From Sampler to Sower » Preaching http://www.samplertosower.com Thoughts on guiding teens of the journey of a lifetime Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:38:55 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 Improve Your Preaching By Asking the Right Questions http://www.samplertosower.com/2011/03/improve-your-preaching-by-asking-the-right-questions/ http://www.samplertosower.com/2011/03/improve-your-preaching-by-asking-the-right-questions/#comments Wed, 02 Mar 2011 15:31:03 +0000 pastorbuhro http://www.samplertosower.com/?p=1116 The questions you ask before you turn to the Commentaries and Study Bibles make the difference in your preaching and teaching.
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Improve Your Preaching by Asking the Right QuestionsWe’re just a few weeks away from our district’s annual Celebrate Life competition, when Nazarene teens from across Northeastern Indiana descend on a middle school campus in Huntington to compete in a wide variety of talent and athletic categories.  Everyone has fun.  Those who excel qualify to advance to the regional level at Olivet Nazarene University in May.

Due to @aaronscottallen’s success last year in the Bible Exposition category, I have some teens who have expressed some interest in giving it a try this year.  Bible Exposition is essentially a ten minute expository sermon.  By rule, it is not topical, but textual.  There’s no choosing a topic, coming up with some illustrations and then cherry-picking a handful of prooftexts to make the outline seem Biblical.  This is my kind of preaching.  Choosing a text, sitting down in the middle of it, and there staying until the small voice of God says “Comfort my people…speak tenderly to Jerusalem.”

To help them get a start  on interpreting their passages I’ve compiled a list of questions I typically think through in conversation with a text before I head to the bookshelf or the library looking for answers.  These questions help me know what insights I’m looking for from these other commentaries, and they also help me know the areas in which I need to push back against some of the popular interpretations or perhaps dig a little deeper.

Here they are:

Background Questions:

  • Who wrote it?
  • To whom?
  • Why?
  • What is the beginning of the passage?
  • Where does the passage end? (Make sure you don’t just abide by the easy chapter and paragraph divisions in the English text.)
  • What comes right before it?
  • What comes right after it?

Interpretation Questions:

  • Who are the main characters of the story (if applicable)
  • Where does the story take place?
  • What is your emotional response to this passage?
  • What questions does this passage raise?
  • What key words appear in this passage? Especially look for theological terms and repeated phrases.
  • What key themes from the book as a whole appear in this passage?
  • What figures of speech are included in the story?
  • What analogies/examples does the author use?
  • What was the author’s purpose in including this passage?

Context Questions:

  • What Biblical themes does this story develop?
  • What pre-conceptions does this story challenge?
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