Growing Edge
January 1, 1996
REVIEWED:
"Telling the Old, Old Story" by David L. Larsen "Resurrecting Hope" by John Perkins with Jo Kadlecek 2 Fax Services for Pastors 3 New Audiotapes "The NIV Application Commentary" THE PREACHER AS STORYTELLER
Help with a lost art. People crave stories, whether a Tom Clancy novel, an Annie Dillard piece, a buddy's fishing story, or the latest scoop in "People magazine." Surely this accounts for the dominance of narrative in the Bible--more than 50 percent, by conservative estimate. However, pre aching Bible stories is a little like playing the saxophone: it is easy to do poorly. How can preachers expound "Noah and the Ark" so that listeners hear rain splatter against the ark and get drenched by the meaning of the story? David L. Larsen, professor of pastoral theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, offers help in "Telling the Old, Old Story: The Art of Narrative Preaching" (Crossway, 320 pages, $14.99). But I caution: This is not a primer for handy reference but an exhaustive study requiring serious reflection. CRUISING SPEED
I found the chapters on skills especially helpful. Larsen advocates letting the proportion and tone of the text shape the sermon. He says, "Don't build a temple where the text has only built a tent." But if getting bogged down in too much detail presents one danger, skimming along with too much abstraction presents another. How can preachers find the right cruising altitude and speed? Try using more dialogue. This means crafting questions in a "point/counterpoint" fashion to heighten the tension and highlight the issues in the story. This technique served me well in a recent sermon on 1 Samuel 20. I kept countering statements about Jonathan's loyalty to David with questions about Jonathan's seeming disloyalty ...
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