PEOPLE IN PRINT
July 1, 1987
Spicing Sermons Variety in Biblical Preaching by Harold Freeman, Word, $12.95 Reviewed by Calvin Miller, pastor, West Side Baptist Church, Omaha, Nebraska "The validity of biblical preaching is not determined by its form!" says Harold Freeman, professor of preaching at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. There are other ways of preaching than the way we are now doing it, and so he nudges us to courage. "Don't be afraid," he coaxes. "Try new forms." But beware lest you "let your eagerness for creativity and innovation lead you into faulty hermeneutics. No matter how interesting your product may be, it will not be a biblical message if it does not interpret accurately the Scripture it deals with." Freeman's book, Variety in Biblical Preaching, is rewardingly confrontational. I'm not necessarily a veteran of preaching, but I have been at it now for three decades. Still, as I read I found myself questioning my own tendency to settle into a comfortable homiletical groove. (Maybe rut is more honest.) The validity of Freeman's arguments nettled me. I have tried most of the varieties he suggests: the dramatic monologue, the narrative, and sermons that are dialogical, segmented, or media- and drama-augmented. My problem is that I know leaving my customary way of preaching involves work, which is, of course, a four-letter word. Years ago on the ungraded rural roads of Oklahoma, I learned that "jumping ruts" is a hard and jolting experience. Ruts (sermonic and otherwise) are not very interesting, but they are comfortable. Still, Freeman's book nags at us. How do we jump sermonic ruts? How do we face our fears and get started? Freeman suggests we pick forms we can handle naturally and our congregants can best tolerate. ...
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