Diversifying Your Approach – Narrative Sermon

This post is part of a series where I discuss various sermon approaches. I hope within these posts you may discover some new methods you can use to structure and deliver a sermon
PART 1 – Diversifying Your Preaching Approach

As human beings, we are captivated by the power of a good story. Sure, modern blockbuster movies may often include state-of-the-art CGI, along with lots of explosions and the most recognizable names in Hollywood. Yet the experience, even in this visual and experiential medium, boils down to the depth and power of the story being told.

Of course, the power of the story is nothing new to humanity. Long before the first high-tech explosion, our predecessors would gather around campfires to share stories. These stories, whether historical, personal, or mythological, could elicit emotions of fear, sadness, excitement, and more from young and old alike.

Jesus himself was a master storyteller. Examples such as The Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 or The Parable of the Lost Son in Luke 15 are widely recognized by those outside Christianity as excellent examples of simple stories with immense depth.

Yet, when it comes to the topic of preaching, storytelling is often seen as an illustrative method and nothing more. For some, we feel as though we have not truly “preached” unless the presentation has included parsing of Greek verbs or unpacking contextual nuances that justify our academic training, and thus our paycheck.

Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not calling for a moratorium on expository messages. In fact, I will discuss that method further in a future blog post. What I am suggesting, however, is the acceptance of the story as the sermon. We call this approach a narrative sermon.

Before I offer recommendations of how something like this might be pieced together, I want to offer a couple of disclaimers.

Not every story is a sermon. The story about what happened at your kid’s soccer game may be fun. It may serve as  good illustration material for some point you are making. However, as I write about in Simple Preaching Prep, “Preaching, properly done, is based on the Word of God. If we base our message on anything else it can be considered a pep talk, a motivational speech, a TED talk, or a variety of other things, but it is not preaching.“To build on the previous point, what I am talking about with the story as sermon is not an absence of Scripture, but a change in our presentation of Scripture. I would encourage you to check out Jeff Walling’s “A Flight Through the Old Testament” as an example. In this message Jeff connects a variety of dots in Scripture to help the audience understand the overall narrative of the Bible. Thus, the message is certainly Scriptural, even if it is not built upon his exposition of a single text.

While your style and personality will differ on how this approach might work for you, here are some recommendations on how to design and preach a narrative sermon.

SELECT A NARRATIVE

When thinking of sermon material, your mind may initially go to passages on the nature of grace from Romans, or using Old Testament descriptions of sacrifice to convey how God sees sin. Yet, a substantial portion of the Biblical text is written in narrative form. Thus if you are considering preaching a message with a narrative approach, you will find it much easier to use the book of Jonah or the story of the Good Samaritan rather than Romans 6:23 as your primary text.

Here are some types of texts you may consider:

Overview of a Biblical character’s life. Several years ago I preached a narrative-style sermon from the life of Joseph with the focus of demonstrating Joseph’s trust in God and God’s faithfulness to Joseph. As I walked through the message I used a phrase beginning with the letter P (Preferred son, Pit, Potiphar, Prison, Palace, Prosperous). This helped me remember where I was in the story and allowed a call-and-response dynamic with the congregation as I recapped where we had been several times during the message.Overview of a Biblical event. Consider the death and raising of Lazarus in John 11 or the interaction with Elisha and his servant when approached by the Aramean army in 2 Kings 6. Either could be structured in such a way to convey an important truth about God, even as you frame the message in the form of a story.

SELECT A PERSPECTIVE

Back in school you probably had to learn and identify when stories were being told from different perspectives. As a reminder, a first-person perspective is when I am telling a story as it happened to me. A third-person perspective, however, is when I tell a story as it happened to someone else.

Either possibility can work in a narrative sermon.

For example, it is completely appropriate to take on a first-person perspective as one of the disciples when the news is shared that Lazaraus has died. You can share how those around may have felt, or questions they may have been asking. For example in John 11:6, we read that Jesus stayed two more days. If you knew Lazarus sickness was serious would you be asking questions like, “Why are we still staying? Isn’t Jesus concerned?” Then how would you feel if, upon arriving in Bethany, you learned Lazarus had died? How would you look back on what Jesus’s previous statements and his delay in coming to Bethany?

On the other hand, all of this can be told from a third-person perspective. Behave as the story teller, giving indications on how the disciples might have felt during each pieces of this emotional journey. On the other hand, what if you are speaking from the perspective of one of the unnamed townspeople who, expected Jesus to come only to see him arrive too late. You are not required to act as though all this had happened to you.

Before we move to my last recommendation, I have three more quick bits of advice about perspective.

Show, don’t tell. It is one thing to walk on stage and say, “Today I will be playing the role of an unnamed townsperson in the passage of John 11.” A more effective approach can be to walk on stage and just introduce yourself. For example:

“Oh hi there! My name is Simeon and I’m a resident of this lovely city of Bethany. Since I don’t recognize you, I’m guessing you want to hear about that time Jesus came to town and brought Lazarus back to life. Yeah…most random visitors who show up are asking that very thing. Ok then, take a seat. I can tell you about it because I was there…”

You can craft the story as though you are in the first century with period clothing and all. However this is not always required. Perhaps you want to speak as though you’re a tax collector named Zachh Eaus while wearing a suit and tie as you tell about the time you met Jesus.Some may say otherwise, but in a sermon like this I’d recommend not pretending to be Jesus. Is it inherently evil if you do? No, not necessarily. However, I believe there are going to be a lot more precautions and delicate steps you need to take if you do. Thus, I would not recommend it.

SELECT A STORY THREAD

Knowing stories of the Bible is great. In fact, for millennia this was the primary means by which the story of God was passed on from one generation to the next. However I find a narrative sermon has the greatest opportunity for impact when I provide my audience with a takeaway. Essentially, I am bringing out a point of application and demonstrating how they can apply this Bibilcal story to their lives.

Yet, when possible, don’t just leave application for the final two minutes of a message. Weave it throughout.

Above I mentioned my message which was an overview on the life of Joseph from Genesis 37-50. While I used the alliterative method to help the audience follow the story, the point I kept coming back to was how, despite the circumstances Joseph remained faithful to God because Joseph knew God would always remain faithful to him. I kept bringing this statement up again and again so that, by the time the message was nearing conclusion, I did not have to share some new idea. The audience had been exposed to the application the entire time.

CONCLUSION

I recognize there is a lot more that could, and has, been said about narrative sermons. However I want to hear from you. What approach have you tried? What did you see as the benefits and pitfalls of such an approach? What did you find to be the hardest part of preaching a narrative sermon?