MY REVIEW

MY REVIEW

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My Review

In the text The Homiletical Plot, the author notes that a sermon cannot be defined as a doctrinal lecture. Thus, a sermon is a narrative function that is undertaken by professionals, the preachers. In addition, preachers should vary their sermons or plots with an aim of enhancing the delivery of the spiritual messages to the audience. The author notes that preachers are ineffective because of their failure to provide diagnosis with respect to the varied needs of the congregation. Understanding an underlying problem of discussion in sermon enables preachers to deliver effective and liberating teachings to the audience.

In Troeger’s Imagining A Sermon, he quotes the book of Amos by asking “Preacher, what do you see?”[1]. He notes that imagination can be termed as a connection that one shares with the holy spirit through inspiration and observant visions. Using subjects, parables and images that are relevant for others is important towards delivering effective sermons according to the author. From such, it is evident that in order to deliver effective and insightful sermons one should be able to connect with the audience in terms of modern contexts of subjects or problems of discussion that are relevant for the differing circumstances of the audience.

From the two texts, it is evident that sermons are highly effective when they are used in relation to real life contexts. Using vivid examples of real life circumstances likened to teachings in the scriptures ensures that the message reaches the deepest part of an audience[2]. The problem with a majority of teachings or sermons is that they fail to use appropriate methodologies for delivering messages to the respective congregations. Using real life contexts provides the audience with a point of relationship for their individual life circumstances with a solution that is provided in the sermon. From such it is evident that the teachings in the bible are relevant irrespective of the changes in time and year.

References

Lowry, Eugene L. 1980. The homiletical plot: the sermon as narrative art form. Atlanta: John Knox Press.

Oxford University Press. 2009. The Holy Bible: containing the Old and New Testaments with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books: New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press.

Troeger, Thomas H. 1990. Imagining a sermon. Nashville: Abingdon Press.

[1] Thomas H. Troeger, Imagining a sermon (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1990) p.16.

[2] Eugene L. Lowry, The homiletical plot: the sermon as narrative art form (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1980.) p.23