Judges and Narrative Preaching

This course will explore the history, theoretical underpinning, and primary models of narrative preaching as a foundation for equipping preachers to learn some narrative methods of preaching. The heart of the course involves students applying selected approaches, required to prepare and deliver sermons using narrative models. The course ends with the preacher (student) undertaking an evaluation of their narrative sermons, both a self-assessment and a congregational assessment. By the end of this course you should be able to:

• Discuss the influences (forces at work) and influencers (people) driving the recent rise of narrative preaching.
• Articulate and defend the theoretical underpinnings, both theological and practical, that justify narrative preaching.
• Describe the major models of narrative preaching, giving attention to the strengths and limitations of each model.
• Interpret Old Testament narrative texts for preaching purposes.
• Prepare and preach first-person and third-person narrative sermons.
• Evaluate the experience of preaching narrative sermons.

The following book will need to be purchased in order to complete this course (it is available in Kindle format):

• Edwards, J. Kent. 2009. Effective First-Person Biblical Preaching: The Steps from Text to Narrative Sermon. Kindle edition. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan.