Preaching Tips from Haddon Robbinson

Here are tips on preaching from Haddon Robbinson that I compiled from his Preaching Today articles. I have cited below what I think are the most useful paragraphs from each article.

On the 'Big Idea"
Those who have studied and practiced public speaking over twenty-five hundred years have agreed that the most effective way to structure a speech is to build it around a single concept . . . It comes from asking two essential questions. "What exactly is this person talking about?" The full, complete answer to this question is the "subject" of a passage or of a sermon. The answer to a second question "What is this person saying about what is being talked about?" leads to the "complement" of the idea because it completes the subject. The subject and the complement together lead to the idea of the text and of the sermon.

Whether or not a minister does biblical preaching starts with the honest answer to the question: "Do I, as a preacher, endeavor to bend my thought to the Scriptures, or do I use the Scriptures to support my thought?" Taking into account the history, grammar, literary forms and the context of a passage, the expositor ponders what the biblical writer wanted to get across to his original readers.

On the difference between exegesis and homiletics
The exegetical idea is what the biblical writer was saying to the biblical readers. The Bible cannot mean what it has not meant. So one of the things I have to ask is, When the author of Genesis was writing his story, what was he intending to say to the people who read the account? What was Paul trying to say to the people in the town of Colossi when he wrote his Colossian letter? That's the exegetical idea.

The homiletical idea is the idea from Scripture as I phrase it and shape it for a 21st-century audience. That is, if somebody came into my study, how would I express that concept to the person sitting across the desk from me? The homiletical idea is based on the work you do in exegesis, but you haven't preached if you leave people in the past, 2,000 years ago. The homiletical idea is to take this great truth of Scripture and state it in a way people today would hear it.

On whether sermons should be written
Not all preachers write out their sermons, nor do preachers who write out sermons write out every sermon, but the discipline of preparing a manuscript improves preaching. Writing scrapes the fungus off our thought, arranges our ideas in order, and underlines the important ideas. "Writing," said Francis Bacon, "makes an exact man exact in thought and in speech." An expository preacher professing a high view of inspiration should respect the power of words. To affirm that the individual words of Scripture must be God-breathed, but then to ignore our own choice of language smacks of gross inconsistency. Our theology, if not our common sense, should tell us that ideas and words cannot be separated. Like Jell-O, concepts assume the mold of the words into which they are poured. As pigments define the artist's picture, so words capture and color the preacher's thought...

While rules governing good writing also apply to the sermon manuscript, a sermon is not an essay on its hind legs because what you write serves only as a broad preparation for what you will actually say. Your manuscript is not your final product. Your sermon should not be read to a congregation. Reading usually kills a lively sense of communication. Neither should you try to memorize your manuscript. Not only does memorization place a hefty burden on you if you speak several times a week, but an audience senses when you are reading words off the wall of your mind. Agonize with thought and words at your desk, and what you write will be internalized. Rehearse several times aloud without your manuscript. Make no conscious effort to recall your exact wording. Simply try to get your flow of thought clearly in mind. When you step into the pulpit, your written text will have done its work to shape your use of language. Much of your wording will come back to you as you preach, but not all. In the heat of your delivery, your sentence structure will change. New phrases will occur to you, and your speech will sparkle like spontaneous conversation. Your manuscript, therefore, contributes to the thought and wording of your sermon, but it does not determine it.

On ensuring the clarity of sermons
First, clearly orient the audience to the body of the sermon right in the introduction. A preacher might say at the end of the introduction, "God sometimes keeps his promises to us by performing miracles or performing miracles in us." But if that's all he’s going to say, folks already have the sermon. If he asks, "Now what exactly does that mean, to say that God performs miracles or performs miracles in us?" he secures the chance to develop clarity, because the congregation has the whole idea, and the preacher has the opportunity to clarify that idea through the body of the sermon.

You can also add clarity by restating key ideas. Suppose you begin by saying, "We want to talk today about how to know the will of God." Continue by restating this idea several times: “When we are confused about what God wants us to do, how can we determine his direction in our lives? Where would we turn to determine God's will? How do we go about knowing the will of God?” It seems laborious when you're preaching, but restating the subject several times in different ways makes it stand out in people’s minds. Take time to state what you’ve been talking about, restate it, then introduce people to what follows.

Avoid pronouns requiring the listener to remember the reference. For example, rather than saying, "A second thing we must do is consult the Bible," include the subject it is referencing: “A second thing we have to do in trying to determine God's will is to consult the Bible." It may be clear to you what the subject is, but pronouns require a listener to recall a previous reference, possibly diminishing clarity.

You can also give the audience a map of where you're going. Suppose you are preaching on Christians and government in the Roman epistle. You might say, "Christians are to be subject to the government. Christians are to obey what the government demands. I want to talk about the basis for this command. I want to talk about how we show submission to the government; what the implications are in daily life. And third, what exceptions, if any, are there to this command." In beginning this way, you have given the people a road map of your sermon so they can track with you.

On how to learn how to preach:
It’s a good thing to listen to the sermons of effective preachers. For years I took one noted preacher every year. If he was dead, I read his sermons, or a biography. If he was alive, I’d either read his sermons, or hear them. If it were possible to get an interview with him, I’d do that. You have to listen to a good sermon three times. The first time for your own benefit. The second time for the flow of thought. And the third time you listen for technique. What does this preacher do to give a good introduction? What does he or she do to engage you?

Even when I listen to my own sermons, I listen to the technique. I go back, and as much as I know about preaching, I can say, “I didn’t do that well,” or “I had a negative tone that I didn’t intend.”

On the great preachers:
I really do believe the great preachers are pastors of congregations at Sixth and Main of some town that know the people. He takes the biblical text and relates it to those people's lives because he knows them and knows them well. So the pastoral side of ministry fuses relevant preaching that applies to life. In fact, often the big problem that kind of preacher has is he knows the people so well that if he applies this, Aunt Milly in the church will be absolutely sure he is talking about her. But someone said that the mark of a great sermon is that the person in the pew wonders how in the world the pastor knew that about me. So you learn a lot just by living among people and being perceptive. That is a great advantage when it comes to applying the truth.