Determining the Form
Overview
This title offers preaching students and clergy an overview of some of the most common sermonic forms and provides insights for determining which forms are most—and least—amenable to the claim that they want to make in their sermon. Many, if not most, sermons wind up being somewhat formless and thus less effective than they might be in communicating the gospel. Rather than training students in a single rhetorical form, this volume will demonstrate a variety of options without advocating for any particular form.
Accomplished preachers can think of rhetorical strategy in a nuanced manner, but beginning preachers are well-served by having a knapsack of simple sermonic forms they can turn to when building a sermon out of a sermonic claim. This book will offer preachers a strong foundation in considering sermonic form and a handful of basic, reliable rhetorical structures to use in the pulpit.
Top Highlights
“In other words, a sermon today needs to say one thing, say it slowly, and say it well. From beginning to end, preachers need to stay focused on a single topic, theme, and/or scriptural passage. Sermons should be ‘simply significant’—simple but not simplistic. To keep from having multiple, competing messages in a sermon, we should write down our sermonic claim in a simple, declarative, theological sentence.” (Page 8)
“Both forms are deductive, propositional approaches to proclamation. They move from general conclusions to specific applications and utilize didactic, persuasive language.” (Page 3)
“In sermon preparation, how must always follow what” (Page 2)
“Hearers should experience sermons more like watching a movie than staring at a painting in a museum” (Page 9)
“we are not called simply to preach the gospel but to get the gospel heard” (Page 5)
- Title: Determining the Form
- Author: O. Wesley Allen Jr.
- Publisher: Fortress Press
- Publication Date: 2008
- Pages: 96