Peter Adam has this nifty stuff about how to make preaching really cool. He insists that the key to engaging and passionate preaching is not in the area of homiletics (presentation and delivery) but actually in exegesis.
Poor preachers only look for the 'meaning' in the text and this meaning tends to be conceptual, rational, dry. Then they proceed to teach this meaning in their sermon. Small wonder the result can be less than stunning.
Peter suggests that we go back to our texts and look for all the other things in there: the images, the emotions, the motivations, the structure, the language, the senses and so on. Once we have truly grasped the full weight of the text, our sermons will be very different.
Poor preachers only look for the 'meaning' in the text and this meaning tends to be conceptual, rational, dry. Then they proceed to teach this meaning in their sermon. Small wonder the result can be less than stunning.
Peter suggests that we go back to our texts and look for all the other things in there: the images, the emotions, the motivations, the structure, the language, the senses and so on. Once we have truly grasped the full weight of the text, our sermons will be very different.
