Developing Topical Evangelistic Sermons That Are Audience-Driven
The topic of "the
search for life out there" attaches to a theological reason: the
yearning to make contact with extraterrestrial intelligence as part of our
search to find God or to displace him. Then we can proceed to how Jesus brought
God from "out there" to "in here," perhaps attaching the
theological reason to John 1:1-18, or even John 1:18. Again, the news item can
work as an opening or concluding illustration or help in developing the points
of the sermon.
Ensure that the
topic from the text you are attaching to the audience-driven need is founded
and derived from its central proposition. In this way, you will not be taking
some obscure part of the text to make your point with your audience. Always
remember, the central proposition of the text (step 3) is derived from the text's
structure (step 2) as the safeguard from your penchant to make the text say
whatever you want it to mean.
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Pre-evangelistic
preaching points to the Lord Jesus, mentions his name, and offers his salvation
for the human situation. The PS principle of textual preaching, a salvation-appended
text and sermon, places the evangelistic twist at the end of the sermon's conclusion.
In a pre-evangelistic
sermon, the evangelistic twist always arrives as the last movement of the body
of the sermon: Jesus is the answer to the human dilemma the audience faces as
a result of human sin.
_______________
Ramesh Richard
serves as leader of Ramesh Richard Evangelism and Church Helps (RREACH) International
and teaches expository preaching at Dallas Theological Seminary.
_______________
Notes
1. I borrow this phrase from Ninian Smart, "The Philosophy of Worldviews
— That Is the Philosophy of Religion Transformed," N. Zeitschr f. syst.
Theologie 23:2, 1981.
2. See Charles Kraft, Christianity in Culture: A Study in Dynamic Biblical
Theologizing in Cross Cultural Perspective (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books,
1979), 33-37.
3. Daniel C. Dennett, "The Bright Stuff," New York Times, July
12, 2003.
4. I have explained a method of exegeting audiences in Preparing Expository
Sermons and more extensively in a future volume tentatively entitled Wisdom
toward Outsiders: A Manual on Cross-Cultural Apologetics and Worldwide Evangelism.
5. More sophisticated scales of the spiritual awareness of an unbeliever toward
conversion and maturity began in contemporary evangelism with the Spiritual
Segmentation linear model of V Sogaard, Everything You Need to Know for a
Cassette Ministry (Minneapolis: Bethany, 1975),27-53, and the Engel Scale
(from awareness of supreme being and no knowledge of the gospel all the way
to Christian stewardship), in James E Engel and H. Wilbert Norton, What's
Gone Wrong with the Harvest (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975), 45. Many suggestions
for refinements are suggested on the Internet (type "Engel Scale"
on your search engine). The Gray Matrix, http://www.thegraymatrix.info/, adds
the critical component of attitude (antagonism/enthusiasm) to prior Christian
knowledge (in communication effectiveness).
6. I used to give away a fine short book, Josh McDowell's More Than a Carpenter,
but then I noticed that many people were not asking the academic questions about
Jesus as their first questions. After looking around for a preliminary
gift, I decided to write Mending Your Soul: The Spiritual Path to Inner Wholeness.
I still keep copies of More Than a Carpenter as a second book to lead
people into a further consideration of Jesus.
7. All three headlines appear in the same section of "The Science Times,"
New York Times, July 8, 2003. Each day I find more topics to turn into
evangelistic themes and thrusts.