Leadership Journal

If you preach a series on the Psalms and every sermon has three points, you may be suffering from acute hardening of the outlines. A cure can be found in Jeffrey Arthurs's new book Preaching with Variety. He notes the variety of ways God communicates in Scripture—poetry, parables, proverbs, epistles, narratives, and more. He points out the varied effects those genres have on recipients and how our preaching can be more powerful if we link sermon form to text form.

The more I learn about nature, the more amazed I am at God's creativity and variety. Just the other night, studying with my seventh grade son, I learned that the Amazon rainforest hosts 20 million species of insects! That's species, not individual bugs. This world bursts with an inventive and sometimes wry display of God's power and glory, and variety is part of that glory.

God communicates with variety. Consider, for instance, the Bible's cornucopia of literary forms—poetry, law, parable, to name a few. Because the Great Communicator communicates with variety in the Bible, shouldn't we mirror that variety in our sermons?

Furthermore, God's preachers—that is, the prophets and witnesses—employed variety. In some cases, they did so under direct instruction, as when God ordered Isaiah to go around barefoot for three years to communicate that Sargon would take Egypt and Cush captive (Isa. 20:1–6). Similarly, God ordered Ezekiel to use object lessons such as miniature siege works, body positions, bread, and a shaved head (Ezek. 4–5).

God the Son certainly communicated with variety. Dialogue, parables, visuals, and "lecture" were common in his teaching. He defined concepts by example more than by creed.

God clearly uses great variety in communication. The question is, Why? The answer is twofold: because God is both artist and persuader.

He expresses himself with skill, and he moves audiences with purpose. The writer of Ecclesiastes speaks for all the writers of the Bible: "The Teacher searched to find just the right [or 'pleasing'] words" (12:10). While individual biblical texts can be placed along a continuum from more aesthetic to less aesthetic, there is in general, as Leland Ryken observes, "a preoccupation among biblical writers with artistry, verbal craftsmanship, and aesthetic beauty."

Their verbal artistry reflects the Artist, and it creates delight and enjoyment for the reader. Such artistry also intensifies impact. God's purposes flow out of his character just as artistry does. He is active as well as beautiful. He is building his kingdom, so the verbal artistry of the Bible is not simply art for art's sake; it is art that accomplishes his purposes.

Jesus certainly moved his listeners toward these destinations. When asked by an expert in the law to define "neighbor," Jesus told a story (Luke 10:25–37). Why? To accomplish something that would have been difficult to accomplish with another form.

He wanted to reframe the discussion, gradually reveal the truth, instruct the lawyer, lead him to understand his own heart, convict him of his values, cause him to ponder the truth, and lead him to faith and repentance. The form of Jesus' communication (parable) was an indispensable component in achieving those goals.

PAGE 1 of 2