Subscribe!

Scot McKnight recently reviewed Anthony Thiselton's The Hermeneutics of Doctrine for the folks at Christianity Today. McKnight offers this synopsis of Thiselton's thoughts on doctrine and belief:

At the National Pastors Conference in San Diego, PreachingToday.com's Brian Lowery got to interview N. T. Wright about his latest book—Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church—and how it relates to preaching. Since we are all in the midst of the Easter journey, his words are timely, challenging, and above all else, hopeful.

Preaching Today: In your book Surprised by Hope, you talk about a deeper understanding of hope "that provides a coherent and energizing basis for work in today's world." How has that deeper understanding influenced your preaching through the years?

Bishop N. T. Wright: [Studying] the Resurrection for an earlier book, Resurrection of the Son of God … ended up rubbing my nose in the New Testament theology of new creation, and the fact that the new creation has begun with Easter. I discovered that when we do new creation—when we encourage one another in the church to be active in projects of new creation, of healing, of hope for communities—we are standing on the ground that Jesus has won in his resurrection.

Scot McKnight, professor of religious studies at North Park University, Chicago, IL, and author of The Jesus Creed, recently designed a hermeneutics quiz to help us raise questions about how we both read our Bible and don't read our Bible. As Scot is careful to point out in his introduction to the quiz: "No single test can reveal all the nuances needed, but broad answers are enough to raise the key issues." In other words, this quiz will at least help you get a big picture of where you land on a hermeneutical scale. Are you a conservative when it comes to hermeneutics? A moderate? Are there any progressives among us? Take the quiz and find out. Though you'll probably have a few quibbles here and there with the questions and the answers from which you get to choose, I think you'll find it incredibly helpful as a student and preacher of the Word.

You really ought to take a look at Tim Keel's "An Efficient Gospel?" He challenges the reader/preacher with a number of provocative thoughts, including this:

In a modern world, we tend to reduce the complexity and diversity of the Scriptures to simple systems, even when our systems flatten the diversity and integrity of the biblical witness. We reduce our sermons to consumer messages that reduce God to a resource that helps the individual secure a reduced version of the "abundant life" Jesus promised (John 10:10).

How do we contend with the common reductions of the gospel that have come with modernism? In that contention, the over/under factor in championing the gospel's complexity and diversity runs awfully high—you can overwhelm your audience and just as quickly underwhelm them. How have you navigated that tension in your preaching? When was the last time you challenged the gospel presuppositions of your audience, and how did you do it? Any series ideas you'd like to share? Textual ideas? Thematic ideas? Illustrations? Helpful resources?

Here's one of the ten illustrations we have to offer this week to members of PreachingToday. After you've taken a moment to read it, please brainstorm with us in the comments section. How would you use this story in a sermon?

Bad Relationships Are Bad for Your Health

Researchers from the University of Utah found there's a price to pay when couples don't get along. Videotapes recorded 150 husbands and wives discussing sensitive issues (how money is managed or doing household chores) and found the following:

Women who buried anger rather than speaking out were more likely to succumb to heart disease than wives who were vocal, the study found. And when women became domineering and controlling, rather than seeking consensus, damage was done to husbands' coronary health.

Hopefully you've been able to check out the Preaching Today interview with Kent Carlson and Mike Lueken on preaching for spiritual formation. Mark your calendars: the second part comes out this Friday. In the meantime here's something from the cutting room floor...

How did the topic of spiritual formation in preaching become important to you?

Kent: Our interest in preaching for spiritual formation is directly related to the story of our church. We were a seeker-targeted church that had experienced rather rapid growth in our area. We were having great fun and, in terms of attendance and decisions for Christ, were experiencing great success. By 2000, we were finally in our first permanent, large building, so we no longer had facility demands. This gave us flexibility to evaluate where we were and listen more carefully to what God was saying.

In his workshop "The Three Questions of Preaching," Colin Smith examines three questions that guide the preacher toward Christian expository preaching. One of the key questions he lists is, "Does the sermon say what the text says?" Smith argues that if the preacher's answer is an honest "yes," the sermon is more than likely an expository one. He then offers a personal illustration about his coming close to abusing a text from the Book of Micah. In the original recording, he goes a step further to offer another personal illustration that includes a fascinating word about the dangers of topical preaching. I'd love to hear your thoughts about the concern he raises in the quote below:

Our cart was filled with red ink pens, file folders, scotch tape, and blocks of putty for hanging posters. That can only mean one thing for my wife the teacher: back to school. While I walked the aisles beside her, I spotted a family of four. The boy held his dad's hand while he stared back longingly at the bikes. The girl hung her head and walked slowly behind her mother, peeking up every now and then when asked what folder she liked best. I felt like I was watching a funeral. In a way, I was: summer, may she rest in peace.

The same scene is probably being played out right this very moment at your local Target or Wal-Mart. Shopping carts are banging into one another, and they're all filled to the brim with the usual array of school supplies. If two Boston fathers have it their way, there among the High School Musical folders and colored pencils you'll find a backpack—a bulletproof backpack. The long shadow cast by Columbine, Virginia Tech, and other assorted school shootings inspired the two men to design a $175 knapsack that is lined with a lightweight, bulletproof plate. Should a shooting occur, the student need only curl up behind the bag or wear it across their chest for protection ("Back-to-School Armor," TIME [8-27-07], p. 17).

As I write about my current preaching, I find myself feeling defensive, defensive because my current series is topical and I am committed to biblical preaching, as are the Preaching Today family of resources. But as someone has said, biblical preaching is true to Scripture and true to life. Topical preaching can be solidly biblical and expositional, but topical preaching is a label that is often used with disdain because topical preaching has been abused.

Actually one practical reason I try to avoid topical preaching is, I don't have time to do it well (I'm a bivocational pastor).

Eugene Peterson, the translator of The Message, is now writing a five-volume series on spiritual theology. The first was the magisterial and masterful Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. Now, in Eat This Book, Peterson prophetically proclaims the centrality of the Bible to any true Christian spirituality. Peterson argues that we dare not read (or preach) the Bible merely for information, inspiration, or guidance for living. Peterson wants us to read the Bible personally, receptively, responsively to the Trinity who speaks through it: “We open this book and find that page after page it takes us off guard, surprises us, and draws us into its reality, pulls us into participation with God on his terms.”

Chapter 4 alone is worth the price of admission for preachers. Here are four appetizers on the subject of exegesis: