When we take a biblical passage and study it in order to understand it, and then to be able to preach it, we need a variety of skills. This post (and tomorrow’s) isn’t an attempt to exhaustively define the exegetical process, but rather a selection of elements that may prompt your self-awareness in this process – perhaps you’re weaker in one area than another, perhaps you need a reminder to include something. Feel free to add thoughts too, this is brief and non-exhaustive! Whole Bible Awareness – We don’t rip out the page we are studying, but read in light of the context. We need to think consciously about how the passage fits in the progress of revelation, what the “informing theology” is that feed into the passage, as well as how the big narrative of Scripture develops after the passage. Scholarly Awareness – We aren’t the definitive measure of truth, but do well to engage with others in informed conversation as we study a passage. So we utilise commentaries and reference tools of various kinds, but we can’t rely on them (or just reproduce them – God has called you to preach to these people this Sunday, not FF Bruce, CH Spurgeon or John Calvin.) Original Language Study – Whenever possible, to the extent of our ability, we should do the serious work of passage study in reference to the original language. This doesn’t guarantee a better message. In fact, one of the most important things about original language study is that we must know our limitations. Sometimes there’s nothing worse for a sermon than someone with a year or two of serious study behind them, or even just a copy of Vine’s next to them at their desk, offering original language insights in a sermon. If you are able, or if not, then utilising the skill of others, allow original language study to inform your English sermon . . .
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Varied Skills in Passage Study
I’m cleaning out the great mass of books on my shelves in the vain hope of getting some order in my life. Of course I got stuck early on by re-reading well treasured books that have been gathering too much dust on the shelves.
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Samuel Wilberforce and the first General Convention on the Episcopal Church beginnings.
Ever since Steve Jobs and the iPhone posse came down from on high and delivered to us common folk his revolutionary technology, people have been looking like Cujo for the latest in “apps”. It’s now an advertising pop culture reference but seriously, regardless of what inane need you have… hit it… “there’s an app for
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Hate God? There’s an app for that.
WASHINGTON, July 6 — The Obama administration is offering incentives to Kenya to approve a controversial new constitution that would legalize abortion for the first time, promising that passage will “allow money to flow” into the nation’s coffers, including U.S. aid
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Obama pushing abortion on Kenya
Last Sunday I was preaching in a church and had to ask if the message would be going online. Every now and then you have to be aware of such things. But unless you’re sharing information that is sensitive, does it really matter? I suppose the myth of online exposure is alluring for all egos.
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Does It Matter If It’s Going Online?
This blog, Sunday in the South , is five years old, having begun on July 13, 2005. Please rate SITS With 1,467 posts in five years, that averages to 293.4 posts a year, or 24.45 posts per month over sixty months.
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Happy Birthday, Sunday in the South!
A little double entendre in the title. I want to write briefly about sermon series. But this is also another in the series of posts started yesterday. In that post I suggested that we shouldn’t be overly dogmatic about whether we project the text or not. I have my opinions, obviously others have theirs too. But my point was that this is not the main point (even though we are prone to make any preference into a definitive conviction). So today I’ll raise the subject of series, and again I’ll suggest that there are different perspectives, and perhaps again we’ll hear some readers share their reasoned positions. Should we always preach through Bible books, or sections of books? Some would say absolutely yes. God gave us sixty-six books, He did not inspire a thematic table of contents. A balanced diet will best be found by sequential exposition that therefore does not and cannot shirk the tough subjects, tricky texts and the whole scope of the canon. The “whole counsel” is a term often coined in these discussions. It does diminish the time wasting that can go on in selecting sermon texts, or the personal hobby horses that regularly gallop through some pulpits. But others would critique this approach for a variety of reasons. Some would suggest that while “all Scripture is God-breathed and useful” – not all Scripture is equally useful to all listeners all of the time. At a certain level we would probably all agree with that (you would be disappointed to take a friend to an evangelistic event and have the preaching text announced as Nehemiah 7). Some would suggest that varying the preaching text allows for a broader scope of biblical exposure than being tied into a very long series through a book. Others might point out that it is perfectly possible to preach expository sermons without being tied into consecutive passage selection (which must not become a defining feature of “expository” preaching).
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And Now For The Next in the Series
The U.S. special envoy to Sudan spoke Tuesday about the challenges facing the war-torn country as it prepares for a referendum that likely will result in the secession of [heavily Christian] South Sudan from the Arab-dominated north. “We have less than six months until the referendum,” Scott Gration said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies
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South will likely secede
I recently enjoyed reading The Trellis and the Vine by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne. In the book they suggest that the role of the pastor has shifted from religious service provider to CEO in many churches. But they also suggest there needs to be a further shift, to trainer (i.e.
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Job Description?
This is the kind of question that can easily become a strongly held conviction. But should it? Well, people do benefit from seeing the text, and seeing it in the same translation as the speaker, and without the hassles, distraction, or potential embarressment of having to look it up in their own Bible, which of course, they may not have. On the other hand, people who don’t need to bring their Bibles to church, won’t bring their Bibles to church, and won’t develop the ability to look up references, nor to see passages in their contexts – instead getting used to the idea that verses stand alone in picturesque vacuums
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Should Bible Text Be Projected?