Steps to the Sermon: An Eight-Step Plan for Preaching with Confidence

By Jesse J. Northcutt, H. Gordon Clinard and H.C. Brown

In the years since the original publication of Steps to the Sermon in 1963, audiences have become more sophisticated, preachers have learned to adjust their styles to reach today's media saturated mindset, and sermon style have shifted from deductive to inductive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BH Publishing Group
• Release date: Jan 4, 1996
• ISBN: 9781433674839

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PREFACE

When H. C. Brown, Jr., Gordon Clinard, and Jesse Northcutt received their first published copies of Steps to the Sermon in 1963, they sensed they were living on the brink of a sociological revolution in America. Dr. Northcutt made the wry observation that their book might be obsolete by 1965. The book not only survived, but it has worn wonderfully well in the more than thirty years since it was first published. Teachers and students who have read and loved the original Steps will be happy to know that the book has also survived a revision. The basic purpose of Steps—to guide preachers in the development of strong, clear, biblical sermons—has not been altered.

However, much has happened in preaching, in communication, and in society since 1963. I have attempted to reflect the most meaningful of these changes in this revision. For example, Brown, Clinard, and Northcutt worked from the premise that the rhetorically outlined three-point sermon was the mainstay of preaching. To use an occasional dramatic monologue or narrative sermon was considered good as a change of pace, but one should be careful not to overuse these innovative approaches. Today, the narrative sermon, the dramatic monologue, and other sermon forms once considered innovative are now becoming the norm. The old deductive approach—tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them—is giving way to an inductive approach in which individual listeners figure out the point of the sermon, usually in the conclusion.

These revolutionary changes in preaching have come about because of changes in the ways people receive messages these days. The old deductive approach appealed primarily to the auditory listeners. Today's congregations are much more kinesthetic than auditory. (These terms will be explained later.) In this revision, I still include discussion of deductive sermons, but I have added information about why and how to prepare inductive sermons.

The chronology of the original Steps has been changed in a few places. For example, I have moved instructions about the thesis and objectives of the sermon from the end of chapter 2 to the end of chapter 3. It seems more appropriate to discuss these interpretive items at the end of the chapter on Interpreting the Text than it does to discuss these items before presenting methods of interpretation. The interpretation chapter itself has expanded to include brief discussions of current hermeneutical concerns such as liberation theology and structuralism.

Before undertaking the revision, I wrote to more than thirty college and seminary professors asking for advice and suggestions. Of the eighteen who responded, Hugh Litchfield especially recommended updating chapter 3. Alan Brehm and Steve Lemke reviewed chapter 3 and offered both affirmations and suggestions which were needed and appreciated. John Landers, academic book editor for Broadman & Holman, took a personal interest in this revision, and his suggestions have helped make the book clearer and more readable than I could have by myself. Laverne Smith patiently typed the original as well as the many revisions. In addition, with her own theological training, she offered pertinent suggestions from the pew. Each of us pray that this revision will be timely and helpful to preachers everywhere as we seek to communicate a strong, clear message from the Bible.

CHAPTER 1—OUTLINE

UNDERSTANDING THE TASK

The Nature of Preaching and Communication

The Objectives of Preaching

The Total Objective

The Major Objective of the Text

The evangelistic objective

The devotional objective

The doctrinal objective

The ethical objective

The consecrative objective

The supportive objective

The Major Objective of the Sermon

The History of Preaching

Origins of Christian Preaching

Ancient oratory

Hebrew prophecy

The Christian gospel

The Development of Christian Preaching

The ancient period

The Early Middle Ages

The scholastic age

The Reformation age

The seventeenth century

The eighteenth century

The nineteenth century

The twentieth century

UNDERSTANDING THE TASK

God calls people to special service in his kingdom as he wills. In the beginning of the Hebrew nation the Lord said to Moses: So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt (Exod. 3:10). During the development of the kingdom, God chose Samuel. The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ Then Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening.’(1 Sam. 3:10).

In the eighth century B.C. God spoke of Amos: The lion has roared—who will not fear? The Sovereign LORD has spoken—who can but prophesy? … Amos answered Amaziah, ‘I was neither a prophet nor a prophet’s son, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel’ (Amos 3:8; 7:14–15).

Later the Lord called Isaiah, the prince of prophets: Then I heard the voice of the LORD saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’ (Isa. 6:8). Jesus, in his earthly ministry, also called out persons for special service.

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men (Matt. 4:18–19).

Jesus said,

Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ Mary of Magdala went to the disciples with the news: I have seen the Lord! And she told them that he had said these things to her (John 20:17–18).

Was it not also true when Bible days had passed and post-New Testament times had begun that God continued to call people? God called Origen, Augustine, Chrysostom, and Ambrose in the early centuries. He called Bernard, Francis, Dominic, Wycliffe, Huss, and Savonarola after the Dark Ages and before the Reformation. He called Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Latimer, and Knox during the Reformation. There were Wesley, Whitefield, Bunyan, Baxter, Spurgeon, Maclaren, Edwards, Brooks, Beecher, Broadus, and Moody in more recent centuries. And in the twentieth century God called Billy Sunday, George W. Truett, Arthur Gossip, James S. Stewart, Clovis Chappell, Billy Graham, W. A. Criswell, Herschel Hobbs, G. A. Studdert-Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., D. T. Niles, Karl Barth, Samuel Shoemaker, Fulton Sheen, and Walter Maier.

As surely as God called the prophets, apostles, and great preachers of history, he calls preachers today. As always, the basis of God's call is still dependent upon the will, the good pleasure, of the Lord. In Mark 3:13–14 the sovereignty of Jesus is depicted as he called out and sent forth the apostles: Jesus went up into the hills and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach.

An era of decadent Christianity will be upon us if the belief in a divine call is lost. The Dark Ages will again envelop the church if we cease to believe in and respond to the call of God. There can be no powerful or effective preaching apart from a God-called ministry.

The person God uses to preach the unsearchable riches of the Lord Jesus Christ is a regenerate person. Spurgeon was horrified by the idea that an unconverted person should attempt to preach the gospel to people who are lost.

How horrible to be a preacher of the gospel and yet to be unconverted! Let each man here whisper to his own inmost soul, "What a dreadful thing it will be for me if I should be ignorant of the power of the truth which I am preparing to proclaim!" Unconverted ministry involves the most unnatural relationships. A graceless pastor is a blind man elected to a professorship of optics, philosophizing upon light and vision, discoursing upon and distinguishing to others the nice shades and delicate blendings of the prismatic colours, while he himself is absolutely in the dark! He is a dumb man elevated to the chair of music; a deaf man fluent upon symphonies and harmonies! He is a mole professing to educate eagles; a limpet elected to preside over angels.¹

The person God uses to preach the gospel is a committed person. Whether it be in public or private life, whether it be personal resources of moral and ethical concepts, or mental powers, or emotional resources, or physical capabilities—everything must be committed to the Lord's unrestricted use. Moreover, in all relationships—with parents, spouse, children, friends, church members, associates, and strangers—a preacher must live as a consecrated person. No personality trait, resource, relationship, or obligation can be placed beyond the control and care of the Lord.

The person God calls to preach is someone who constantly communes with the Lord. Preachers can preach only as well as they can pray. Preachers cannot rise higher in the preaching of the gospel than they can rise in their private and family spiritual lives.

Every possible evidence bears testimony that a minister must sustain a close fellowship with God in order to thrive spiritually. The dramatically beautiful fellowship of Christ with the Father bears witness to the necessity of a consistent devotional life. Later, in the midst of mounting responsibility and multiplying tasks, the apostles cried for relief that they might give themselves more thoroughly to preaching and to spiritual affairs. The writings of Paul abound in references to praying without ceasing, giving thanks without ceasing, and remembering without ceasing. Paul lived his life in the white heat of an intense fellowship with God. Through the ages the most effective servants of the Lord have been those who have nourished their souls in close fellowship with him. Without exception every preacher of great power has had intimate communion with the Lord.

It is imperative that a preacher be a truly regenerated Christian, be called of God to a preaching ministry, and grow continually in fellowship with God. To be an effective messenger of God, a preacher must also diligently prepare for this task. Before one can prepare and preach effective sermons in particular and communicate in general, an understanding of the nature of preaching and communication, the objectives of preaching, and the history of preaching must be developed.

The Nature of Preaching and Communication

Although the New Testament offers no formal definition of preaching, a study of the primary terms reveals much about the nature of preaching. The most frequently used word in the New Testament for preaching, keryssein, is translated to proclaim or to herald and occurs more than fifty times in its various inflections. In the Gospels and in Acts it is usually translated preach or preaching or preached. It denotes that the messenger has a message of authority from another. Of course, in the New Testament sense, the messenger has a message from God about Christ, and since the messenger is divinely appointed, the hearers are obligated to hear and to obey.

Another important New Testament term for preaching, euangelizesthai, is translated to preach good tidings or good news. This word indicates the nature of the message as good news—good news of something to come or of something that has come and is available.

Throughout the New Testament many other words are used to indicate the act of preaching even though the specific word preaching is not always used. Four such words are didaskein, "to impart divine truth through teaching;" dialegesthai, "to discourse or reason with others with a view to persuasion"; lalein, "to talk or to discourse"; and parakalein, "to call to one's side or to admonish. As Thomas Long observed, There is the congregation, who will, of course, be the hearers of the preaching. There is the preacher, who arises from the congregation but now stands to preach in front of the community. There is the sermon, which we must be careful to say is not what the preacher has written down beforehand but rather what the preacher says."²

Through the years many have attempted to define the nature of preaching in precise terms. Perhaps the best known definition was set out by Phillips Brooks in 1877: What, then, is preaching of which we are to speak? It is not hard to find a definition. Preaching is the communication of truth. It has in it two essential elements, truth and personality. Neither of those can it spare and still be preaching.³

Charles Bugg adds a new dimension to the definition of preaching—that of relationship.

Preaching is more than a craft or an art or a profession. It is more than the shaping of some words designed to dazzle the ears of hearers. Preaching grows out of the minister's own experience with the living God. As preachers, we stand inside faith. We are not objective. We bear witness to what has changed our lives.

A key word is relationship. Preaching cannot be separated from all that a minister is. The concept that we just get up a sermon fails to take seriously all of the factors that converge in the person who is preaching. Preaching cannot be separated from the person of the preacher.⁴

Andrew W. Blackwood, once the dean of American teachers of preaching, drew his definition of preaching from a study of outstanding preaching of the past.

He noted, What do we understand by preaching? It means divine truth through personality or the truth of God voiced by a chosen personality to meet human needs. From another point of view preaching calls for the interpretation of life today in light that comes from God today, largely through the Scriptures.⁵

The current emphasis on the nature of preaching centers largely on theological concepts which have been reborn in a rising tide of studies in theology of proclamation. This new thrust finds Richard Lischer, Fred Craddock, Clyde Fant, Thomas Long, Raymond Bailey, William Willimon, Craig Loscalzo, and Charles Bugg setting the stage by discussing the complexity of preaching in a multitude of ways, but always with an emphasis on communicating God's Word to a contemporary congregation. Early in the twentieth century, P. T. Forsyth declared: With preaching Christianity stands or falls because it is the declaration of the Gospel. Nay more—far more—it is the Gospel prolonging and declaring itself.⁶ Today, Clyde Fant's emphasis on incarnational preaching, Charles Bugg's emphasis on relationships, and new studies in congregational analysis help us wed theology to communication and thus to our preaching.

Robert H. Mounce in his helpful work, The Essential Nature of New Testament Preaching, expresses a similar conviction: Preaching is that timeless link between God's great redemptive Act and man's apprehension of it. It is the medium through which God contemporizes His historic Self-disclosure and offers man the opportunity to respond in faith.⁷

Such views speak strongly concerning the importance of preaching by insisting that the Word of God cannot be separated from its proclamation; the gospel is in fact a preached gospel; preaching is a redemptive event in contemporary time; the act of preaching is part of God's encounter with a contemporary listener; preaching is not merely a means of conveying content but is in a real sense bound up with the content; it is part of God's saving activity; and it is God's means of giving life to us. If these statements are true, all must admit to the supreme importance of preaching.

While agreeing with this contemporary emphasis, John R. Stott warns against careless terminology in setting out the existential nature of preaching. He calls attention, in examining the views of Mounce, to the various statements concerning the transference of the events of the past into the contemporary moment and then tries to place these expressions in correct focus. "God not only confronts men though the preacher's proclamation; He actually saves men through it as well. This St. Paul states categorically: ‘Since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of the kerygma to save those who believe’ (1 Cor. 1:21)."⁸

Fant articulates these concerns in Preaching for Today:

What can preaching do? It can send the church into a real world, a world of starving children and murderous competition, of lonely rooms and smug clubs, of shattered dreams and burned out hopes. This is the final mark of true preaching, to send the church into the world. For that is where the Christ of the church is: He goes before you into Galilee: there you shall see him (Mark 16:7).⁹

In view of the various facets of preaching found through a study of the Greek words for preaching, an examination of various opinions concerning preaching, and a look at contemporary insights about preaching, what is preaching in terms of today? Preaching is the effective communication of the divine truth of the Christian Scriptures, by a person called of God to witness for Him to a redemptive deed for the purpose of giving eternal life through Jesus Christ.

The Objectives of Preaching

An understanding of the objectives of preaching is essential in the preacher's preparation. An objective is that on which the mind and the heart are set as a purpose, goal, or result. The term objective, as applied to preaching, includes both the overall or total purpose of a preacher's ministry and that of the immediate sermon being prepared.

The Total Objective

The total objective (also called the ultimate, supreme, or comprehensive objective) is to bring life to people. A minister ought to see clearly the difference between what is being accomplished with the twenty-four hours of a day and what is the overall aim of forty or more years of ministry. Today the objective may be for preparing a sermon on total stewardship in which a plea is issued for stronger financial support for God's kingdom. The aim is to increase the income of the church. Such a limited purpose would hardly suffice as a supreme goal.

Nothing less than the