Letters to My Students by Jason K. Allen

Author:Jason K. Allen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion/Christian Church/Leadership
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Published: 2019-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Amplify Your Main Points

Once the sermon is largely assembled, you can turn your attention to strengthening it. After all, your sermon is never really complete until you stand in the pulpit and say, “Take your Bibles and turn with me to . . .”

I must admit that I’m an inveterate fiddler with my sermon. Though it may be complete, that is to say “preachable,” that doesn’t mean my preparation is over. At this point I turn my attention to upgrading the sermon at any and all levels possible. Typically this takes place late on Saturday evenings and early on Sunday mornings. Sometimes this happens in the pew, moments before the sermon is preached.

Let me encourage you to do the same. Never settle for a finished sermon. Continue to upgrade it as time and opportunity allow. Consider with me ways to enhance your sermon’s effectiveness.

Employ Creative Thought

At this stage in my preparation, I come full circle and engage again in big-picture thinking about the sermon. My first concern is accuracy in interpreting the text and clarity in communicating it, but I also want to communicate the text in a compelling, life-changing way. Don Kistler notes the importance of creative thought in great preaching:

Preaching to the heart is aided by our recognition of what our task really is. The great question is: How, through the work of the Spirit, am I best to get the Word of God into the hearts of the people? Those who have done, or today do this with greatest fruitfulness and success are marked by many gifts and characteristics, often very diverse. But one thing all of them seem to have in common is imagination—an imaginative creativity that bridges the distance between the truth of the Word of God and the lives of those to whom they speak.1

Review Your Illustrations

Sermon illustrations bring both promise and peril. Poor illustrations promise more than they deliver. In fact, you’ve probably heard illustrations that did more harm than good. Poor illustrations that have nothing to do with the passage send God’s people on unhelpful diversions and, indeed, prove to hinder the sermon.

Conversely, a well-chosen illustration can illumine the passage and strengthen the sermon. That is why generations of seminary students have been taught that good sermons include explaining, illustrating, and applying the text. Of the three, illustrating the text is the least important but is important nonetheless.

As you review your manuscript seeking to amplify your message, pay special attention to your illustrations. In fact, keep these five principles in mind as you evaluate them:

Make sure the illustration amplifies the text and does not distract from it. This is a nonnegotiable rule. If your illustration makes the meaning of the text clearer and more memorable, mission accomplished. If a week later your hearers still remember your illustration but not the point it made or the text connected to it, that is a problem.

H. B. Charles helpfully writes, “An illustration that does not illustrate is counterproductive. A good illustration is like a window on a house.

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