Topic: When to preach inductively and deductively.
Big Idea: Balance clarity and interest to determine which style of preaching you use.

Preaching Today Sermons: We hear a lot about inductive and deductive preaching. Yet it can be difficult for preachers to clearly distinguish between the two, using each effectively. Can you give us a brief yet memorable definition of each approach?

Donald: Inductive preaching essentially asks a question and arrives at the answer toward the latter part of the sermon. Deductive is the opposite of that. In deductive preaching you give the declarative statement up front and then support it. So the styles differ by whether the listener hears the point you're going to make up front, or they hear the question and then arrive at the answer through a progression.

Tell us a little bit about the various levels of the sermon where we make serious choices between the two.

There are really four places in the sermon where induction and deduction show up. The first is ...