02.08.10
Jesus Creed – Narrative preaching
I’ve been listening with a different set of ears to sermons since entering this world more intensely myself. Up to three years ago I averaged a sermon a year: now I average twelve. And this number is gradually creeping upward as I not only preach but am invited to teach and speech.
So I am late to this dialogue at the practitioner’s level. And I am realizing that the dance between relevance and biblical content/literacy is a tough challenge. I wish we could dialogue in every setting, but it’s not always practical. So how does one engage a biblical passage with a gathering of a hundred and fifty people?
This past weekend I listened to a gifted brother work through the first half of Ephesians 2. I knew it was coming, so I was curious to see what he would pull out, where he would focus, and how he would take that focus and translate it so that his hearers could engage. I listened with the awareness that the crowd was diverse, that twenty-five minutes is simply a drop in the bucket for the first half of Ephesians 2, and that the challenge is to connect both cognitively and affectively-imaginatively.
All this to say, reflections from other preachers most wanted and welcome! I ran across this recent post at Jesus Creed while looking for something else. Scot mcKnight reflects on “narrative” preaching through the lens of a very gifted preacher/teacher named Tom Long. Tom is the author of “Preaching from Memory to Hope.”
Q. What do you think of when you someone says a preacher is an advocate of “narrative preaching”?
“It seems to me that use of stories is not the point. Instead, the major idea is that the structure of the sermon is less “old homiletic” or “inductive” or “point-by-point” or “propositional” with a “defense,” but instead the sermon is shaped with a plot (character, conflict, resolution — a person who wants something and has to overcome obstacles to get it).”
Long thinks sermons need to do what Augustine said: teach, delight and persuade. Narrative can do too much delight and not enough teaching and persuading, but it can’t be abandoned. He argues four points:
1. Narrative as dress rehearsal, where the preacher embodies the activity of God in human events.
2. Narrative as congregational canon, where stories being told shape a community.
3. Narrative as means for remembering the lost and silenced.
4. Narrative as process for coming to faith…
More..
If narrative sounds like the “Hero’s Journey” .. a mythic structure.. it’s because it is.
