Willhite, Keith and Gibson, Scott M., eds. The Big Idea of Biblical Preaching: Connecting the Bible to People. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1998. 199p. ISBN 0-8010-9066-0.

Haddon Robinson (a contributing editor of Preaching is one of the most popular and respected preachers and teachers of preaching in today's evangelical world. He left the presidency of Denver Seminary to move to the Harold J. Ockenga professorship of Preaching at Gordon-Conwell Seminary in South Hamilton, MA because of his commitment to focusing his remaining years of ministry intensely in the teaching of preaching. He asks the poignant question, "I listen to some preachers who preach for an hour and it seems like 20 minutes. I listen to others who preach for 20 minutes and it seems like an hour. I wonder what makes the difference?" For Robinson, the basic answer is the effective communication of a single big idea from a text of Scripture.

Keith Willhite and Scott Gibson, founders of the Evangelical Homiletics Society, along with several of Robinson's colleagues and students have written this festschrift in honor of Haddon Robinson's life and ministry. Drawing from many friends and proteges of Robinson, most of whom are out of the Dallas Seminary tradition, the book is divided into three major sections. First, Willhite and Scott Wenig argue "Why a Single Idea Lands the Best Punch." Bruce Waltke, Duane Litfin, Paul Borden, Terry Mattingly, and Bruce Shelley argue the "Biblical and Theological Power" of Big Idea Preaching. Finally, Donald Sunujkian, Joseph Stowell, John Reed, and Scott Gibson offer advice on "Communicating the Point."

Willhite discusses Robinson's concept of "Big Idea" preaching by arguing that the only way to say "thus saith the Lord" is to say what the Bible says. Big idea preaching is propositional preaching -- a notion that has been the topic of much discussion in academic homiletical circles. Propositional preaching does not mean woodenly deductive. Rather, it means that the intention of the sermon is to use the most effective means to communicate the "big idea" of the biblical text.

Robinson says, "Ideally, each sermon is the explanation, interpretation, or application of a single dominant idea supported by other ideas, all drawn from one passage or several passages of Scripture." The text may say many things but the sermon should focus on the synthesis of the "big idea" behind the many statements of a given text.

Scott Wenig helps us to see how a sermon that is "text driven" must be "audience focused." Using several historic figures ranging from Chrysostom and Augustine to Martin Luther and Martin Luther King, Jr., he demonstrates how they were able to contextualize their message. He says, "Transformational preaching is rooted in the sacred text but contextualized to a specific audience."

If one is faithfully to exegete and to exposit a biblical passage in order to communicate the "big idea," he or she must pay particular attention to the form of the biblical passage. Within each Testament there are differing subsets of biblical forms in use. The realization that redactors have skillfully woven together many different sources in telling the biblical story, confirms the importance of "big idea" preaching. The model of the writers of the biblical text helps preachers see how differing strands can come together to communicate a single "big idea."