Shaping the Claim helps the preacher discover the core of the message to be preached—the sermonic "claim." In order to be effective, says McMickle, a sermon needs to address the hearers at three distinct levels; the head or the intellect, the heart or passion and conviction, and the hand or an expected and desired response.
In order to discover the biblical "claim" that a sermon should make upon a particular congregation at a particular time, McMickle presents a helpful three-step process:
- What?
- So What?
- Now What?
