Reformation Faith Today

Paul Lamey at Expository Thoughts has blogged a couple of posts about preaching narrative. In his first post he quotes Fred Craddock, author of As One Without Authority , thus:

Expository preaching or biblical preaching has been found guilty of archaism, sacrificing the present to the past. One should, according to this view, choose relevant topics for treatment. Scriptures can be read in the service for mood or atmosphere or to satisfy those who feel they should be included, but they should not be allowed to shackle the minister (emphasis added).

Someone has described Craddock’s homiletic style this way:

[Another] unique feature of Craddock’s new homiletic is that a sermon should seek to create an experience for the listener, rather than attempting to gain the listeners’ assent through sermons utilizing deductive, linear logic. As a result of Craddock’s inductive model, the role of the listeners fundamentally changes: no longer are listeners passive recipients of a conclusion already reached by the authoritative preacher, to which they must acquiesce. Rather, in Craddock’s scheme, the listeners are active participants in the sermon by virtue of the sermon form itself, which enables the hearer to “finish” the sermon that is intentionally left open-ended.

Does this not expose at a very basic level what is wrong with the church today? Narrative, story, blah, blah!

What do you think? The post is here.