Developing Biographical Narratives: Insights for Preaching from Charles Swindoll
The
proclamation of the Word of God through the lives of Bible characters in a biographical
sermon has had a lively history of practice. In the nineteenth and early part
of the twentieth century, the biographical sermon was highly esteemed, and congregations
thronged to hear the colorful biographical sermons of such preachers as Dwight
L. Moody, Thomas DeWitt Talmage, F. B. Meyer, Frederick W. Robertson, Alexander
Maclaren, Joseph Parker, and Alexander Whyte.1
Significant
for a study of contemporary biographical preaching, Walter Kaiser identified
Charles Swindoll, noted for his preaching on Bible characters, as an exemplary
model for contemporary expository preaching of the Old Testament.2
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Charles
Swindoll was cited in a 1994 Baylor University study as one of the twelve most
effective preachers in the English-speaking world.3 More
recently, Swindoll was chosen in a Leadership journal poll as one of the most
effective preachers today.4 Swindoll’s “verse-with-verse”
expository preaching on biblical characters has had wide and popular appeal.
Many of his biographical sermons on Bible characters have been published.
What
has made Swindoll’s biographical sermons so popular? I believe that it
has to do with how Swindoll treats the exposition of the biographical narrative
and how he shapes the narrative text into an interesting and powerful communicative
form. The focus of this article will be to uncover some of the key features
of Swindoll’s use of the text and sermon design based on an analysis of
selected sermons. From the study I will suggest a homiletical approach for preachers
to develop biographical narrative texts into biographical sermons that communicate
with biblical integrity and contemporary relevance. The analysis of Swindoll’s
sermons as well as the approach to developing biographical narratives is suggestive
rather than exhaustive.5
Sermon
Content
Swindoll’s
sermons reveal that he depends on a variety of texts within a larger narrative
section. His sermon texts often span several or more chapters of narrative material.
The textual framework of Swindoll’s sermons is dictated usually by the
particular event or subject being treated. In what Roy De Brand termed the “life-portion”
approach,6 Swindoll favors the strategy of bringing out
a distinguishing characteristic of the Bible character as he or she interacts
in the biblical narrative. The distinguishing characteristic brought out in
the sermon is usually presented as one worthy of emulation. An example of this
“heroic” narrative is Swindoll’s sermon on David and Goliath,
“David and the Dwarf,” in which 1 Samuel 17:1-50 serves as the textual
framework.7 Sometimes a distinguishing characteristic
is presented which the hearer is admonished to avoid. Swindoll’s sermon
on Moses, “A Moment of Rage,” based on Exodus 2:10-2; 32; Numbers
20 is indicative of this type of “tragic” narrative.