Stetzer: I've found as I speak at conferences and preach at churches, I actually find myself using PowerPoint less. I think there's sort of an expectation that I would because you've got to send your PowerPoint ahead of time. No, I joke, I'm just going to read the Bible and yell. I think sometimes those tools are helpful; but in our churches, we often turn tools into rules. Then you must do something; it becomes expected and mundane and loses part of its purpose and use.
Preaching: One of the things the Heath's talk about in Made to Stick—one principle that makes ideas sticky—is the use of story. As you look at preaching, what do you think about the importance of the use of story in today's environment?
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Stetzer: I think it's a big deal. I think a lot of preachers who were trained in more traditional exegetical approaches are missing that frequently. As a matter of fact, in the first book I wrote I talked about the need for narrative exposition, for us to be able to preach narrative but also through a stack narrative.
When you think of a stack narrative, you watch a TV show, such as "Lost," and there are four or five narratives kind of woven throughout that stretch. That's called a stack narrative. I think ultimately we need a stackpole, and that's the Scriptural narrative; 70 percent of Scripture is narrative, depending on how you count. We need to preach that, but I think we can weave in other stories in a way that enables people to engage.
I think a lot of people, when they hear preaching stories, they think of getting up and telling "once upon a time" and then throwing in a few Bible verses; but I think people can preach in narrative ways that engage the narrative of Scripture and do so with stack narratives that help people make that application. I think it's a very effective way in an emerging, postmodern context. I think more and more churches are finding that and seeking to do that.
I know of one church that right now is going to take two years going through the Book of Luke just telling the story. A church where I'll be preaching locally is going through the Gospel of John and finding creative ways to tell the story. So, we're seeing a shift in some ways from the epistles to the gospels. Maybe we were preaching too much epistles. I want to make sure we're preaching the full counsel of the Word of God, and not through only the Old Testament, because there's so much in all of that. We evangelicals; we like the didactic nature of Romans.
I just did a series at my church called Zag. When the world zigs, in the kingdom of God we zag. I just walked through the kingdom parables of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. That is harder for me to preach than "What then is the use of the law in
Romans 3?"
Preaching: I have a friend who, though he has long since passed retirement age, is pastoring a church with lots of young adults. What he's finding out is the thing they respond to the most is telling the Bible stories, because they don't know them.
