Theology of preaching pdf

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A theology of preaching : the dynamics of the Gospel Item Preview. EMBED for wordpress. Want more? We hear in order to believe Rom This is the work of God — faith John The work of God for which the preacher aims is not so much what the congregation will do on Monday morning having been inspired by the word.

The work of God is what God Himself does to the congregation right there in the Sunday sermon. It is a work which we cannot perform as preachers but to which we are called nonetheless. In prayerful dependence we follow the way of witness in the Scriptures as they point to Christ. And we point, too. With excitement, with passion, with entreaty.

And we say as Moses did regarding the bronze serpent: Look and live! Hopefully it is not a new thought that Christ is the Word of God. Perhaps, though, it is a new thought to consider preaching as the word of God. Therefore some may wonder whether we have lost the vital importance of Scripture as the word of God. Absolutely not. Without Scripture we have no Christ. Without Scripture we have no preaching.

Yet here is the irony. On this understanding preaching either doubts or dilutes the authority of the Bible. In either case we are left with this question: Why should the preacher even attempt to offer words in addition to the written word? If, as the reformers contended so fiercely, the Bible is perspicuous, why should the preacher take up thirty minutes of the service but the Bible reading only three?

Here is the problem: if the preacher is reduced to a bible-expert we inadvertently reduce the bible to a difficult text. And simultaneously the preacher is raised up to stand in the gap. Yet the bible is already perspicuous, already living and active, already a persuasive word, already a pointed application-making address, already a witness to Christ. On this understanding the preacher comes along merely to strengthen Scriptural admonishments to piety.

Yet the bible was not given for the prayer closet but the pulpit. What then is the role of the preacher? We stand in a stream. The Scriptures overflow. Already the written word has this out-going character. Nothing has been said yet about the character of the preacher. This has been deliberate. The Second Helvetic Confession continues its article on preaching by saying Whatever we say about the character, gifting or expertise of the preacher it must begin with these immovable indicatives.

We gratefully hear this word, knowing its divine source and character. Preachers though find themselves carried along in the same movement to testify to this same Word that holds them captive. Thus the preacher is never a person capable of preaching. Really the true mark of the preacher is that they are incapable of doing otherwise. Find out how you can support Union as we work to make theological learning flexible and accessible for everyone, for life.

Facebook Twitter. School Research School Resources Mission. We are Union. First, there is the existential theology of preaching. In this theology, preaching supplies a divine Word that answers a crisis or conflict at the heart of human existence. Theologians such as Paul Tillich encouraged this way of thinking about preaching. Human beings are finite, attempting to secure themselves in the world via any number of self-securing idolatries in order to deflect, if only for a while, the deep sense that life is ultimately meaningless and ruled by despair and death.

What sermon listeners need, therefore, is a Word of redemption and meaning from outside this situation that will answer their deepest questions about life and death. Preaching brings this Word. The ancient biblical model for this theology of preaching is found in the oracular prophets. Oracle is a form of prophetic or redemptive speech occurring at the center of some process of human inquiry in Hebrew, darash YHWH or inquiring of God.

There are many instances of oracle throughout the biblical witness, including the interpretation of dreams Joseph and Daniel , divination, interpretation of lots cast or the oracle of the ephod, Saul and the woman of Endor, and those instances in which Jesus answers an existential question in a way that opens up a new set of redemptive possibilities the healing of the paralytic, Zaccheus, Nicodemus, the Syrophonecian Woman, the woman at the well, the woman with the flow of blood, and so on.

The ultimate purpose of our preaching is to exalt the greatness and glory of our God. Akin, Bill Curtis, and Stephen N. Engaging Exposition. Submit Comment. Facebook Instagram Twitter Linkedin. A Theology of Preaching, Part 4. Preaching is often done without much consideration being given to "why" we preach. This 4-part series explains a theology of preaching. First, why do we preach? Second, what do we preach?