FROM APPLICATIONS TO ACTION
It may be the most difficult, and neglected, part of preaching. How do you encourage doing, not just hearing, the Word?
David Mains
October 1, 1986
I listen to a lot of other preachers-carefully, too. It's more than professional curiosity; I want to learn from both their strengths and their weaknesses.
I can usually determine the subject of the sermons I listen to. But often I'm confused about what I'm supposed to do or to stop doing. That's frustrating, especially since it's a rare text that doesn't call for an explicit response.
Sometimes I work with student preachers. Once they choose a text, I tell them to look for two things: the subject and the response being called for. I ask them to identify these two elements before they look for anything else in the passage. Why? Because the success of their preaching hinges on imparting not only the meaning but the imperative of a text
When lay people tell me they heard a preacher and "Oh, he was good!" I often respond, "I'm pleased. Tell me, what was his subject?" Usually, with varying degrees of accuracy, they can answer.
"And what did he want you to do or to stop doing?" Now we're on a desert journey without water. Most people can't remember. Most likely, the preacher never stated the desired response.
The major component necessary for better preaching, I believe, is the imperative-the call for specific action arising from the sermon text.
Scribes or Preachers?
To what did the multitudes respond in Christ's preaching? After the Sermon on the Mount, Scripture records: "And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teachings, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes" (Matt. 7:28 -29). There is a grand difference between a scribe and a preacher.
Comments you hear in sermons infected with what I call "the scribes' disease" include:
...
"A related passage that sheds some light ...
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