By Donald R. Sunukjian
Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2007. Hardcover, 375 pages.
Don Sunukjian has long been an influential voice among evangelical homileticians. With the publication of his excellent new book Invitation to Biblical Preaching, that influence will be extended and deepened.
Although primarily designed as a preaching textbook, the volume will also prove valuable to veteran preachers looking for new insights and perspectives. Sunukjian is committed to biblical preaching, and offers useful guidance in developing sermons that are faithful to the biblical text and sensitive to the contemporary setting.
Unlike many evangelical writers, Sunukjian doesn’t claim “expository preaching” as a primary model. He argues that biblical preaching is defined by “how the biblical material is treated,” and can be presented in various models, including a topical message. Realistically, however, if you follow Sunukjian’s guidance in developing sermons, you’ll spend most of your time preaching what we would recognize as expository messages.
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To Sunukjian, the preacher is one who stands in the midst of the congregation, open Bible in hand, and shares, “It’s what God is saying to us! He’s already said it to me; I’ve already received the benefit from it as I’ve studied and prepared. And now I’m simply sharing it with you – Look at what God is saying to us!”
As an expositor, says Sunukjian, we seek to be “true to the meaning of the original author,” which means that the sermon should “unfold according to the natural flow of thought of the biblical author.” Such an approach does not seek to dip into the text to lift out observations (for example, using the story of David and Goliath to suggest “six characteristics of a future leader”) that would have seemed alien to the biblical author.
Yet the biblical truth must be presented “in a manner that is relevant to the contemporary listener.” That involves not simply teaching the details of a passage but applying the biblical principle to contemporary listeners and drawing pictures of what those implications would look like today.
Sunukjian offers a series of steps in recognizing “what God is saying” through a text:
- Study the passage
- Outline the flow (including three stages: the passage outline, “happened;” truth outline, “happens;” and sermon outline, “happening”)
- Move from history to timeless truth
- Form the take-home truth (one sentence that expresses “the essential core of what the author is saying”)
In each of these steps Sunukjian offers additional guidance along with helpful examples based on different biblical passages.
After going through the hermeneutical process in the above stages, then it’s time to ask “what God is saying – to us.” Here Sunukjian offers a series of guides to the process of formulating a relevant message rooted in the biblical passage, starting with three developmental questions: