God Is in the House: A Fresh Model for Shaping a Sermon

By John Woods

Good preaching is not simply a matter of communicating the gospel message. Rather, it is an invitation to encounter the living God who dwells within that message.

Distilling forty years of preaching experience into a single book, God Is in the House is a highly practical tool for all those seeking to strengthen their preaching ministry. It draws on Scripture’s many images of God as architect and builder to guide its readers through the process of shaping effective sermons. Both manifesto and manual, it addresses the overall role and significance of preaching, while also exploring the specific elements a sermon should contain. Full-length examples are included for illustration, and each chapter has practical exercises to aid the reader in integrating new tools into their homiletic practice.

This book offers a fresh and imaginative model for thinking about the process of designing and delivering sermons. It is an excellent resource for both experienced and developing preachers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Langham Preaching Resources
• Release date: May 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9781839736643

John Woods

John Woods grew up in Appalachian Ohio. He is a graduate of Ohio University's creative writing program and has published short stories in Meridian, Midwestern Gothic, Fiddleblack, and The Rag. He lives in Yorktown, Virginia.

Book preview

Book cover image

God Is in the House is for those with the responsibility and privilege of preaching, whether they be new to it and on a steep learning curve, or those with a lifetime of experience eager to further develop. All will gain as they read and reflect how to effectively communicate the many rich and life-giving treasures in the Scriptures. This book is a toolbox, full of wisdom, insights, illustrations, encouragements and practical advice.

Mike Betts

Founder, Relational Mission, Aylsham, UK

Do yourself a favour and read this. Doing so will place you in the presence of a seasoned preacher and a skilled teacher of preachers. Through the familiar but evocative image of a house, John covers all the facets of the preaching task, from preparation to delivery, with helpful suggestions, gentle challenges and fresh insights from Scripture along the way. Read it yourself. Read it with other preachers. Reflect together on its significance for your practice of preaching, for the good of your congregations and the greater glory of God.

Antony Billington

Senior Pastor, Beacon Church, Ashton-in-Makerfield, UK

Theology Advisor, London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, UK

Imaginative, holistic and resourceful! Dr. Woods is an experienced preacher and teacher in homiletics. This innovative book demonstrates his homiletical wisdom, experience and reflexivity. Using the image of a house, Dr. Woods gives a creative model for designing a sermon. The crucial roles of the porch, front door, rooms, hallways, stairs, windows, exit door, ambience etc., are explored systematically and comparatively for designing a sermon. In addition, the practical advice to develop an instinct for Christocentric preaching, reflective exercises and the sample sermons at the end make this book indispensable for anyone wanting to develop their preaching. Even experienced preachers will find this book refreshing and beneficial.

Seidel Abel Boanerges

Dean of Ministerial Formation,

Spurgeon’s College, London, UK

John Woods attempts and succeeds, in my view, in providing a helpful lens through which preachers like myself can reflect on their preaching; while also providing useful tools to aid us in our sermon preparation. I loved his Bill Bryson quote about houses and appreciated very much the many insights drawn from the analogy of sermon preparation being like the building of a house. I was challenged by his chapter on prayer, to revive my pattern of reading through the whole Bible in a year as opposed to approaching it like a coffee table book. And who cannot but be challenge by the truth that No aspect of life, no act of service including preaching, can be conducted without prayer (p. 29).

I found particularly helpful and stimulating his chapter on Clarifying the Architects Intention. But for me one of the main highlights was his many insights into approaching one of my favourites passages in the Bible: Mark 4:35–41, and the many insights that can be gleaned from contemporary commentaries not written by white, middle-class males from the West. I appreciated the three sample sermons at the end of the book, which sought to model the approach to preaching advocated in the rest of the book. And most especially the funeral sermons, given John’s years of experience in pastoral ministry. All in all a very enjoyable and stimulating read. I shall be buying copies for my preaching group and look forward to reading and learning again from its many insights with them.

Raymond Brown

Senior Pastor, East London Tabernacle,

London, UK

I found this book really helpful. John Woods gives us a fresh way of thinking about expository preaching that will be of equal benefit to younger and more experienced preachers. Their congregations will benefit too!

Julian Hardyman

Minister, Eden Baptist Church,

Cambridge, UK

Preaching the word of God has always been a privilege that comes with a lot of responsibility. Today, in a world of fake news and cancel culture it is even more essential to correctly handle the word of truth (2 Tim 2:15). For those of us who are called to this important ministry, here is a book that contains a life’s worth of experience and study presented in a very practical and user-friendly style. Using the metaphor of a house, all aspects and contours of crafting a sermon are explored. Dr. Woods also includes exercises to develop your preaching skills at the end of each chapter. This is no doubt a book that should be in every preacher’s life.

Captain Sarah Ilsters

Assistant Regional Leader,

The Salvation Army in Latvia

If you have ever wished you could be the apprentice of a wise and practised Bible preacher, this is the book for you! Comparing sermon construction with the planning and building of a house, from his forty years of experience, John Woods brings together a wide range of practical helps and examples, including tools for preparation, analysis of texts and example sermons, along with fresh, imaginative ideas and many quotations from other builders. While no-one can do the hard work for you, this book will instruct and stimulate you to want to do the work for yourself.

David Jackman

Former President, The Proclamation Trust,

London, UK

Integrating decades of pastoral and preaching experience, Woods’ effective image of preaching and home construction is a welcome addition to the field of homiletics. This book is both comprehensive and insightful. Well worth reading!

Matthew D. Kim, PhD

George F. Bennett Professor of Preaching and Practical Theology,

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, USA

I started reading this book in a hurry; I soon slowed down because there’s gold on every page. All good preachers, like John, will have a relentless restlessness to improve and help others to do so too. Wise, practical, pithy – whether you’ve been preaching for four months or forty years, this book will help you be a better preacher; it certainly has me.

Phil Moon

Vicar, Christchurch Bishop Hannington,

Hove, UK

What a joy to read a book about sermon preparation that both informs and inspires. It is replete with a breadth of well referenced quotations, imbued with a life time of preaching, evident pastoral insight and cross cultural experience. The reader enters and explores the sermon through the metaphor of a house.

It is a book that is grounded, practical and intelligent, full of insights and aha moments. As we walk through the front door of the sermon, travel its corridors and discover its spaces, John takes the prospective preacher on a tour from sermon preparation to delivery.

Once inside the front door, the reader is introduced to the colour, texture and detailed content of each room. Everything is arranged carefully to reflect the character of the owner of the house.

The preacher is drawn ever forward to stop and carefully take in new spaces and vistas. Each is decorated with ancient commentaries, modern philosophers, novelists, theologians and testimonies.

Pictures adorn the walls, music resonates and accompanies the tour, senses are heightened as the ambience, mood and tone of the house are explored.

Everything is arranged to connect the preacher to the world of Scripture and to build a bridge from that world to the world of the present day congregation.

The book reflects a mind that is expansive, well read and attuned to the author of Scripture. Like a good sermon it is both christological and doxological. The reader is left wanting to explore the house more in order to know the owner better.

Whether you are just starting out or have spent decades communicating the word of God there is something for each to grow in our calling to correctly handle the word of truth.

Tony Swanson

Regional Executive Officer,

Africa Inland Mission’s Eastern Region, Kenya

If you’ve ever had the privilege of choosing a new house, you’ll remember the excitement of exploring it. John Woods chooses the framework of a house to explore the many facets of preaching and generates equal excitement. The image serves him well, providing plenty of room to develop the varied dimensions and multiple features involved in good sermon preparation and delivery. While it is all based on good foundations, one of the joys of the book is the breadth of its content, combining personal experiences and wide reading with clear application. Any preacher, new or experienced, around the world will find this a delight to read as it provides sound instruction about our privileged task.

Derek Tidball, PhD

Retired Minister and Former Principal of London School of Theology, UK

Jesus’s metaphor of a house of many rooms is adapted here to conceive of the sermon. John Woods invites us in and gives a marvelous tour. In the process he teaches preachers how to be better lovers of God and neighbour and better proclaimers of the One who seeks us in and through the word.

Paul Scott Wilson, PhD

Professor Emeritus of Homiletics,

Emmanuel College in the University of Toronto, Canada

John Woods is a highly experienced and gifted preacher and teacher of preaching who has reflected long and deep about the nature and craft of the sermon. His new book God Is in the House uses the suggestive imagery of planning and building a house to outline a series of detailed steps through which a preacher can construct a message and welcome a listener in. The convictions that the God who has spoken must be at the centre of this building, and that Scripture should provide both the raw materials and the design, shine through. With its engaging style, helpful exercises and sample sermons, this book will be an inspiring and practical resource for preachers around the world.

Stephen I. Wright, PhD

Vice Principal, Academic Director,

Spurgeon’s College, London, UK

God Is in the House

A Fresh Model for Shaping a Sermon

John Woods

© 2022 School of Preachers Trust

Published 2022 by Langham Preaching Resources

An imprint of Langham Publishing

www.langhampublishing.org

Langham Publishing and its imprints are a ministry of Langham Partnership

Langham Partnership

PO Box 296, Carlisle, Cumbria, CA3 9WZ, UK

www.langham.org

ISBNs:

978-1-83973-272-0 Print

978-1-83973-664-3 ePub

978-1-83973-665-0 Mobi

978-1-83973-666-7 PDF

The copyright of this book is held by the School of Preachers Trust. The School of Preachers offers encouragement and training for preachers both in the UK and in Eastern Europe. To find out more please visit: www.schoolofpreachers.org.

John Woods has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the Author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher or the Copyright Licensing Agency.

Requests to reuse content from Langham Publishing are processed through PLSclear. Please visit www.plsclear.com to complete your request.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, Anglicised, NIV®. Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc®. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-83973-272-0

Cover & Book Design: projectluz.com

Langham Partnership actively supports theological dialogue and an author’s right to publish but does not necessarily endorse the views and opinions set forth here or in works referenced within this publication, nor can we guarantee technical and grammatical correctness. Langham Partnership does not accept any responsibility or liability to persons or property as a consequence of the reading, use or interpretation of its published content.

Converted to eBook by EasyEPUB

The book is dedicated to Anne

and our children, Naomi, Rachel and Andrew,

whose presence and love have shown me how a house can be a home.

Contents

Cover

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgements

Part 1 Getting Ready to Build

1 Discovering the Architect’s Intentions

Design

Construction

Exercises

2 Being at Home in the Bible

The Heart of Scripture

Humming the Rhythms of Scripture

Exercises: Based on Deuteronomy 6:4–9

3 Pausing at the Porch

Praying to Our Father

Praying with Others

Praying for Our Church Family

Praying with Dependence on Our Father

Exercises

4 Clarifying the Architect’s Intentions

The Big Idea

The Theme and Aim

The Focus and Function

These Three Approaches in Practice

Exercises

Part 2 The Zones of the House

5 The Door

Starting a Sermon

First Impressions

How Do We Start a Sermon?

Exercises

6 The Rooms

Following Scripture’s Floorplan

Thinking about the Homiletic Theory – Points, Moves, Steps, Pages, and Scenes

Exercises

7 The Connectors

Example: Connectors in Genesis

Example: Connectors in Mark’s Gospel

Hallways

Doorways

Stairs

Wi-Fi

Exercises

8 The Openings: Pictures, Windows and Mirrors

Pictures

Windows

Mirrors

Exercises: Mark 5:1–20

9 The Exit Door

Gospel Endings

Exit Ideas

Don’t Stop – Finish!

Exercises

Part 3 Four Vital Considerations

10 Ambience and Atmosphere

Lights

Welcoming Jesus the Host

More than Words

Exercises

11 Appropriate Proportions

Pacing the Sermon

Varying the Content

Exercises

12 Embodied Preaching

Ear-Gate

Eye-Gate

Taste-Gate, Touch-Gate and Aroma-Gate

Exercise

13 Preaching Jesus from All the Scriptures

Preaching Christ from the Old Testament

Mark’s Gospel

Developing the Instinct

The Jesus Seminar

Exercises

14 Afterword

Bless This House

Praise

Prayer

Part 4 Sample Sermons

15 Introduction

Exercises

16 Home: Finding Your Place

Entrance

Travelling: Stopping: Resting: Dreaming: Seeing: Listening: Responding

Reflections on the Sermon

Exercises

17 The House Fixer Fixes People

Surprise Number 1

Surprise Number 2

Reflecting on the Sermon

Exercises

18 Preaching an Occasional Sermon

The River

The Tree

The Face

Reflection on the Sermon

19 Preaching at Funerals

Key Players in Funeral Services

When a Person Is Not a Believer

Exercise

Bibliography

About Langham Partnership

Endnotes

Index

Foreword

The first sentence of George Steiner’s Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, his classic literary analysis of those two Russian giants, did not refer to the work of either man but instead spoke of Steiner’s own vocation. Literary criticism, Steiner began, should arise out of a debt of love. In a manner evident and yet mysterious, the poem or the drama or the novel seizes upon our imaginings. We are not the same when we put down the work as we were when we took it up.[1]

A debt of love also aptly describes a major motivation of John Woods in creating this book for preachers. His relationship to the ministry of preaching, to those bold enough to take up this calling and to the Christ who stands at the center of the sermon event is marked by love. John has been an eager student of preaching for most of his adult life. No one has plunged more enthusiastically into the vast sea of the literature of preaching, no one has a richer international and ecumenical understanding of the range of preaching, no one has listened and learned more generously, no one is more lovingly committed to equipping the saints for the work of ministry through faithful preaching than John. This book arises out of John’s own sense of his debt of love.

All good textbooks on preaching, and this is surely a fine example, are deceptively simple. At one level they just describe the week in, week out processes that preachers follow in crafting sermons. How to begin this week’s sermon? What to include? What to leave out? How to order the flow? The pattern is followed so often that, for experienced preachers, it can almost become a matter of habit and body knowledge. When it is described in a preaching primer, it can seem akin to following a recipe for making a cake: take so much of this, mix in so much of that, bake for so long.

But the apparent simplicity here is an illusion. As John Woods demonstrates in these pages, each decision a preacher makes is woven into a delicate web of other choices. Together these choices – if done faithfully and well – form a sermon that is more than an expression of the preacher’s personal opinions, more than an artifact of their rhetoric no matter how clever, but instead is a means through which Scripture, and the God who animates Scripture, may speak to renew the church and the world.

As John makes clear, any preacher who approaches the stream that must be crossed to prepare a sermon, and assumes, after a quick glance, that the waters are shallow and easily forded, should beware. In this stream there are not only swift currents but deep pools as well. A wise preacher can be refreshed in these waters, but a foolish one can be quickly swept away.

One way John opens our eyes to the depths and the risks of preaching is through his insistence that good sermons are not prepared with a swagger but on our knees. Sermons are created in the environment of prayer, are formed out of a life of prayer and are not the trophies of skilled orators but are themselves the answers to prayer.

This points to the wisdom in John Woods’s choice of a house as the metaphor for a sermon. Building a house well involves carpentry, plumbing, electrical work and all the other crafts of the builder, but it also involves paying attention to the will and vision of the architect. For John, if Jesus, the architect, is followed, then the sermon becomes the words of life.

Yoshio Taniguchi, who has designed museums all around the world and is most well-known for his breathtaking re-design of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, once said, Architecture is basically a container of something. I hope they will enjoy not so much the teacup, but the tea. Just so, John Woods’s hope for preachers is not that they would design sermons that leave hearers gasping in admiration for the sermon itself, but rather responding in wisdom and faithfulness to the Holy Spirit who has made a home in the sermon.

We are not the same when we put down the work as we were when we took it up. With these words George Steiner reminds us that the true reward for literary critics is to be transformed by the very literature they explore. Preachers who read this book can expect to be similarly transformed. Those of us who preach will not be the same when we put this book down as we were when we took it up.

Thomas G. Long

Bandy Professor Emeritus of Preaching,

Candler School of Theology, Emory University

*****

By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. (Prov 24:3–4)

Have you understood all these things? Jesus asked. Yes, they replied. He said to them, Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old. (Matt 13:51–52)

No one could prepare a work on this subject without feeling, and sometimes deeply feeling, the responsibility he incurred. It is a solemn thing to preach the gospel, and therefore a very solemn thing to attempt instruction or even suggestion as to the means of preaching well. (John A. Broadus)

Preachers cannot be taught. However, what I am suggesting is that preachers can be formed. (Charles Campbell)

Preface

Preaching has been part of my life for over four decades. During that time, I have prepared thousands of sermons and spent a lot of time thinking about what preaching is and how it works. Over the years, I have read a few hundred books on preaching. Each of them has contributed something to both my theory and practice of preaching. Some of these books are big and comprehensive, others are brief and focus on one main subject. One of the oldest books on preaching is Augustine’s On Christian Teaching; it is one of my favourites. Something that stays with me from this book is Augustine’s definition of what is supposed to happen in the process of preaching. Borrowing the words of Cicero, Augustine says that preaching is to teach, delight and persuade.

One of the best comprehensive books on preaching is The Witness of Preaching by Tom Long. One of the best small books is Expository Preaching by David Helm, which provides a helpful outline of the basic steps of approaching the task of preaching today. So why add another book to the many that have been written already? For a while now, I have felt the need for a book on preaching that covers the basics of preaching in a brief but substantial way. A book that is not so much a banquet but rather a series – more like a tapas meal.

I am an admirer of John Broadus. His book on preaching was formed by his teaching at Southern Baptist Seminary. In the aftermath of the American Civil War, he had a preaching class with one student . . . who was blind! As I attempt the process of providing some guidance on how to preach, I am mindful of his warning that it is a very solemn thing to attempt instruction or even suggestion as to the means of preaching well.[1]

I also take on board Charles Campbell’s stark warning: Preachers cannot be taught but they can be formed![2] I guess I half agree with that statement. Preachers are probably born or made rather than taught, but I like the idea of preachers being formed. Formation has the idea of assembling all the raw materials of our background, knowledge, personality, skills and experience and shaping them in a way that makes the best use of them. Viewed in this light, it might be possible to call this book an exercise in homeschooling for preachers.

My hope is that this book will provide a useful lens through which preachers can reflect on their preaching, and will provide tools that will be useful in the process of preparing sermons. Exercises are given at the end of each of the main chapters to root what is written here into the ongoing practice of the preacher. The book ends with four sample sermons that seek to model the approach to preaching advocated here.

Acknowledgements

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. (Psalm 100:4–5)

Enter with the password: Thank you! (Psalm 100:4).

Gratitude is never far below the surface in the Christian life. As you have this completed book in your hands, I have many reasons to be grateful.

I am grateful to the congregations where I have served as pastor since 1982: Beresford Road Evangelical Church, Lowestoft and Lancing Tabernacle. Many thanks for your love, patience and support over the years. Almost everything I have learned about preaching has arisen out of the mysterious interaction between God’s word, God’s people and my efforts as a preacher.

Thanks to God for the unique spaces created during the coronavirus pandemic to think and write this book. Most of the writing happened between March 2020 and May 2021. I changed jobs and had a house move during this time, and I have been grateful to have a new study at the bottom of the garden, where I can work quietly. Quietly that is, when the workman doing extensive work on our new house were not hammering and drilling. Yet I am grateful for the opportunity to watch them at work; many of my observations have informed the house imagery in this book.

My new role as Training Director of the School of Preachers Trust involves, amongst other things, travelling to Latvia to preach and teach. It is great to have use of the small teacher’s flat at the Latvian Biblical Centre in Riga. Three periods of quarantine gave me plenty of time to concentrate. Both Lancing and Riga have given me opportunity to walk by the sea, on the South Downs or along the Daugava River. Frequent bouts of writer’s block were blown away on these brisk walks, which must have amounted to more than a million steps.

Thanks to, Julian Rebera, Mike Dennis, Raymond Metcalfe, Roland Christopher and Susan Lyon, the trustees of the School of Preachers Trust, and Roger