Sermon Form
“Despite the fact that it passes by relatively unnoticed, form is absolutely vital to the meaning and effect of a sermon.” p.136
“The power of a sermon,” wrote Halford Luccock many years ago, “lies in its structure, not in its decoration.”^ Form is as important to the flow and direction of a sermon as are the banks of a river to the movement of its currents.” p.136
“content is the important stuff of the sermon; form is mere packaging, an afterthought.” p. 137
“Instead of thinking of sermon form and content as separate realities, then, it is far better to speak of the/form of the content. A sermon’s form, although often largely unperceived by the hearers, provides shape and energy to the sermon and thus becomes itself a vital force in how a sermon makes meaning.” p. 137
“Form is an essential part of a sermon’s content and can itself support or undermine the communication of the gospel.” p. 137
In the simplest of terms, a sermon form is an organizational plan for deciding what kinds of things will be said and done in a sermon and in what sequence.” p.137
“For example, if the preacher decides to open the sermon by posing a question or problem that is on the minds of the hearers and then to spend the rest of the sermon trying to answer that question with the help of the biblical text, this is essentially a decision about sermon form. In this case, the preacher has chosen what has often been called the Problem/Response form.”
“If, on the other hand, the preacher decides to move back and forth between the text and the contemporary setting, first describing the historical situation out of which the biblical text arose, then showing how that situation is analogous to a contemporary situation, then going back to see what word was spoken by the text to its setting, then turning again to the contemporary circumstance to hear the text s word anew, this too is a choosing of sermon form. In this case the form will be a weaving of old and new, text and context, what-the- text-said-then-that-the-text says-now.” p.137-138
The Witness of Preaching (Third edition)