For the next three weeks or so, I'd like to interact with Andy Stanley's approach to preaching. He presents his model with the help of co-author, Lane Jones, in Communicating For a Change (Multnomah, 2006). The book is engaging, and it's on target. I could not put it once I started reading it last Thursday! For starters, Andy challenges preachers to "pick a point."
When Andy says "pick a point," he means that "every message should have one central idea, application, insight, or principle that serves as the glue to hold the other parts together" (103). That's what Haddon Robinson has been preaching for years! It's what Bryan Chapell claims, too.
Go back and read Andy's statement again. He does not deny that a sermon has multiple "parts." But he challenges us to shift from a model which builds a message "around several points rather than one clear destination" (101). He is concerned about the kind of sermon which communicates that "God wants a man to
I. Love his wife
II. Lead his wife
III. Learn from his wife
. . . but never ever . . .
IV. Leave his wife" (101-102)
What wrong with this approach? For all of its clarity, these points are quickly forgotten. As Andy observes, "it is the last point that usually sticks" (102). The others are quickly forgotten. Andy quips: "In most cases, our allusive, alluring, alliterated points move from our notes to our lips into thin air and then back into our files. Seems a bit pointless" (102).
Now Andy is the son of another well-known preacher, Charles Stanley. (I keep referring to Andy by his first name to differentiate the two, not because I'm on a first-name basis with him. In fact, I've never had the privilege of meeting him). Andy describes his dad as "the king of points" (103). But he observes this about his dad's preaching: "It is not the points that resulted in life change. It was the passion and the specific call to action with which he ends his messages that move people to live differently and surrender more fully" (103).
If you're struggling with this concept, perhaps a clarification from Haddon Robinson will help. I've often heard Haddon say: "Sermons seldom fail because they contain too many ideas. They fail because they contain unrelated ideas." So the claim is not that a given Scripture text contains only one idea. The claim is that a text contains a unifying idea to which everything else relates.
We'll wrestle with this issue again on Friday. In the meantime, keep working to identify the central idea as you study your sermon text for this Sunday.
Posted by Steve Mathewson at 10:29 AM on January 8, 2008
Comments
This is going to be great. I have read the book and look forward to your posts. I have to say that I have changed my sermons to foucs on one point and when you start it is tough but once you get into the idea it really helps and people remember the sermon. I did a series on Joseph and it was called "God is in Control" over a year ago and the congreation still remembers it!
Juan
Posted by: Juan on January 8, 2008
Communicating for Change is a great book. I read it this summer and couldn't put it down. I think I read it in one afternoon. Okay teachers and preachers, learn from Andy Stanley, drop the alliteration!!! My pastor had an alliterated three point sermon two weeks ago, but I can't remember any point. I'm looking forward to what else you will bring up.
Posted by: Jeremy on January 10, 2008
I came to the 3-point belt of America, using Andy's Method. His preaching style is so refreshing. I remember every sermon I've ever heard him preach. I've implimented this approach to the congregation to which I am currently preaching, and I have seen such a dramatic difference since I've started using it. It's amazing to think, but, people function this way all of the time. Inductive thinking, inductive reasoning, inductive preaching. I absolutely love this method of preaching.
Posted by: Shane on February 19, 2008