Preaching About Sexual and Domestic Violence

 By John McClure

John McClure blogs about preaching and theology at Otherwise Thinking. You can read more about these "places" in McClure's book, The Four Codes of Preaching.



The allegations of childhood sexual abuse at Penn State last week call for a response from the pulpit. The statistics are clear: one in three girls and one in seven boys are sexually molested before the age of eighteen.

If one adds the striking numbers of those who are experiencing domestic violence, the situation looks even worse. This means that most congregations have many members and visitors who are survivors of childhood sexual abuse and/or domestic violence. At that same time, if statistics are correct, many congregations unknowingly harbor perpetrators of sexual or domestic violence. And to make matters worse, as the Penn State situation suggests, our congregations are certainly replete with bystanders—those who are potentially part of the larger "culture of complicity" that prefers silence on these matters, moves perpetrators from one place to another unchecked and, in worst-case scenarios, blames victims and survivors.

Some years back, pastoral theologian Nancy Ramsay and I co-edited a book titled Telling the Truth: Preaching About Sexual and Domestic Violence. Here are just a few thoughts taken from that book.

First of all, it is important to remember that we have three audiences when it comes to sexual violence: (1) victims and survivors, (2) perpetrators, and (3) bystanders. The bottom line, then, is that we must preach, over time, three fundamental messages.

Message One: To Victims and Survivors

To victims and survivors, we preach words of welcome, which includes words that listen, lament, resist, seek justice, offer compassion, and convey hope. Victims and survivors need to know that our worship services and sermons are safe holding environments for their pain and suffering. They need to know that their innermost selves—often haunted by shame, fear, helplessness, and sometimes hopelessness—are welcome, heard, and honored. They need to feel genuine solidarity, not only in suffering, but in resistance, the struggle for justice, and the difficult process of re-creating lives that have been de-created by violence.

Message Two: To Perpetrators

For perpetrators, we preach clarity. The goal is to assess with stark clarity the damage that they do and to state in no uncertain terms that the damage cannot be undone. Nothing they can ever do can restore fully what their victims have lost. No rationalization or self-deception is possible. This is not so much the voice of judgment or condemnation as it is the voice of clarity. Even if we hope in our heart of hearts for eventual transformation for perpetrators, there must be no cracks through which they can slip as they listen to our sermons. Only this kind of preaching brings the possibility of genuine self-confrontation that could, perhaps, lead to change.

Message Three: To Bystanders

To bystanders, we preach breaking ranks with the status quo. Listeners can be encouraged to bind their allegiance to a higher authority than the culture of complicity around them and to make clear decisions to speak up and speak out in situations of known or suspected sexual violence. They can also be invited to re-create their church as a genuinely safe place and become a force for resistance, justice, compassion, and healing.

Here are a few more homiletical encouragements:

• I encourage us to avoid the isolated sermon on this subject, to build messages to these different audiences into the fabric of many sermons on a variety of subjects, including sermons on human sexuality, creation in the image of God, justice, compassion, family relationships, marriage, forgiveness, judgment, hope, power, healing, anger, relationships, and violence. It is not always possible or advisable to address all three of these audiences simultaneously. Over time, however, it is crucial to do so.

• I encourage us to develop a consistently nonviolent theology. A nonviolent theology is a theology in which violence is clearly identified as evil and in which, in the last analysis, neither the ways of God toward people nor the ways of God’s people toward others are implicitly or explicitly violent. By saying “in the last analysis,” I mean to imply that we do not remain unaware of and uncritical of the biblical tradition’s collusion with the violence that we, as interpreters, ultimately refute. We cannot avoid the “texts of terror” in the Bible or the entire violence-laden sacrificial system that undergirds much of the Old and New Testaments.

• I encourage us to examine our illustrations for subtle ideologies that are complicit with violence and abuse. Many illustrations encourage family roles, relationships, gender stereotypes, and attitudes that subtly feed violent or abusive attitudes.

• I encourage us to avoid illustrations that place the experience of sexual violence “out there.” Statistics and references to “Penn State” or “the Catholic sex scandal” have the effect of turning our gaze outward and away from the reality of sexual violence in our own midst. Brief narratives that particularize rape or battering as an everyday occurrence in a world identical to that of our congregation will underscore that this problem is immediate and “in our midst.”

• I encourage us to use language that names sexual violence appropriately as a sin of volition. Carol J. Adams invites us to avoid “eliding agency” when speaking about abuse. We subtly let people off the hook when we only speak about “violent relationships,” “incestuous families,” or “battering couples.” Better to say “when a man molests a child…,” or “when a man batters his wife…,” or “for abusive men….” This may sound terrible to our ears, but this is precisely the reason for such language – to make us aware of the terror we are naming.

• Finally, I encourage us to develop a delivery that is non-violent. There is a cartoon in which a preacher is in a tall pulpit hovering over the first few pews, ranting and raving like a barely chained beast. About four pews back, a young child is whispering to his mother;” What are we going to do if he gets out of there?!” The cartoon identifies another way in which the church and its preaching can be unwittingly complicit with violence. Our nonverbal communication often conveys messages that can be abusive and prevent those who have been abused from seeking our help. Why would a victim or survivor of violence seek help from a violent communicator? I’m not asking us to take the energy from our delivery. Just to assess it for messages portraying hostility, manipulation, or coercion.

There are many other aspects of this topic: the need to create a community of education and accountability around sexual violence within our congregations, the need to develop our own clear sexual boundaries as a part of our own professional ethics as clergy, the need to develop and create pastoral and theological resources around these realities in our midst. Again, for much more on these topics, the reader may want to read chapters from John S. McClure and Nancy Ramsay (ed.), Telling the Truth: Preaching About Sexual and Domestic Violence.

Preachng on the Run

By Todd Hieshand

Todd is the lead pastor at The Well in Bucks County, PA. He also runs a webdesign company called 343design, and is a partner at MyOhai, a consulting firm that works with companies and non-profits to define their mark, orient their culture and activate their mission to their world.


I was told in seminary that I should spend one hour of sermon prep for every minute I will be preaching.  For many of us, that means we should spend 20-30 hours preparing sermons.  This approach poses some serious problems for me.  First of all, I have other pastoral responsibilities.  Second, I am bi-vocational so I barely even have that much time to give to everything I do.  For those two reasons alone, there is just no chance I am spending 30 hours a week prepping for a sermon on Sunday.

The challenge isn’t finding more hours to prepare sermons; the challenge is finding some kind of rhythm that allows me to spend less time studying in the classic sense while still engaging the text in a way that allows me to lead my community well in the study of the Biblical text.

My sermon prep is no longer about how many hours I “spend studying.”  With this approach, I genuinely believe that every hour of the week is sermon prep.  My pastoral care, my Web design work, my parenting, my friendship, my going to the store, my arguments, my anger, my frustrations, my celebrations: these are all sermon prep.

Here is my week:

Monday: Ingest the Text (30 minutes)

On Monday, we sit with the text and let it seep into our lives.  If it’s short enough, try to memorize it. If it’s longer, get familiar with the contours of it, the themes, tone, etc.  Our goal here is to allow the text to live with us all week as we work, play, do pastoral care, etc.  Throughout the week, I try to answer the following questions:

• How does this text preach the gospel to the people I interact with everyday?
• How does this text encourage the people I interact with everyday?
• How does this text equip us for witness in the world?
• How does this text critique my basic assumptions about how the world works?
• How does this text call me, critique me, challenge me, encourage me?

The main question I am asking all week: what is the one thing that God wants to say to our community through this text?

Tuesday: Sit w/the Text, Find Context (1 hour)

Tuesdays, I continue to sit with the text.  Pray through it.  I tend to read the text a few times throughout the day and continue to become familiar with it and let it seep into my heart, soul, and mind.  I also begin looking at the context surrounding the text and seek to understand what’s going on around it.

Wednesday: Ask Questions, Make Observations, Context (1 hour)

This is when I ask questions about the text and make general observations about things that stick out.  I ask the general “who, what, where, when, why, how” questions.  I look up words I don’t know and even do a word study or two on words that seem to have significance elsewhere in Scripture.  I do the same thing with the context.  Here I look deeper into the context to get a good sense of how it fits into the story of the book as well as the overarching narrative of Scripture.

Thursday: Research and Study (2-3 hours)

I do not do theology, biblical interpretation in a vacuum.  I greatly value the diversity of the witness of church history.  Today is the day where I seek the wisdom of fellow Christians and especially church history.  I spend a few hours with books, commentaries, etc. trying to see how Christians over the centuries have interpreted the text.  I also have a few “people commentaries.”  Meaning: people who are like live, walking commentaries to whom I go for their impressions, thoughts, and interpretations on this text.

Friday: Write/Outline (1-3 hours)

Today is the day when I sit down and start writing.  This often looks different depending on the week I’ve had and the text itself.  Sometimes, I just start writing, and the outline develops as I write.  Other times, I write an outline first and then write.  I used to manuscript my sermons, but I have done less and less of that.  But generally, what I try to do on Friday is take my week of living the text and get it out on a page to try to get my thoughts together somehow.

Saturday Night: Finalize Things (1 hour)

The better I do during the week in sitting with the text, studying it, and living with it, the less I have to do on Saturday nights after the kids and my wife go to bed.  In fact, in a perfect world, I’ll have nothing to do on Saturday nights other than look over things quickly and head to bed.  But generally on Saturday nights, I’m just making sure it all makes sense—at least in my own head.

Sunday Morning: Pray Through the Outline/Notes

Sunday mornings I get to the building early, or go to Starbucks so I’m not distracted, and pray through my notes and make any changes that come up.  Then, I preach.  Tim Keel gave me great advice one time (I don’t remember if it was in a book or in a conversation with him): He said to “preach from your gut.”  I love this advice because you just can’t do this unless you’ve spent the entire week digesting, chewing, and living the text you are preaching from.  Also, I can’t do this unless I have preached it to myself and let the text transform and shape me before I seek to proclaim it to my community.

That's my personal approach to finding a way to faithfully prepare to preach while holding down a few jobs, raising four kids, and taking care of the rest of what it means to lead and be part of a church community.  Of course, this isn’t how it is going to work for everyone, but I hope that it helps some of you figure out what works best for you.

How Mark Driscoll Prepares His Sermons?

By Mark Driscoll

Pastor Mark Driscoll is the Preaching and Speaking pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. He is one of the world’s most downloaded and quoted pastors. His audience—fans and critics alike—spans the theological and cultural left and right. Follow his updates at twitter.com/pastorMark.

On June 15, Pastor Mark held an impromptu Preaching and Preparation Q & A session on his Facebook Page. The Q & A session was spurred by the responses to Pastor Mark’s post earlier in the day, “Prepping 2 sermons today. Thankfully, a sermon takes about as long to prep as preach.” The following post is adapted from the conversation.


Preach the Word

Many people have asked questions about my methods for preaching and sermon preparation. So I thought I’d share my methods, which are unorthodox and not something I’d suggest copying.

Also, to be clear, I'm not critical of anyone else's methods. As long as the Bible is open, and Jesus is the hero, I'm glad. How we get there is not a major concern of mine. The Bible tells us to "preach the Word," but it doesn't tell us how to do that in detail.

What Preaching Is for Me

When prepping a sermon, I first lay out the text of Scripture into units of thought. I then get a big idea for each thought unit, make a few notes on each, and read commentaries quickly to catch anything I've missed. Generally, this takes me about an hour.

For various projects, I'm reading and studying all the time. I'm also writing constantly. These other projects end up coming in very handy for my sermon prep and significantly reduce my prep time. 

“As long as the Bible is open, and Jesus is the hero, I'm glad.”

By God's grace, my memory is very unusual. I can still remember a section of a book I read 20 years ago while preaching and roll with it. I've also never sat down to memorize a Bible verse. Yet many just stick, and I can pull them up from memory as I go. Lastly, I'm a verbal processor. I think out loud, which is what preaching is for me. A degree in speech and over 10,000 hours of preaching experience also helps. And most importantly and thankfully, the Holy Spirit always helps.

When I get up to preach, the jokes, illustrations, cross-references, and closing happen extemporaneously. I never teach others how to preach, as my method is not exactly a replicable method—nor a suggested one. But it works for me.

That being said, there are many things I’ve learned about preaching over the years, and I’m happy to share them with young and old alike who are looking to grow in their gift of preaching.

The following are some Q & As from my Facebook Page on preaching and preparation.

Roger Tanton: Do you make mental note of illustrations in the week before you preach and think, “I'll use that,” or do you just wait until you preach and see how you feel led by the Lord?

I never know. Most illustrations just seem to happen as I'm talking. So as they come to mind while I’m preaching, I put them in. I think of it like self-taught musicians. They don't read music and play the instruments technically right, but somehow they make songs.

Zac Sawhill: Mark, as a young pastor who loves to preach, I often struggle with the feeling that I am too attached to my notes. What are your suggestions for cutting the umbilical?

It just takes time. It's like driving a stick shift. The more hours you put in, the more comfortable it becomes. At first, you’re stressed and highly conscious about the vehicle. Over time, you focus more on the journey, and you intuitively shift and clutch. 

“The more hours you put in, the more comfortable it becomes.”

Preaching is like that. So don't worry about how you’re doing it. If your messages are true to the Bible, lift up Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is using them to serve people, then rejoice. The more hours you get under your belt, the fewer notes you’ll need. And even if you always need notes, it's no problem. The Holy Spirit can always get you off your notes if he likes. 

Emma Thornett: What do you do when you come across bits of the Bible you don’t understand? Wouldn’t it take longer than an hour to work through?

I find that prayer and listening helps me work through the harder parts of Scripture. I also use commentators and theologians to check my thoughts, but I always start with the Bible and prayer. 

Also, Logos is a lifesaver. I love it. Being able to read so many resources so fast and cut and paste sections and ideas saves me hundreds of hours a year in sermon prep. And it allows me to work outdoors and get fresh air. 

Coen Tate: Should preaching always include the gospel presented clearly?

Ryan Swale: Christ in every sermon? Do you feel the need to present the gospel in every sermon?

Jesus Christ must be in every sermon, or it’s not Christian. The whole Bible is one story about Jesus. Every character and story is part of the big plot of the Jesus story. So every text and topic must connect to Jesus.

That being said, every sermon should also have both law and gospel. This Law-Gospel concept is based upon the insights of Martin Luther. The law shows us our sin. The gospel shows us how Jesus lived without sin in our place, died in our place for our sin, and rose as our Savior to free us from bondage to the law. 

“Jesus Christ must be in every sermon, or it’s not Christian. The whole Bible is one story about Jesus. Every character and story is part of the big plot of the Jesus story.”

Jesus gives us his righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21) so that we may live a life of obedience by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is not so that God would love us, but because in Christ he does love us. Not so that we can be forgiven, but because in Christ we are forgiven. With only law, people feel condemned and only try harder. With only gospel, they don't know how sinful they are or what Jesus has done for them.

Justin Ryan Grice: How do you pull teachable points out of Scripture and keep it all together in a coherent message?

You can't say everything a text says in one sermon. If you do, you sound like a commentary and lose lost people and non-nerds. 

The point of a sermon is to grab the truth, big ideas, and pertinent details, and with passion press those into the hearts and minds of people in a compelling way by the power of the Holy Spirit.

As a student, there will be things that minister to us personally as we study that don’t best serve our people. So we can't share everything we learn, and it takes wisdom and discernment to decide what our people need to hear. The sermon is not to impress folks with our knowledge but rather with our Jesus.

Roger Tanton: How do you know when the Holy Spirit is prompting you to say something during your sermon that you hadn't planned to say? Is it an inner conviction/burden or something more than this?

I often feel when I’m preaching that the Holy Spirit is telling me to say something. I will actually pray while I’m speaking and have a second dialogue in my mind while I preach.

“The sermon is not to impress folks with our knowledge but rather with our Jesus.”

This is why I keep my notes to a minimum. Juggling the reactions of the people, listening to the Holy Spirit, paying attention to the Scriptures, and tracking your notes takes a lot of juggling, which most people don’t understand unless they preach or teach consistently. 

If you feel the Holy Spirit is prompting you to say something in a sermon, you may want to just stop for a minute and pray and listen. Also, you may want to preface yourself by saying, "I feel compelled to say something that I'm thinking," and then say it. If it's off, apologize. If not, roll with it.

Jeff Alexander: Do you employ any specific type of process when determining a specific sermon or sermon series?

I spend time praying over what my preaching series will be. I get time in silence and solitude with the Holy Spirit and my Bible. I then bring my ideas to the Executive Elders at the church, to whom I’m submitted. 

I tell them what I'm thinking of preaching and get their feedback. I seek their permission, as I believe in submitting to spiritual authority. If they approve, then I begin studying the book and laying out how I'll preach it. 

For the sake of the church and our sermon-based small groups (Community Groups), I need to plan well in advance. So this year we will finish Luke, and then we’ll have a Christmas series. In 2012, I’ll do a marriage series based on the book Grace and I are releasing, a series on the seven churches of Revelation that will include footage from Turkey, a summer series based on my book Vintage Church, and in the fall, we’re tentatively planning a series on the book of Esther. In 2013, I'm planning on preaching Ephesians and releasing a book in conjunction with it. So I'm usually two years out on my preaching planning and know each week and topic upwards of two years in advance. The earlier you can start prepping, the easier the week of preaching will be. Right now, thanks to this planning, it takes me as long to prep a sermon as to preach one.

Jared Vagle: I feel called to preach. How can I be sure it’s not just a desire, but in fact, a calling?

I don't actually know if God calls men to preach. I think he may gift them to preach, but he calls them to pastor. So if you’re feeling a call to preach, I'd dig in on 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 to examine the qualifications of an elder. Alexander Strauch's book, Biblical Eldership, is helpful as well. 

“Be in a good church, under godly leaders, and ask them to help confirm your calling.”

I would also be in a good church, under godly leaders, and ask them to help confirm your calling. If they agree you’re called to pursue eldership/pastoring (synonymous words in places like 1 Peter 5 and Acts 20), then they can help you develop.

Timothy John Blitz: What would you say to a young man (I'm 24) who is pursuing a call to ministry but may not have “the experience” to do ministry?

Insofar as I know, Malcolm Gladwell is not a Christian, but I think his insights are helpful. He says it takes 10,000 hours to become world class at something (e.g., musician, athlete, etc.). 

If this is true, it takes a long time to become a great preacher/teacher. The first few hundred hours are brutal. In the early years of Mars Hill, I was amazed anyone showed up twice. We don't have those sermons online for a reason—most were terrible. I'm not saying I'm great today, but I was far worse then. 

I finally had to stop listening so much to other preachers, as I started to copy them rather than finding my own voice, cadence, humor, style, etc. The key for young and new preachers is to get in your hours. Using the example from earlier, it's like driving a car with a clutch. You need to stall it a lot, and eventually you figure it out. 

So teach and preach anywhere, anytime, and to anyone. Get in your hours. By God's grace, I've preached over 10,000 hours and, Lord willing, still have a lot of years left. This explains why older men tend to be the most consistent preachers.

“It takes a long time to become a great preacher/teacher. The first few hundred hours are brutal.”

Craig S. Hensel: What preacher, dead or alive, has inspired and taught you the most?

I'm a huge fan of Charles Spurgeon. I recently visited where he courted his wife, his home, his church, and his grave in London. I’ve read every biography I could find on him—including the five-volume autobiography his wife finished after he died. He was solid and evangelistic, which is a rare combination. 

I encourage all preachers, especially new ones, to read biographies of great preachers to see how they organized their home life, studied, etc. It's amazing to learn from them. Some other great reading includes Lectures to My Students, which were impromptu messages Spurgeon gave for free on Fridays; D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’s Preaching and Preachers, and Light and Heat: A Puritan View of the Pulpit, though it's out of print and expensive.

Dustin Belcher: How much of your sermon do you practice before you preach?

I never practice a sermon before I preach. I have more of a direction than a map. It's very extemporaneous, which explains why it takes about an hour to prep and an hour to preach a sermon. I’m reading and thinking constantly and always writing. So the content input is pretty insane. 

Usually with all my projects, I have a few hundred books going and thankfully synthesize information very fast. I also process verbally and think aloud, which is fast and more raw. I also have a degree in Speech and have been speaking to large crowds regularly since high school, which helps.

Matt Askvarek: Have you ever had an awkward moment preaching where you forgot your train of thought? If so, what did you do?

We all have awkward moments. We forget what we’re saying. We realize we brought the wrong notes. We lose our place in our Bible. Our mic feeds back. Someone distracts us. Or our fly is open (happened to my buddy). 

“People want an honest pastor who takes Jesus, not themselves, seriously.”

The messenger is part of the message. We’re imperfect people speaking a perfect word. The power is not in us. So just be honest with your folks. Have some fun. Make a joke, if you have to. People want an honest pastor who takes Jesus, not themselves, seriously.

Aaron Jones: Mark, with making up your illustrations as you go along, do you realize that you tend to repeat yourself over the course of different sermon series or even over the span of months or years?

I probably do. I'll be honest and say I preach so much at Mars Hill and on the road that sometimes I forget where I said what. Not often, but sometimes.

Kurt Brinker: Do you use anything other than the Proctor's Pinelyptus Pastilles to keep your voice strong?

When preaching you need to avoid dairy and too much sugar, drink tons of water, warm your voice up (singing with the congregation can do this), avoid citrus, and be careful. If you preach a lot, try to not get caught up chatting in a loud room after the service, as you'll basically yell and fatigue your voice. I love Proctor's Pinelyptus for my throat also. I use one every time before I speak.

Tony Herrera: What is the best way to be biblically sound yet culturally relevant?

To be biblically faithful and culturally relevant does not mean we make the gospel relevant. Rather we show the relevance of the gospel.

Also, to be a good preacher means you cannot only preach against sin. If you do this, you will end up with a bunch of nitpicking, self-righteous, religious people. So you have to preach against both sin and religion.

Sinners need to repent of sin and religious people need to repent of their man-made rules, traditions, inanities, holier-than-thou-isms, and calling things sinful that only their conscience and not the Word of God forbids. 

“To be biblically faithful and culturally relevant does not mean we make the gospel relevant. Rather we show the relevance of the gospel.”

When you call sinners to repent of sin, they wrongly think you’re trying to make them religious, and the religious people cheer because they are like the older brother in the story of the Prodigal Son. But once you call the religious folks to repent too, everyone gets confused and the stage is set to preach Jesus! 

Sean Sankey: Pastor Mark, what's your view on the length of sermons? It seems like the culture at Mars Hill is based around an hour or more of preaching. Just curious as to the reason and what led you to that decision.

Sermon length is not mandated by Scripture. I go 60 to 70 minutes regularly. We do see some long sermons in the Bible from Jesus (Matt. 15:29-31) and Paul (Acts 20:7-11). To really teach and to speak to believers and non-believers, as well as answer the objections of the hearers so as to press the truth home as the Puritans did, takes time. But if you bore people, stink at holding a crowd, cannot read when to give them an emotional break with a quip or joke, or are just flat out dull, keep it short.

To Close

I will do many more of these Q & As going forward. I used to stay around after church and answer questions for hours, but I don't get to do that much anymore. 

Thanks to all who participated, and thanks also to the people of Mars Hill. I get to preach to the most teachable group of folks I've ever seen. It’s really an honor to do what I do.

Lastly, for the preachers, God is always working on the messenger before the message. He wants us to not just be good pastors, but good Christians, husbands, and fathers first, by the grace of God. Out of that wellspring of joy and life in the Spirit comes the passion about Jesus that is contagious and fun. Don't forget fun. Preaching Jesus is hard, fun work. Hard and fun. Blessings. 

Your brother,
Mark

5 Places to Find a Sermon

By John McClure

John McClure blogs about preaching and theology at Otherwise Thinking. You can read more about these "places" in McClure's book, The Four Codes of Preaching.



What will I preach on? Whether you're asking this question a week, a month, or a year in advance of the Sunday in question, you're looking for inspiration. Some ideas may spontaneously emerge in prayer, but for most, we have to look—in the Bible and in our own context. Here, John McClure describes five “places” to find a sermon.

1. On the Page of the Biblical Text

In this approach, you find a sermon idea among the obvious features of the biblical text (in translation) or what is “on the page.” Of course, in order to be sure that you correctly understand what seems “obvious,” you need to study the text in its context first. But as a preacher, once you are certain what the text is saying, you will return to the words and thoughts (ideas, metaphors, images) “on the page” as the place to find the sermon. As you think about these words and thoughts, ask yourself: “What might be dynamically equivalent to this thought/image/word in today’s situation?” By dynamically equivalent, I mean to imply that you allow some well-considered latitude. Don’t remain overly wooden or literal when identifying an equivalent idea. For instance, in the story of Mary and Martha, the image of Mary seeking instruction from Jesus is dynamically equivalent to any action of attending carefully to the words of Jesus in today’s context.

A non-dynamic or literal equivalent would focus only on instances when busy women take time out (or don't) to attend to Jesus’ words and thoughts. This may constrict and overly narrow the meaning of the text.

When you preach from this “place,” your congregation will not hear you referring so much to the historical context for the biblical text as to the translated words on the page of the biblical text. In effect, you are asking them to live lives that are in some way imitative of, or closely analogous to the clear and straightforward meaning of the words on the page.

2. Behind the Biblical Text

In this approach, you find a sermon idea “behind the text” in its historical situation. Through careful exegetical study, you arrive at the text’s historical, traditional, social, and religious situation (exodus, exile, poverty, empire, wilderness, passover, etc.). Having arrived at this “place” behind the text, you will preach a sermon that invites the congregation to live in historical continuity with the community of people who spoke or recorded the words on the page. You ask questions such as “How are we also people struggling with exodus, empire, or some other similar situation in these ways?”

In Ched Myers' commentary on Mark’s gospel, for instance, he argues that the “fishers of people” text is best understood in a situation of empire in which the gap between rich and poor is ever-widening. He notes that Mark’s listeners would have heard these as apocalyptic words referring to images of fishers in Jeremiah 16:16 and Amos 4:2, where fishing hooks and nets were not only used for gathering in God’s chosen people, but for separating out the evildoers from their midst. In our current post-Enron, debt-crisis situation, the preacher may discover strong historical continuities between first century struggles with empire and our own struggles, and the need for “fishers of people” who will both gather in the wounded and pronounce judgment on the purveyors of empire.

When you preach from this “place,” your congregation will not hear the words on the page as much as references to “Mark,” or “Matthew’s community,” or “during the exile,” and other indicators that your sermon comes from behind the biblical text. In effect you are inviting listeners to live lives in historical continuity with our forebears in the faith.

3. In Front of the Biblical Text

In this approach, you find a sermon idea “in front of the text,” in what the language or rhetoric of the text does. One way to get to this “place” is to say: "This text sounds like __________” (a sales pitch, a prayer, lamentation, praise, a lover’s quarrel, a negotiation, an argument, etc.). For instance, Tom Long once preached a sermon about Jesus’ trip to the temple as a little child. He was struck with the way the language of the text seemed to shout: “Everything about this person is a mystery!” He used the litany “Do you ever get the feeling there’s something going on you don’t understand?” to draw the reader deeper into the mystery of Jesus created by the language of the text.

When you preach from this “place,” your congregation will not hear so much the actual words of the text, or about “Mark’s community’s desperate struggle with empire,” but a re-performance of the text’s rhetorical or communicative force – what it “does” to us.

4. In the Theological Claims of the Text

In this approach, your operative theology (evangelical, liberationist, feminist, etc.) and/or tradition (Lutheran, Reformed, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, Methodist, etc.) becomes much more active and acts as a guide, leading you to the place where you find a sermon. Following the lead of this theological guide, you travel toward a key theological claim at work in a text—a claim about justice, mercy, sanctification, salvation, hope, etc., depending on your operative theology. Once you arrive at that claim you will allow it to shape the message and form of the sermon.

William Sloane Coffin, whose theology was often strongly liberationist in tone, once preached a powerful sermon on the healing of the paralytic. His theology drew his eyes to the moment in the text when the paralytic, whose sins had been forgiven, was invited to get up from his pallet and walk. For Coffin this moment in the story revealed a crucial theological claim—that new forms of ethical responsibility should accompany and in fact complete our experience of forgiveness by Christ. To paraphrase Coffin’s words “the problem for the paralytic was not forgiveness, but responsibility—response-ability—the ability to respond to the love of God...to get up off that stretcher and walk.” Coffin then highlighted the tendency among many Christians to spend their time celebrating and basking in the blessings of forgiveness in a way that effectively kept them on stretchers—unwilling and unable to get up and do the liberating work of God. For Coffin, the theological claim of the text was the unity of justification (forgiveness) and sanctification (liberative action), and it was from this theological place that he preached his entire sermon.

When preaching from this place, your theology generates both the tone and focus of your sermon. The language of the sermon will not reiterate the words on the page of the Bible (place 1), develop continuities with historical events or formations such as “empire” or “exile” (place 2) or imitate the way the language of the text works (place 3). Instead, the sermon will focus on a particular moment or set of moments in the biblical text that identify, focus, or illuminate a particular theological claim you are making. Sermon listeners will hear those biblical moments shaped into a sermon by your theological claim regarding forgiveness, liberation, hope, idolatry, obedience, love, etc.

5. In Today’s Situation as Catalyst for the Text’s Meaning

 In this approach, you begin the journey toward a sermon with something significant that is going on in your situation or broader context. You then ask what meaning or idea in the text is catalyzed by its confrontation with your context today. Throughout history we have seen how meanings in the biblical text are catalyzed by our own moment in history. Often these are meanings we could never have known before. For instance, the civil rights movement catalyzed new meanings from the biblical text about slavery, systemic evil, and oppression. The feminist movement catalyzed new meanings regarding sexual violence, forgiveness, and atonement.

Adopting this approach, you might pick up the newspaper or reflect on an important issue confronting the larger community or congregation. Then, ask “What meaning lies dormant within this text, awaiting this moment in our history or life together as a nation, community, or congregation to be discovered?” Although this may lead to a dead end (or to frightful exegesis—so be careful!), it is amazing how often you will find a genuinely helpful idea, or an entire re-framing of the current situation provided by a seemingly unrelated biblical text.

The Sunday after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon I was slated to preach at a large church. I had originally chosen to preach a difficult sermon on John 3:16 in which I was trying to re-think more exclusivist interpretations of this passage. After the attack on the trade towers and Pentagon, I felt strongly that the situation at hand was catalyzing a different trajectory of meaning from the text—one that hovered around the deeper meaning of “belief” (“whoever believes in me”) as a form of trust. I moved the entire focus of the sermon toward the ultimate trustworthiness of God in a world where trust had been shaken to its core.
When preaching a sermon from this place, you will use language that shows how the listener's own context is, in fact, already there, in the world projected by the biblical text. The ultimate meaning of our context exists as a latent trajectory or horizon of meaning in the text awaiting this moment to be discovered. Instead of hearing you draw dynamic analogies from the words of the text (place 1), identify historical continuities behind the text (place 2), re-perform the text’s rhetoric (place 3), or locate specific theological claims in the text (place 4), listeners will hear you dig deep within the immediate situation and discover there a thought or image that serves as a catalyst for a hidden trajectory of meaning within the biblical text.

In summary, there are at least five places to find a sermon:

Place 1. On the page of the biblical text, finding equivalences to its obvious features
Place 2. Behind the biblical text, finding historical continuities between then and now
Place 3. In front of the biblical text, in what the text’s language does to us as readers
Place 4. In the theological claims of the text, attenuated through the lens of our operative theologies
Place 5. In our situation, where trajectories of meaning from the text await this situation to be discovered.

聆聽的藝術

舉目
第五十二期
2011年11月

How to Hook Your Congregation into Your Message?

By Brandon Cox

Brandon Cox is Lead Pastor of Grace Hills Church, a new church plant in northwest Arkansas. He also serves as Editor and Community Facilitator for Pastors.com and Rick Warren's Pastor's Toolbox and was formerly a Pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. In his spare time, he offers consultation to church leaders about communication, branding, and social media. He and his wife, Angie, live with their two awesome kids in Bentonville, Arkansas.



The biblical text should be the grand centerpiece of every sermon. But we often take what should be the centerpiece, and move it to the front of what we have to say. In most cases, reading the text should come first in importance, but not first in the order of a message. Whether you’re looking back at Plato or Jesus, virtually every culture has had great communicators who realized the power of attention-grabbing hooks.

1. Start with a deep, human need instead of jumping right into the exegesis and historical-grammatical analysis of the text. When you move from the need to the text, people have the context of its meaning for their lives.

2. Launch with a relevant story. We remember stories that are vibrant, funny, and powerful. And stories connect my heart to the text before my head grabs hold of it.

3. Tell a joke. That is, if you’re funny. I know a fellow Pastor who served a very discouraged congregation, but after years of opening with humor, they experience joy together every week.

4. Use an object lesson. You may not be able to match Ed Young’s capability to drive a tank on stage to illustrate spiritual warfare, but you can hand out puzzle pieces to represent how we all “fit” in God’s family or hold up your shoes as an illustration of an essential need many people live without.

5. Begin with someone’s testimony. This is also great for the middle of the message, but having someone address your topic from their life’s experience shows the congregation that there are others who struggle and others who overcome. Your words have increased credibility when someone “normal” has already proven the practical possibility of achieving what you’re about to preach.

6. Share the results of some word-on-the-street interviews. You can find these clips, or film them yourself as a chance to connect with your community. If you’re going to preach an apologetic message, interview people about their religious viewpoints.

7. Show a related video clip. Some great storytellers and artists have invested their talent into framing concepts in motion pictures. Take advantage of their work for the purpose of setting up your message in an artistic way.

8. Talk to the crowd. This, of course, depends on your setting, but with text messaging and Twitter, we can talk with our audience in real time as never before, fielding questions and allowing the crowd to speak to itself as we teach.

Our options for opening a message are almost limitless, but what we don’t have to do is jump right into the text. It’s still the most important thing we will share all day, but it doesn’t have to come first.

Did Jesus Preach the Gospel?

By Scot McKnight

Scot McKnight is a widely-recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. He is the Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University (Chicago, Illinois).

When Do We Cross the Line into Plagiarism?

Collin Hansen, D. A. Carson, Sandy Willson, Tim Keller, Matt Perman, and Glenn Lucke

posted 2/21/2011

On the subject of sermon plagiarism, while there are gray areas, there are also black-and-white.

Collin Hansen

Anyone looking to learn official, academic, consensus definitions for plagiarism can find them in a couple mouse clicks. And that's just the problem. A couple clicks can get you a lot these days. Plagiarizing papers, talks, and even sermons has never been easier. Mere definitions don't deter desperate writers and speakers who are either too lazy or so overwhelmed with life that they lift someone else's words, ideas, and outlines.

Studying journalism and history in college, I learned again and again about the evils of plagiarism. If I were caught plagiarizing, I risked expulsion from school or at least a failing grade for the course. If a boss found me plagiarizing my research, professors warned me, I would be fired on the spot. Indeed, many professionals have ruined their careers by stealing someone's political speech or academic thesis and calling it their own.

You can imagine how I responded during my first job out of college when I discovered that one well-known evangelical pastor lifted several paragraphs word-for-word from an article I wrote. The internet might make plagiarism easy to perpetrate, but it also makes plagiarism easy to discover. I assumed others would share my indignation over this theft. The audacity of this minister! He actually bragged about his academic credentials in the process of lifting several innocuous paragraphs from an inexperienced journalist.

I learned, though, that evangelicals tend to hold a different view about plagiarism. I was told that pastors live by a different set of rules from the media and the academy. Whether preaching a sermon or even writing a book, I was told, pastors shouldn't be expected to cite all their references or feel the need to rework someone else's material in their own words. Apparently this sort of thing happens all the time among pastors. In this case, it wasn't worth even writing the pastor a note to caution him against such actions in the future.

Years later, this situation still doesn't sit well with me. I know there are different rules for plagiarism in spoken contexts, compared with material that's sold for profit (as in this case). I know pastors are busy and face many temptations to take others' research and writing. And I know we Christians are not looking for new ideas about the gospel, so in one sense we're all repeating the same old, old messages from God's Word.

Still, I can't help but think of pulpit plagiarism as an integrity issue. I actually appreciate when pastors tell me who taught them while researching. In the scenario I described, the pastor could have largely avoided the problem just by quoting or at least citing me and my publication. No one would have faulted him. In the end, however, he wanted to perpetuate the illusion that he was an expert whom his church and book readers should trust. And that's why I took offense (not because I wrote anything particularly memorable or insightful, which I hadn't, as friends pointed out at the time). We don't need our pastors to be self-appointed gurus. We need them to be honest.

Given the prevalence of plagiarism in our time, and the confusion among evangelicals over when it has occurred, I asked several authorities with experience in this area to answer, "When has a preacher crossed the line into plagiarism in his sermon?" We'll see if we can reach some measure of consensus or shed at least a little light onto a dark corner of our modern existence.

Collin Hansen is editorial director of the Gospel Coalition and co-author with John Woodbridge of A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories That Stretch and Stir.

D. A. Carson

First: Taking over another sermon and preaching it as if it were yours is always and unequivocally wrong, and if you do it you should resign or be fired immediately. The wickedness is along at least three axes:

1. You are stealing.
2. You are deceiving the people to whom you are preaching.
3. Perhaps worst, you are not devoting yourself to the study of the Bible to the end that God's truth captures you, molds you, makes you a man of God, and equips you to speak for him. If preaching is God's truth through human personality (so Phillips Brooks), then serving as nothing more than a kind of organic recording device in playback mode does not qualify.

Incidentally, changing a few words here and there in someone else's work does not let you off the hook; retelling personal experiences as if they were yours when they were not makes the offense all the uglier. That this offense is easy to commit because of the availability of source material in the digital age does not lessen its wickedness, any more than the ready availability of porn in the digital age does not turn pornography into a virtue. (Occasionally preachers have preached a famous sermon from another preacher, carefully noting their source. That should be done, at most, only very occasionally, but there is no evil in it.)

Second: Taking over the structure, perhaps the outline in exact wording, and other significant chunks, while filling in the rest of the substance yourself, is not quite so grievous but still reprehensible. The temptation springs from the fact that writing a really good outline is often the most creative and challenging part of sermon preparation. Fair enough: If you "borrow" someone else's outline, simply acknowledge it, and you have not sinned.

Third: In the course of diligent preparation, you are likely to come across clever snippets and ways of summarizing or formulating the truth of a passage that are creative and memorable. If you cite them, you should acknowledge that they are not yours, either with an "As so-and-so has said" or an "As someone has said." This discipline keeps you honest and humble.

Fourth: If you read widely and have a good mind, that mind will inevitably become charged with good things whose source or origin you cannot recall. Often such sources can be tracked down fairly easily. On the other hand, do not become paranoid: A well-stocked mind is the result of decades of reading and learning, and ought to overflow easily and happily with gratitude toward God to the blessing of God's people.

Johann Albrecht Bengel (1687-1752): "Apply yourself wholly to the text; apply the text wholly to yourself."

D. A. Carson is a New Testament scholar and president of The Gospel Coalition.

Sandy Willson

The issue of plagiarism in preaching has been a hot topic in years past, as several ministers have been fired or severely rebuked for crossing the line. But, more importantly, this issue is crucial for the sake of our personal integrity and for the honor of Christ whom we proclaim; therefore, we need to be very careful.

I think there are several issues at stake:

1. We must not be guilty of "stealing" from our fellow Christians.
2. We must not pretend before our congregations that we have researched or composed something that we have not.
3. We must not substitute real Bible study and prophetic sermon preparation with "cutting and pasting."

Here's how I try to handle it in preaching:

• Any direct quote is always attributed to the author in full.
• Any ideas that I found in my reading that are uniquely attributable to one scholar or author are normally attributed to him.
• If there are a number of unique ideas from one author, I may make a general attribution to his overall influence on my thinking at the beginning of my sermon.
• Ideas that I discovered from several others that were not my own are usually covered by simply saying, "a number of scholars suggest that …"
• Books or articles that I have found helpful are often shared with the congregation for their own edification.
• If my sermons are published or sold on websites or CDs, I must be even more scrupulous to acknowledge all of my sources through footnotes and comments in order to avoid "stealing" from my brother or sister.

Sandy Willson serves as senior pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tennessee.

Tim Keller

Sermon plagiarism does appear to be a problem for several reasons. Preachers today feel under much more pressure to be spectacular than they used to feel. Christians are much less likely to be loyal to a church of a particular place or a particular theological tradition. What they want is to have a great experience on Sunday, and that means they will travel to get to the most gifted preachers. When you put this pressure together with (a) a busy week in which you haven't felt able to prepare well, and (b) the accessibility of so much sermon material through the internet—the temptation to simply repreach someone else's sermon is very strong.

Nevertheless, we must be careful not to overreact. I don't think anyone expects oral communication to have the same amount of detailed attribution as written communication. To cite where you got every allusion or basic idea or general illustration in a sermon would be tedious. A certain amount of leeway must be granted. Also, if you take a basic idea or illustration and "make it your own," I don't think you have to give attribution.

Often the preacher you fear you are stealing from got that idea from some Puritan author and reworked it into more contemporary form. And the Puritan might have gotten it from someone else. In fact, in the act of preaching, we often say something that we know we heard somewhere, but we can't even remember where we got it. Again, I think we need to be charitable to preachers and not charge them with plagiarism for every un-new idea. Brand-new preachers, especially, are going to do a lot of copying of preachers who have influenced them.

However, I think the problem comes in when a minister clearly has not done his own work on the sermon, and lifts almost entire sermons whole cloth from someone else. If he takes some preaching theme word for word from someone else, or if all the headings, almost in the same words, are taken from someone else's sermon, or if he reproduces an illustration almost phrase by phrase—then he should give attribution. When the basic ideas of your sermon have come from some other brilliant sermon, you can early on mention the minister, and say, "Rev. X, whose great sermon on this passage has helped me understand it so much …," and that's all you need.

Seldom does this kind of lifting-whole-cloth from someone else happen if you have spent hours studying the text and working out your own outline. The problem comes when you haven't given the text the time, or when you have been too busy to read widely and pray deeply and develop your own ideas.

Tim Keller is senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and vice president and co-founder of The Gospel Coalition.

Matt Perman

A preacher has crossed the line into plagiarism in his sermon when he, intentionally or unintentionally, gives the impression that the original ideas or words of another are his own. The way to avoid this is simply to make sure and cite the source. This applies not only to quotes and loose paraphrases, but also to original ideas and even sermon structure.

For example, one of the best messages I've ever heard is John Piper's sermon "The Happiness of God: Foundation of Christian Hedonism." In it, he first makes a case that God does all things for his own glory. Then he raises a problem: Is this selfish? And then he resolves the problem.

If you preach a sermon with that basic outline, even if you do all of it in your own words, you should still cite Piper's original sermon.

Now, the issue is not always cut and dried. For example, Jonathan Edwards makes a compelling (and biblical) case that the goal of God in all things is his own glory. Edwards is perhaps the most detailed person to make that case. Yet he is stating a very common and pervasive biblical truth—and one which I believe for all sorts of reasons beyond and in addition to the arguments that Edwards makes. Do I need to refer to Edwards every time I say, "God created all things for his glory"? That would be annoying (though, of course, that does not settle it!).

The answer is no, because Edwards is stating a truth that can be called common knowledge. Even though he is being very profound, thousands of theologians and Christians before (and after) Edwards have believed and argued the same thing. If you use any of Edwards' specific arguments, you should cite him; but in simply stating the truth—"God created all things for his glory"—you do not need to cite him or any other theologian. (But it would always be a great idea to cite some biblical texts!)

The Edwards example is probably too easy. Sometimes you might genuinely be uncertain. Here is, I think, the best way to deal with that ambiguity: Just be free about letting people know the sources of your ideas and where you have learned things. This doesn't diminish your credibility at all, and in fact benefits your listeners and the church by letting people know about other helpful teachers and resources. And it gives them confidence that you are always learning from others, rather than being a solo shop. Let your default be to tell your congregation what you are reading and where you have learned things.

Matt Perman is senior director of strategy at Desiring God Ministries.

Glenn Lucke

Using another's sermon material in one's own messages is not a simple, black-and-white issue, but rather a gray area requiring wisdom. Factors in play include the quantity of material used, permission, attribution, and cultural conventions about published versus spoken material.

The concept of plagiarism addresses at least two concerns: (1) taking material from another, and (2) representing another's work as one's own. In short, stealing and cheating. The amount of borrowed material affects deliberations about plagiarism in academia and publishing, and should also in the church.

Does reciting a minority portion of another's sermon without attribution constitute plagiarism? Without permission, yes (stealing). With permission? No. What about a sermon that is paraphrased and personalized by another? Not as clear. What about the creative framing of a topic or a story or an outline? Do these require attribution? Gray areas, but these don't require attribution.

Does reciting another's sermon nearly verbatim without attribution constitute plagiarism? Yes, because even with permission such a practice activates plagiarism's second concern, cheating. Ask yourself, "Why would a follower of the Truth take credit for the work of another?"

Last, by convention we place higher standards on published works than on speech acts. We recognize that breaking verbal stride to cite sources frequently in a sermon short-circuits the power of preaching.

Here is a wisdom guide:

• Don't tell someone else's first-person story in the first-person.
• If the bulk of a message is from another, regardless of permission, briefly attribute the source(s). If you fear such candor would diminish you, crucify your ego. Or simply don't use the material.
• If a minority portion is from another and you have permission to use the material without attribution, enjoy the gift.
• Err on the side of attribution, but too-frequent attributions distract from and thus dissipate the power of the sermon.

Glenn Lucke runs Docent Research Group, which provides customized research assistance for pastors and churches.