How to Preach Like John Grisham Writes
Bill Oudemolen
October 1, 1996
During a recent vacation, my wife and I ventured across town to another church.
The jammed parking lot and crowded lobby suggested a scintillating sermon.
The preacher was articulate and entertaining. His sermon was biblical, with
four crafted principles from the text.
But as we left that morning, I realized, as William Willimon has said, I
got the sermon, but it didn't get me.
Fast-forward to a couple of days later, same vacation: Sitting under a thatched
umbrella on a beach, I'm reading John Grisham's The Chamber, a novel
about capital punishment.
Toward the end of the story, Grisham describes Sam Cayhall, the death-row
inmate, taking off the clothes he has worn for so many years. His new clothes
lying on the bed are for his execution in the gas chamber. The portrayal
overwhelmed me, and I began to weep. As a tear rolled down my cheek, I silently
asked the Lord to forgive me for my past hatred of death-row inmates.
It struck me that Grisham's novel had "got" me in a way the principled sermon
I'd heard hadn't. I began studying what makes a good story work. As I applied
the elements of plot to my sermon structure, they revolutionized the way
I create and deliver a sermon.
Starting with surprise
A plot-based sermon is not one with more stories in it. It is not
created by cramming more illustrations into a sermon or seeing the sermon
as one lengthy illustration.
The very structure of a plot-based sermon is different. The difference between
a plot-based sermon and a principle-based sermon is not hermeneutical but
homiletical. A plot-based sermon still requires traditional exegesis; I still
have to immerse myself in the text. But once I do my exegetical spadework,
I head in a new direction. I steer away ...
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