Topical sermons driven by audience needs can either be evange­listic or pre-evangelistic in form, stance, and nature (you can derive textual sermons from audience needs too).

Where? Where does one find audience-driven topics, topics that are also addressed and anticipated in the Bible but only resolved by embracing Jesus? One finds them in the breadth of human experience — whether needs, values, beliefs, experiences, or behavior. Actually, there is no limit to these starting points for launching a topical evangelistic sermon. God has built into every life and culture issues and needs that only Jesus can resolve. If you look, you'll find. Further, the nature of the Bible as adequate for issues that have not yet arisen, questions that have not yet been asked, and experiences that have not yet happened allows us to find sermonic correlation in the final movement of the topical sermon that results in Jesus as the God who saves sinners.

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I know all this may sound complex, and I too wish we could merely quote the Bible for people's quick recognition of the truth. Yet it is not as complex as it seems, nor is it as simple as quoting the Bible to those of another worldview. Just like you must do hard work for any preaching, you must take additional audience factors into thoughtful and prayerful consideration as you prepare for unbelieving audiences.

Remember, you are not alone in the process of preparing and delivering sermons. There is One who has gone ahead of you into the audience, and not only in the inspiration of Scripture. He is anxious to get his salvation message to those who do not share your worldview through you. So depend on him, exegete your audience,4 prepare your sermon, keeping the "rights of the pew" for a clear and winsome presentation of the gospel to the audience in mind.

Pre-evangelistic Preaching

Pre-evangelistic preaching will always be topical in nature for the reasons just given. Since pre-evangelistic preaching is not just Christian moralism, it will name and point to Jesus. Christian moralism, the covert and surreptitious verbalization of Christian principles for the challenges of life, assumes that Christian virtues and values will assist people whether they turn to Christ or not. I place that stealth operation in the category of pre-evangelistic presentation but not in pre-evangelistic preaching. There we are helping people with a Christian way of doing life, and we hope that it will take. Our motive allows us to use the word evangelism in that pre-evangelistic witness. We give people some right words to live by in life, leadership, or love. We may point to Jesus as teacher without necessarily mentioning Christ as Savior. For example, while speaking to business leaders or athletes, we talk about the value of teamwork (a solid Christian value) or the need for integrity (a core Christian virtue).

No more is pre-evangelism an exotic exercise undertaken outside the church and meant only for sophisticated, antagonistic audi­ences. It is very likely that people in your own audience, invited by friends, perhaps, to a special evangelistic event, hail from diverse worldviews imbibed via academia, media, or relationships.