Saturday, July 16, 2011

Big Words

Just a comment for last Semester's 407/607 class... a number of people mentioned in their 'sermon reflections' that they avoided certain words (or sometimes included them) on the basis of what the congregation would comprehend. That's not the issue. The issue is to select words that sound normal in day to day speech. Unless we're jerks, we don't usually deploy our most erudite vocabulary in daily social intercourse.

Joshua Talk 1

Just a note for those who came along to the MDiv extra session at Mitchelton... here's the outline for my first talk in the Joshua series we worked on during the day. There have been countless hours working on the series since then. I decided to break up the book around the seven 'rock piles' through the book. Did you spot them? I think they're literary markers as well as geographical monuments! You'll be able to read the full text of the talk (and listen if you like) on www.mpc.org.au.

Remember These Rocks (Part 1)
The Lord of All The Earth 
Joshua 1-4
1. Memorial Monuments
2. Background Briefing
3. Spying out the land ... "God in heaven above and on the earth below" (2:11)
4. Crossing Jordan ... "Lord of all the earth" (3:11,13)
5. Rocks to Remember ... :all people of the earth" (4:24)


Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Assessment Tasks - both levels

BTh Level
Write a Critical Assessment of Goldsworthy, Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture

MDiv Level
Write a Critical Assessment of Goldsworthy, Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture comparing and contrasting Goldsworthy's Old Testament framework with NT Wright's summary of the Old Testament storyline in 'The Nature of Pauline Theology' (The Climax of the Covenant, ch 14 p258), Stephen's speech in Acts 7,and Matthew's Genealogy in Matthew 1:1-17.  (1800 words)

Monday, March 21, 2011

Preaching New Testament Narrative

This week's lecture notes are here.
A sample sermon from Mark 11 is here.
See you in class - extra points for anyone who matches Leo and brings a printout of the notes in advance!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Monday, March 7, 2011

What's the Big Idea?


This week in Preaching Class we're talking about how to find and use the big idea of a passage. Lecture notes are here. See you in class!

Friday, March 4, 2011

Tips from David Cook's preaching lecture at QTC... thanks to Nathan at st-eutychus.com


David Cook’s top 10 tips for preaching
David Cook is the outgoing (and departing) principal at SMBC (Sydney Missionary and Bible College). He’s here today at QTC (Queensland Theological College) sharing his top ten tips for preaching (and other stuff).
Tip one: Learn to shake hands and greet somebody. By the name they give. If they give a surname go with Mr or Mrs. Use names. Don’t just say “hello”… the sound of one’s name is the “sweetest sound in the whole world”…
But that isn’t about preaching.
  1. Have a clear big question – avoids the knowledge dump. Why should I listen to you? Because you have a good answer to a good question. Great questions are answered by the passage and are marketable. You need to show how the text answers that question and why that answer is important to the listener. Every time I get up I answer a question. Opening with “last week we looked at” isn’t really helpful. It is an intro to a knowledge dump. Why do I need to hear this? That’s the question we should open with.
  2. Stress the indicative before you stress the imperative - Liberalism imposes the imperative – it tells you what you should do. And often it’s wrong. The “distinctive difference” between liberalism and Biblical Christianity is that the latter begins with the triumphant indicative – on the basis of what God has done, this is what you do. We need both the indicative and the imperative or we either lean towards license of liberalism. The Bible uses the indicative first. Romans, up to chapter 6, is indicative, indicative, indicative. The first imperative is ch 6:11. The Qu’ran opens with the imperative. This is the distinctive difference between Christianity and every other religion. This is our point of difference. The triumphant indicative. The Catholics have blended the two in an untrustworthy manner. Get the indicative first. Followed by the imperative. Not just what I’ve got to do, but why… knowledge of the verbal moods in Greek is absolutely vital. Be able to identify the imperative verbs. Taste of God through the gospel of God’s grace before you move to our response.
  3. Make the heart of your sermon explanation, not illustration/application – the text has the power. Not your illustration. Better the textual and dull preacher than the interesting but not textual. Better to be both. Don’t rush to illustration before you’ve preceded it with explanation.
  4. Work on your angle – tell me something I don’t know. Don’t just bounce superficially off the text. You must work off the angle of the text, and tell me something I don’t know. What’s the point otherwise? What is my angle here? How can I preach on something you know backwards that gives you a new slant on something? Anticipate the questions people are asking about the text.
  5. The art of preaching is the art of summary – Learn to summarise. You are not saying everything the passage says. You are saying less than the whole. You are making a judgment about what not to say and what to say. The other cardinal rule is that the summary does not interpret. We aren’t interested in what you think – just tell us what is says. Get to the author’s mind – not your take.
  6. Cultivate a close reading of the text – show respect to the text. Avoid humourous populism. Don’t go for the laugh. Get people watching the text. Closely. Use the original languages to check for puns, rudeness, wordplay – figure out what’s going on in the text. And communicate it. Bring passages to life by picking up the little details when they drive your text. Observe. It is there. It is there for a reason.
  7. Don’t be negative – why put barriers in the way. Don’t attack the other guys. Don’t be negative. Be winsome and persuasive. Know what you’re talking about – what is good about x that makes people so loyal to it. Think about the way you sound, and whether you’re looking angry or smiling. Don’t attack, provide a positive alternative. Use simple words and propositions. Repeat them again and again and again. Read good books about persuasion. Don’t confront. Just talk in a winsome way. “The Gentle Art of Persuasion” is a good book. How to win friends and influence people is another one.What is my point? What am I trying to achieve. It is a foolish advocate who insults the person who is there to try the case.
  8. Work hard at the sermons you pay least attention to – the occasional sermons (funerals, weddings, Christmas, Easter, children’s talks etc). These are the sermons that people who aren’t members of the congregation come to. Why do you go easy on the occasional sermons while working hard on the inside sermons. Don’t just preach a stock ball sermon for funerals and weddings. Every person is unique. Prepare a fresh sermon for each person. Don’t let people die alone, that’s not your job as the pastor of your flock. The elderly and disabled are victims of the church planting movement. We’ve discriminated against the people who need us the most. Work really hard at using the children’s talk as a free hit – a chance to summarise your talk in a new way for a new audience to clarify your thinking, teach the children, and engage the adults.
  9. Be Clear – You’re not writing an essay. Don’t preach your footnotes. You are writing a sermon. In a sermon you will illustrate. Repeat. Emphasise. You are turning ears into eyes. You are striving to be clear. Don’t just say one thing. Say it again. And again. And again.
  10. Preach Christ. Preach Grace. Preach Faith. Preach encouragingly.
The relationship between the Big Question, the Big Idea and the Big Answer
Big Question -> Big Idea -> Big answer
Use the subject and the compliment – what is he talking about? What is he saying about that?
Turn the big idea into a big question.
The easiest answer for a preacher to give is to the “how” question – but “why” is much more important if you don’t want to breed superficiality. How to questions are good, but shallow.
John 3:16 case study
The subject looks like God (use the first and the last words) – but almost every passage is about God – so lets go with Eternal Life.
The Big Idea: Eternal life comes through Jesus, God’s gift of love.
Big questions: How can I have eternal life? Is death the end? What will happen when you die?
Format of a sermon
State the truth of the passage -> explain the passage -> illustrate the passage -> apply the passage.
If you illustrate first it’ll be without power. Explain first.
The Pyramid
At the bottom level you are summarising with verse references.
At the next level you are looking at the movements in the passage. Which determine the structure of the sermon.
Next. The dominant picture (from On teaching and preaching with creativity - “the human brain is a picture gallery, not a debating hall”).
Subject and compliment.

The Big Idea.

The tip is the Big Question.

Five Keys to Clarity
  1. Isolate the dominant thoughts of the text.
  2. Structure your material. Don’t hide your structure. Build your sermon around structure. You’re communicating. Don’t be scared of communicating. Use stuff like alliteration and things people will remember.
  3. Don’t use too many quotes. Who cares what John Stott or Don Carson say. This is not an essay. If they’ve said it, it’s probably not original to them – so just say it. Don’t always quote people. Only quote if you can memorise the quote and if the person who said something is particularly relevant or significant to the quote. Ideas are there to be used. Sometimes you can add weight to a quote. But too much quoting is bad.
  4. Be dialogical. Dialogical preaching is very, very important. Have a dialogue. Anticipate questions, and answer them. “Do I hear some of you say” “But Billy, you say…” do it in the form of a conversation.
  5. If you are going to be clear. Watch your vocabulary and grammar. The plural of you is you. Saying youse is not ok. Really. In any context. You don’t want your kids hearing people saying “youse”… sweat the details. Work hard on your grammar and your vocab. Play by the house rules. Dress for the host. Use their version of the Bible.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Preaching Assessment Schedule



Name Preach
Sam Verlaan Week 10 A
Andre Schwartz Week 10 A
Adam Ramsay Week 10 A
Josh Acason Week 10 B
Pete Whittle Week 10 B
Dee Whittle Week10 B
Kimberly Lewis Week 10 C
Lauren Watterson Week 10 C
Mitch Smart Week 10 C
Peter Kidd Week 11 A
Joseph Wee Week 11 A
James Chan Week 11 A
Fay Hii Week 11 B
Jeanne  Week 11 B
Tim  Week 11 B
Peter Bradbury Week 11 C
Nathan Campbell Week 11 C
Robyn Campbell Week 11 C
Jeremy Wales Week 12 A
Greg Cooney Week 12 A
Leo Woodward Week 12 A
Jenny Bishop Week 12B

Week 3 - Biblical Theology and Hermeneutics

This week we're looking at hermeneutics - the principles of interpreting the text. Lecture notes are here.

The lecture notes reference the useful site BeginningwithMoses. Click through and take a look around.
See also Deuteronomy 30 - The Heart of the Matter on the persective.org.au website.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Book Review Research Notes

Read NT Wright on Pauline Theology here and look for hints of his take on the OT storyline.

Notes from Week 2, 2011 - Ten Communication Tools

Sorry about the delay posting last week's notes. Here they are for your enjoyment - ten hard won communication tools that are guaranteed to work every time.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Week 2 Preaching Lab

A friend of mine has helpfully offered a short sermon for reworking with our top ten communication tools. We'll be revising the tools in Lecture 2, and reworking the talk in the Lab hour. Please download it here, and print yourself a copy before the lecture.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Week 1 - Finding your Voice

In his book "Fifty Writing Tools" Roy Peter Clark says that aspiring authors need to find their 'writing voice' - the sweet spot in their style that makes the reader feel like they are listening to the author in a natural conversation. That's exactly what we're aiming for when we write a talk! Here are the things he says writers can fine tune to get the right results...

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Week 1- Powerpoint

Hi folks, hope you enjoyed today's class. Download today's powerpoint here.

Click if you'd like to hear a longer version of today's sample sermon, or download the full text, or visit www.mpc.org.au for the whole series.

2011 Course Outline

Click here to download the draft semester outline.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Welcome to Introductory Preaching 2011

Hi and welcome if you're part of the 2011 Introductory Preaching group at QTC. As well as satisfying the course requirements for this semester, we'll be chasing a few other key goals. First, finding your voice as a preacher... your own unique style and manner that puts you in your natural sweet spot as a communicator. Second, developing fluency, so you're not only natural, but a pleasure to listen to. And third, finding ways to control your content, so you'll always know where you're heading, how you're going to get there... and how far to the end. Please join up with this blog, and comment weekly... it's an important part of class participation.

Phil Campbell, Feb 2011