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Preach Story Texts in Story Style

Shaping the narrative sermon

Steve Mathewson

What shape should a sermon from an Old Testament narrative take? Homiletician Sidney Greidanus says, " The most appropriate form for a sermon on a narrative text is, not surprisingly, the narrative form. " However, like ice skating, shaping a sermon according to its story line is not as easy as it looks.

This sermon clinic evaluates the form of the narrative sermon " No Selective Obedience, " on 1 Samuel 15:1-35. Discussing what the preacher did or did not do will expose the elements of an effective form for a sermon from an Old Testament narrative.

Strengths

1. Follows the flow of the story. While this seems like a given, many sermons on Old Testament narrative texts do not take their shape from the contours of the story line. Good story sermon form tracks not only the sequence of events but, more importantly, the crisis-resolution flow of the events. This sermon develops the crisisSaul's disobedienceand then the resolutionGod's rejection of Saul. Peachers who fall prey to the list-of-principles ...