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D.Min. News

February 2006
volume1, issue 4

Welcome!

Devotional

When I walk into a room and my eleven month old daughter’s face lights up, when she breaks into a toothy grin, her body barely containing her excitement at seeing me, I think, "What in the world? All this excitement over me? Awesome!" Then it occurs to me that she likes me and (or possibly because) she needs me. My husband and I provide her food, we change her diapers, we comfort her, we make her feel safe, we love her. She could not survive without our care and protection, and her response to us shows that even at this tender age she is aware of that care and protection. Her world is good and she knows who makes it good.

As I experience these precious times with her, I have begun to realize that perhaps this is part of what Jesus meant when he called us to a child-like faith. Catherine knows her parents and her response flows from that knowledge. If I know Jesus – as the one who provides my food, my security, my breath and life and health – wouldn’t I have a similar natural response? Wouldn’t I break into huge grins whenever I see him? Wouldn’t I peek around the corners of life expecting to see him there?

There is something about growing up and getting older that has the potential to dull our sense of Jesus, of his presence and provision in our lives. Perhaps we are older and wiser, and realize that our actions have consequences, which can take the mystery and joy out of divine interaction and provision; perhaps we are tired, and feel disappointed or hurt or rejected; perhaps we are cynical, fearing that our sins and other’s are too great to overcome. Or perhaps we just don’t know Jesus as well as we think we do.

Whatever the case, I am grateful that I have this happy little reminder that the one who loved me enough to give his life for me and who holds and wields all power in the universe peeks into my life frequently with a smile and says “I’m here.” May we all experience that grin-producing body-wiggling joy that comes from knowing our Father in heaven. -Jennifer Drummond, Admissions and Recruiting Coordinator

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Trends
How to write sermon points that follow the way people think.

An article by Steven D. Mathewson. (first published in PreachingTodaySermons.com, October 13, 2005)

Twenty students and two professors stared at the handwriting on the wall. One by one, students in a seminary preaching class were to project on overheads their first attempts at a sermon outline from an assigned passage. I waited apprehensively for my turn. My friend, Rod, was up first. Rod looked at his transparency and read aloud his main points for a potential sermon on 1 Samuel 17, the David-Goliath story:

I. Goliath Challenges God's People.
II. Saul Cowers with God's People.
III. David Conquers for God's People.

After a pause, Haddon Robinson, the lead professor, growled: "That sounds like it came out of a book called Simple Sermons for Sunday Evening." The class erupted with laughter. Nervous laughter. Sympathetic laughter. "Nobody talks like this anymore, except in the pulpit," he continued. Duane Litfin, guest professor, chimed in: "What Haddon is saying is that he's afraid you might go out and actually preach that sermon!" More laughter.

The outline stage in sermon preparation is, for some, the most intimidating step in the process. Homiletics author Bryan Chapell says, "In the classroom and in seminars around the country, I find that preachers have more questions about structure than they do about any other aspect of preaching."

How do we write sermon outlines that are not trite, communicate in a natural way, and present our ideas clearly? Here are three strategies.

One of the key purposes of a sermon outline is to track the sermon's flow of thought. Out of this purpose flows the first strategy: State your outline points in full sentences.

Haddon Robinson says that since each point in the outline represents an idea, it should be a grammatically complete sentence. When words and phrases stand as points, they deceive us because they are incomplete and vague. Partial statements allow thought to slip through our minds like a greased football.

Writing an outline is a way of thinking. You will short-circuit the thinking process if you do not write out your points in complete sentences. You can't evaluate clarity of thought or the logical progression of your ideas if all you see are lone words.

The second strategy is: Don't try to create outlines people will remember. It took me years of preaching to figure this out. I sincerely believed that listeners would be better for taking my outline points home with them ? either in their heads or, better yet, on paper. Without a "captioned survey" of either the passage or the principles in it, how would people get the text into their lives?

The problem is modern listeners are not used to getting information in a captioned survey format. Neither Dan Rather nor Dan Patrick communicate information like this. Their presentation follows a conversational flow.

A few months ago, Lisa, a close family friend, called and asked me what appendicitis pain feels like. Her husband, Eric, was on a business trip in California and was feeling an excruciating pain in his lower abdominal region. Because I had my appendix removed about three years earlier, Lisa wanted my input. Imagine how canned my reply would have sounded if it had followed this outline:

I. The character of appendicitis pain
A. It is an excruciating pain.
B. It is an enveloping pain.
II. The context of appendicitis pain
A. Its locus is abdominal.
B. Its focus is appendicital.
III. The cancellation of appendicitis pain
A. It requires reflection by the doctor.
B. It requires removal of the organ.
C. It requires rest for the patient.

The advantage of this kind of presentation is that Lisa could easily follow it. Alliterating the three main points with the letter C (character, context, and cancellation) provides a memory aid. But obviously, this kind of communication is unnatural. It's boring, and it doesn't work the way conversation usually flows.

As a preacher of God's Word, your goal is to communicate the ideas in a text and to point out the controlling thought or "big idea." Ideas gel in people's minds through words and pictures. I want people to go home with God's truth in mind, and particularly a picture of what that looks like when lived out in their lives. I need my outline to help me communicate the ideas and pictures. But hearers don't need to see my outline any more than they need to see the two-by-four studs supporting the sheetrock wall in my living room.

In fact, when I preach, I may or may not say the statement exactly as I have it worded in Roman numeral I. The key is, by the time I'm done with Roman numeral I, the idea it expresses will have formed in the hearers' minds.

Like a map, an outline gives directions. It provides a preacher with a communication plan. It says, "Here's the concept to communicate first; here's the concept to communicate second," and so on. Writing an outline for yourself helps produce a flow of thought that is logical. As you look at an outline on a page, you'll be able to spot any muddled thinking. You'll be able to evaluate whether your sermon has a sense of movement or progress. You'll see gaps or inconsistencies in your thinking.

In the following outline from a sermon on Psalm 137, notice the two main points:

I. Unfair experiences leave people who are designed to praise God wondering how they can ever praise him again (vv. 1-6).
A. The believer's life is supposed to be a life of praise (Psalms 135 and 136).
B. But unfair experiences ruin a person's appetite for praise (vv. 1-3).
C. This puts believers in a dilemma since what they can't do is what they should do (vv. 4-6).
II. (Big idea) Trusting in God's justice restores a ruined appetite for praise (vv. 7-9).
A. The psalmist's solution (for restoring an appetite for praise) appears to be vindictive.
B. The solution is trusting in God's vindication.

The first point states the idea I want to communicate from verses 1-6, but I don't state it directly when I begin developing the idea. The idea will emerge by the time I'm done developing this section of the sermon. At some point I may say, "Verses 1-6 teach us that unfair experiences leave people who are designed to praise God wondering how they can ever praise him again." However, I won't try to make this statement prominent. I'll communicate the idea by restating this concept in various ways. For example, I'll say something like, "The operative question in verses 1-6 is, how can I restore my appetite for praising God when he allows unfair experiences into my life?"

The second major point is a statement of the sermon's big idea, so I will state it verbatim two or three times, and then I'll find a couple of other ways to restate it. However, I won't preface it as "point number two." I'll simply work the statement into the flow of my material. The trick to keeping people on track when your sermon is more conversational is to craft effective transitions. Transitions stitch blocks of ideas together, showing relationships between them.

Now having said this, there may be times when you want people to remember the points in your outline. This happens when the biblical writer offers a list. Usually a sermon giving "four keys to a strong marriage" or "three ways to avoid anger" reflects the preacher's convention, not the Bible's. However, a passage like 1 Peter 4:7-11 certainly contains a list. The writer begins by saying, "The end of all things is near." Then he uses the word therefore to introduce some implications. The main idea of the paragraph is: Last days living requires God's people to get serious about prayer, love, sharing, and serving. The main level outline points for a sermon on this text look like this:

I. Last days living requires God's people to get serious about prayer (v. 7b).
II. Last days living requires God's people to get serious about love (v. 8).
III. Last days living requires God's people to get serious about sharing (v. 9).
IV. Last days living requires God's people to get serious about prayer (vv. 10-11).

Here's a final strategy for creating sermon outlines that help a sermon, without taking on a life of their own: Sometimes view main points as endings, not beginnings. Use this whenever you want to present your material inductively. In an inductive presentation, you deal with the details first and then present your conclusion at the end. The advantage is the creation of suspense.

Typically a preacher will move out of an introduction and state point I. After stating point I, the preacher moves to subpoint A, then to subpoint B, and so on. However, in an inductive presentation of point I, the preacher will move out of the introduction into subpoint A, then subpoint B, and so forth. Only at the end of the subpoints does the idea or point in Roman numeral I emerge.

This is precisely what I do when I preach Psalm 137 according to the above outline. Go back and look at how the subpoints build to express each of the two main points. When you prepare your outline, indicate which main points will be developed inductively. Put "develop inductively" ? in parentheses and in italics ? after the statement of the main point.

Try out these strategies as you prepare your sermon outline this week. You should end up with an outline that makes for a clear and conversational message.

Steven D. Mathewson is senior pastor of Dry Creek Bible Church, Belgrade, Montana, and graduate of The Preacher and The Message, 2000.

If you have identified a trend you would like to highlight for future issues, please e-mail berickso@gcts.edu and in the subject line, write trends. We are looking for students like you to tell us what is going on in your area of ministry - what seems to be a trend and how you are working with that trend.
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Illustrations

How to eat a piece of fruit:
One person has an apple and another person has an orange. Neither person can see the piece of fruit the other is holding; however, they want to communicate with each other and tell the other how to eat the fruit. The person holding the apple tells the other to just bite into it. The other person does and immediately tries to spit out the bitter taste of the rind. This person begins to insist on peeling the skin off the fruit first. The person with the apple refuses on the basis of loosing the best part of the fruit. An all-out argument insues with each person trying to convince the other of the right way to eat fruit, not knowing that they are talking about two different kinds of fruit. Isn't that the way with us, sometimes, when we don't clearly define the issue we are talking about and continue to demand our "right" to be heard and followed.

If you have an illustration or quote you would like to share as noteworthy, please submit to berickso@gcts.edu and in the subject line, write illustrations.
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Recent & Readable

I have been richly blessed by reading some of David G. Benner?s books on spiritual formation, soul care and spiritual friendship over the past few months. I highly recommend them to you:

• Sacred Companions: The Gift of Spiritual Friendship and Direction
• Care of Souls: Revisioning Christian Nurture and Counsel
• Spiritual Direction and the Care of Souls: A Guide to Christian Approaches and Practices
• Desiring God?s Will: Aligning Our Hearts with the Heart of God ? Surrender to Love: Discovering the Heart of Christian Spirituality
• The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self-Discovery

Be sure to check out this website for additional resources for leaders and teams: www.LeadershipTransformations.org Here you will find the full complement of ministry services and resources LTi is currently providing our constituents. Note some of the free resources available, the new Becoming A Healthy Disciple Small Group Study and Worship Guide, as well as the growing number of language translations now available for Becoming A Healthy Church.

Let me close this newsletter with words from David Benner?s The Gift of Being Yourself (pp. 48, 49)?

?What matters supremely is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it ? the fact that he knows me. We are graven on the palms of God?s hands and never out of the Divine mind. All our knowledge of God depends on God?s sustained initiative in knowing us. We know God, because God first knew us, and continues to know us. I am convinced that God loves each and every one of us with depth, persistence and intensity beyond imagination. God doesn?t simply like you. Nor does God simply have warm sentimental feelings toward you just because you were created in the Divine image. The truth is that God loves you with what Hannah Hurnard calls ?a passionate absorbed interest.? God cannot help seeing you through the eyes of love. Even more remarkable, God?s love for you has nothing to do with your behavior. Neither your faithlessness nor your unfaithfulness alters Divine love in the slightest degree. Like the father?s love in the parable of the prodigal son, Divine love is absolutely unconditional, unlimited and unimaginably extravagant. The generative love of God was our origin. The embracing love of God sustains our existence. The inextinguishable love of God is the only hope for our fulfillment. Love is our identity and our calling, for we are children of Love. Created from love, of love and for love, our existence makes no sense apart from Divine love?? May you know the depth of that love today and always!

Your grateful brother in Christ,
Stephen A. Macchia, D.Min. Founder and President Leadership Transformations, Inc.

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Program Updates

We are pleased to announce a new partnership with the military chaplains of the Army, Navy, and Air Force! If you know a chaplain who would be interested in earning a Doctor of Ministry, please contact us for details.

Spiritual Formation for Ministry Leaders is beginning in January 2007. Call or e-mail us about this new and exciting track taught by Dr. David Currie and Dr. Steve Macchia.

Outreach & Discipleship is beginning in June 2007. Call or e-mail us about this new and exciting track taught by Dr. Robert Coleman, Dr. David Currie, and Dr. Tim Beougher (from Southern Baptist Seminary).

Take a moment to review the schedule of other upcoming cohorts. Let us know if you would like us to send information to anyone you know.

Also, take a moment to see where we will be over the next few months. Maybe you can join us!
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Wouldn't it be nice if...

Featured here are links to websites that have proven to be a useful resource for ministry. Also featured here are subjects for research and good topics for thesis-projects. For example, wouldn't it be nice if there were a curriculum developed for teaching homiletics in India? If you have anything that you would like to add to this section, please submit it to berickso@gcts.edu and in the subject line, write links.