The Call to Action report says vital congregations have topical preaching.
I’m not convinced that I am cut out for topical preaching – and I’m not convinced that there is a cause-and-effect relationship demonstrated here – but I’m willing to give it another try in the interest of getting God’s work done.
Can someone point me to a good “how-to” book on topical preaching? Most of what I have teaches preaching that starts with the text rather than a topic.
I am a part-time local pastor serving Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church and a participant in the Indiana Conference's Wesleyan ConneXion. I teach business communication at Indiana University in the Kelley School of Business.
I also blog at Luc means light and contribute to The View from Here blog at Next Step Evangelism.
My wife, Lisa, and I have been married 23.5 years. Luc, 8, lives with us. Zach, 22, and JillAnn, 18, are off at college much too soon for my liking.
Contact me at johnmeunier at Gmail.
The doctrine of original sin is surely more humbling to man than the opposite: And I know not what honour we can pay to God, if we think man came out of His hands in the condition wherein he is now.
— John Wesley
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I have not personally read this book, so I cannot say that is exactly on target for what you want, but Andy Stanley’s book “Communicating for a change” would probably be helpful. If you google Andy Stanley and communication, you’ll come up with some interviews he’s done, so you can kind of get the gist of the book before you buy if you like.
Thanks, Larry.
I actually own Stanley’s book. My challenge – aside from others I mention below in responding to Pam – is not so much how to form a sermon but how to come up with topics and how to create a series.
It all feels so driven by me rather than the church and the text.
Now, Adam Hamilton will say that the Holy Spirit guides him in the process of selecting texts and creating sermon series. So, maybe I’m just not grounded in the Spirit enough. I don’t know.
As someone who is back in the pews listening, I don’t personally like topical preaching. It usually sounds like the pastor has decided what s/he wanted to say and then went to the bible to find a few texts that seem to vaguely support the thesis.
I find it much more satisfactory to take a text and try to intelligently reflect on how that text might apply to disciples of Christ today.
Pam, I appreciate your comments and feel in many ways the same way. Indeed, my own forays into topical preaching often feel corrupt to me because I find myself doing exactly what you are saying.
But, I wonder if that is a sign of bad topical preaching rather than a sign of topical preaching itself.
Or, is it that many people do not respond to preaching the way I do?
The problem with topical preaching to me is that it allows preachers to continually harp on their pet issues rather than cover the entire teaching of the Word. I have always preferred to take a book of the Bible and work through it. That is what I did when I was preaching twice on Sunday and a mini-sermon on Wednesdays.
But that is not what you were asking.
Your Discipline has a section on Articles of Faith. A place to start would be with the theology of the church.
In reading Wesley’s Journals I think he was often following the scripture picked by the church. You could also pick up a missal from a Catholic church and follow the topics but in a Protestant way. The benefit of that is you cover a wide area of Bible and theology.
Get a book of quotations and use the topics in order.
These all would hopefully be fall backs to prayerfully seeking God’s guidance each week. That works for some.
Grace and Peace
In reading Wesley’s Journals I think he was often following the scripture picked by the church.
I’d be interested in knowing if this is correct. In his field preaching – my recollection is that – he often preached the same texts. Maybe he combined the two depending on the circumstance. How wild is that?
Well, here’s the good news. I went and looked up the Towers Watson report that forms the basis of the conclusion that topical preaching is better.
This should be the link.
The report actually says that 50% of “high” vitality churches use lectionary style preaching. It is just that the percentage at “low” vitality churches is higher, so that makes topical preaching more common at high vitality churches.
I’m a bit dubious about the cause-and-effect relationship here.
I think I may replied in this vein before on your blog regarding topical preaching vis-a-vis the lectionary – individual preachers have different strengths – some preachers simply do a masterful job of preaching effectively without going the topical approach, whereas I would wither and die if I had to preach the lectionary I think. I suppose the approach to topical preaching could be taught, but I think it really is a mindset – does your brain think this way? You ask how the preacher gets topics – I can only speak for myself, but I draw from a wide array of topics, and I don’t think I return to pet themes (unless grace is a pet theme).
I tend to basically think in monthly units, bending around Lent and Advent. For 2010, for example, my schedule is:
January: Wisdom – making good choices
Lent: Beattitudes
April: Faith and Science
May: no series – several special Sundays – youth, choir, etc.
June: Forgiveness
July: Prayer
August: Book of James
September: Might Be Methodist If . . .
October: Stewardship Focus (I do this every year in Oct)
November: Christ and the imagination
December: Advent series (not yet determined)
This covers a variety of things – practical things, like the wisdom and forgiveness series dealt with relationships; doctrinal things like the Methodist series; Biblical focus (at least once a year I teach through a book) – James happened to deal with doctrine and practical issues, etc. I have most of 2011 planned out at least on the macro level – I know most the topics I will be addressing – faith in the workplace, Jonah, family issues (marriage and parenting). It really lets me plan out way in advance, do my research. If was bouncing around week to week, personally, I would be a much worse preacher. However, I know many others who thrive doing it this way.
How do I come up with them? Some come as requests from laity – my forgiveness and prayer series were results of such requests. Teaching a book of the Bible seems a no-brainer to me, given the low level of Biblical literacy in the church. I normally ask my worship committee for suggestions for Lent and Advent. Somethings are just interesting to me – faith and science, for example. It might be a “pet issue,” but I only spent 3 weeks on it, I think it is legitimately important, and given the culture we live in I think its a better pet topic than the end-times, or something like that. Because I care deeply about it, it actually gets some of my best exegesis and preparation.
Sorry about the rambling reply.
Not rambling at all. Very helpful, Larry. Thank you.
I have no doubt you have posted before on this topic. I keep coming back to it.
If I could inquire further.
Last January, you decided to preach on Wisdom. How did you go from saying “wisdom” to developing four actual sermons?
If you are willing to share you process some more, I’d love to hear about it.
John, I think I can explain the process.
So I want to begin a series like this with a message that somewhat lays the groundwork – gives people a basic idea of why it is an important and/or helpful topic, and lay out what the Biblical definition is. So the first message is based in Proverbs 2:1 – 15, and it is focused on defining wisdom and where it truly comes from – ie wisdom comes from God; wisdom is the capacity to make good choices, wisdom is valuable, wisdom will never lead you to decisions contrary to the values of “righteousness, justice and equity.”
In the second week, I want to move into some more practical application – making good choices in terms of relationships, time management, and work, which is based on Proverbs 6:1-11.
The third week looks at wisdom in the context of difficult life circumstances and maintaining our relationship with God (Job 40:1-14) and some of the limitations of wisdom.
Finally, I came back to the value and limitations of wisdom (Eccl 2:12 – 23) – it is inherently valuable, but not supremely valuable – it improves our quality of life (which God cares about), but ultimately cannot save us from our sins or give us immortality, etc.
Throughout the series, I emphasized the grace of God, the wisdom He has revealed in Christ (1st Cor), and how that grace means we are not defined by our choices, whether they be good ones or poor ones.
I hope that is helpful!
Extremely helpful, Larry. There is a whole way of approaching it that I’ve never been taught, never really seen first-hand, and certainly never practiced.
Thank you.