By Kenton C. Anderson
Moving from that foundational decision, Anderson says the preacher then faces the question: how will I communicate the message? He offers two alternatives — cognition and affection — and offers an extended discussion of the process involved with developing both types of sermons. The first approach involves focusing on the ideas (propositions) in the sermon (propositions), while the latter focuses on images.
“Cognitive preaching is committed to providing people with the principles of Scripture that will stand across time,” Anderson says. On the other hand, “affective preaching focuses on the images. The preacher touches the heart of the listener through the pictures and descriptions of the sermon, creating a desire for change that works at a different level than logic does.”
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Anderson then offers a matrix of various homiletic structural alternatives, based on the contrasting polar points of thinking-feeling and watching-doing. “Where deduction meets cognition, we find the home of the declarative sermon, favored by classical biblical preachers who value traditional approaches to biblical exegesis.” As an example of this model Anderson suggests John MacArthur. The second model is the pragmatic sermon, which is at “the junction of cognition and induction.” The contemporary model offered here is Rick Warren.
A third approach is the narrative sermon, “crossing induction with affection” for those who “like nothing more than a good story to guide them into truth.” Eugene Lowry is the model for this point. The visionary sermon is the fourth model, which seeks to blend deduction and affection and is “motivated by a powerful vision of the future.” Anderson’s suggested example is Rob Bell.
The author also suggests a fifth model outside the matrix, the integrative sermon, for those “who refuse to be pinned down and would rather roam the globe” in an attempt “to speak meaningfully to all four approaches to preaching and learning, perhaps even in the same sermon.” Anderson places himself in this category.
Anderson offers a full chapter on each of these five homiletical models, including practical insights on an approach to effectively developing such a sermon. He also offers an extended discussion of the contemporary preachers who have been cited as exemplars of each model. (The CD-ROM that accompanies the book includes sample audio sermons from each of these except Rob Bell, whose sermon can be accessed online. The CD also includes a variety of additional resources, including a powerpoint show which can be used in teaching the content of Choosing to Preach in a classroom setting — a very nice feature for homiletics professors!) Anderson encapsulates the five approaches with clever tags: