greidanus, will
try to land in two of the camps (usually design and development or development and
delivery). And, on scarce, blessed
occasions, some will pull off the impossible and land in all three camps, such
as classic texts like Preaching by
Fred Craddock or The Witness of Preaching
by Tom Long or Biblical Preaching by
Haddon Robinson. And when those books
come along, they remain mainstays in the preacher’s library.
A
new contender has come along that claims to be worthy of your and my attention
in at least two of these camps, if not all three. Enter Lane Sebring and his book Preaching Killer Sermons. It’s a bold claim to be sure, especially from
such a young minister and author. You
see, most of the above books have come from seasoned preachers. Yet, most of their best works, ironically,
came after they left the work of
weekly preaching. Preaching Killer Sermons comes from one who is deeply involved in
ministry, as he serves as a minister who preaches each and every week. There is something deeply comforting in that
thought, very ethos-centric. For in entering into this conversation, we
are entering into it with one who is like us, who shares our struggles and our
successes, and wants to share out of his common experience in an effort to
build us up as we preach the gospel.
Ultimately,
Preaching Killer Sermons is best
understood as a delivery book. And it is a fantastic book on sermon delivery. His discussions on sharing the sermon in a
way that relates well to our contemporary cultural context without compromising
the integrity of the text, delivery mechanics and being intentional about
self-care are absolutely worth the cost of this book. Even his opening chapter on parsing a boring
sermon is spot-on. As I was reading, I found
myself shaking my head because I have been guilty of a sin or two (and I have a
doctorate in preaching!). And if that
was all this book was about, I would enthusiastically recommend this book for
any preacher, novice or veteran.
However,
Sebring tries to do more in his one-stop shop preaching text. And therein lies the problem. As I mentioned above, there are three “Ds” to
preaching—design, development and delivery.
Sebring nails delivery. And, for the most part, he does an appropriately-decent
job with development. His main flaw is
in design, for three reasons. First, he claims no underlying theories are
being promoted, yet he alludes to Aristotle’s concept of rhetoric as a basic
model for communication (p. 112-113). Second,
his chapter entitled “Putting Your Sermon to Work” sounds like it has been
inspired by Haddon Robinson’s book Biblical
Preaching. And third, he presents
four “outline” approaches to designing sermons (p. 71-79), most of which have
been largely dismissed by educators, communicators and preachers alike due to inability
of those methods in producing true learning or transformative spiritual growth.
Fortunately,
this is only a small portion of his book.
As I also stated above, the true strength in this book is his material
on delivery, material that comes from a preacher who is in the pulpit each and
every week and who is connecting with unchurched persons. So, even with my concerns, this is a book that I would recommend…and
maybe even start using as a textbook!
