Has God really spoken? Do we really believe that? How should that drive the way we preach? Text Driven Preaching is a book that is centered on promoting preaching based on the biblical text. The book is not the work on one person, but rather is a compilation of articles written by 12 different men. The editors of the book are Southern Baptists, and this may cause some Independent Fundamental Baptists to shun or avoid it, but this book has things spot on that MANY IFB preachers need to take heed to. The editors are all professors at Seminaries and one of the contributors, Jerry Vines, has written several books on preaching. The book does seem to somewhat hurt itself by quoting people like Rick Warren from time to time. In fact Rick Warren’s presence in the book seems somewhat to serve as a slap in the face to the whole concept of the book which is preaching that is directed by the Biblical text. This is in opposition to Rick Warrens philosophy of having a ministry that is based on the desires and felt needs of the people.
Text Driven Preaching can be summed up as an an evaluation and explanation of all the aspects and implications that stem from the simple truth that God has spoken through the text of scripture. It is this philosophy that drives the book, and this foundation is certainly a solid biblical foundation and sadly to say in our day and age it is simply forgotten. This book drew out so many thoughtful and helpful applications of that biblical foundation and it took this foundation and made it very practical. Most of the material was very relevant and helpful in the goal of the book, however the first chapter on rhetoric seemed very out of place and did not seem very relevant to the thesis of the book. There were a lot of aspects and topics that stemmed out of the position that God has spoken such as outlining your sermon in accordance with the structure of the text itself, there was a lot of emphasis and focus put on analyzing the text when preparing, there was a looking at the different genre, there was an emphasis on context of the text, etc.
The book introduction made some very sound and foundational points that really set the stage well and helps the reader become ready to really soak in and accept the things that are taught later on. Perhaps the most helpful section is a quote that contains the words “The preacher submits to the authority of the text” (Pg. 7). It was refreshing to see that the authors understood that “text-driven preaching is not enslaved to artificial outlining techniques..” (Pg 7). This book helped this writer more than any other book on preaching simply because its foundation was so thoroughly biblical and the applications to preaching all stemmed from that foundation. It is this foundation that really makes this book stand out from other books on preaching, which tend to stem more for pragmatic thinking rather than biblical theology. For example, in one section the one of the authors makes a point to emphasize that when outlining and preaching it is not text driven to major our sermon points on supporting clauses and phrases, seeing as how they are just that, supporting clauses and phrases.
The book is written in a fair easy to understand format and style, however there are some sections that seemed to be overly technical, particularly some sections with heavy linguistic jargon. Some of it was difficult or this writer and he has a background in linguistics! To be fair though the majority of the book is written in a comfortable and easy to read vocabulary and style. The few hard areas of jargon are well worth the richness in which the book applied the biblical truth that God has spoken.
the First chapter on rhetoric does not seem to really flow well with the thesis and could have been left out. Chapter 2 would have served as a better choice for the first chapter as it laid out good historical examples that would have served to support the thesis much better. The chapter on Rhetoric seems out of place because of its focus on the character of the preacher whereas Chapter 2 focused more on encouraging the reader about text driven preaching using historical examples of preaching such as the church fathers, protestant leaders, and even modern times.
Chapter 3 provides a well needed balance to the rest of the book, the rest of book tends to be somewhat mechanical and analytical so this chapter emphasizing the Holy Spirit and the power of God is helpful. The book does teach an error that the water of John 3:5 is the word of God, context however, makes clear that it is contrasting physical birth with spiritual.
Chapter 4 was another chapter that seemed out of place with the book. This chapter emphasized the character of the preacher. This does not fit well with the rest of the content of the book, and should probably have been left to other books or studies on pastoral qualifications. It definitely does not really fit well in it’s placement either.
Part II of the book is what makes it stand out. There is a plethora of both philosophical application of the thesis and practical application of that philosophy. For example “expository preaching emerges…. as a theological outgrowth of a high view of inspiration”. While the section in chapter 5 does have a lot of linguistic jargon, it is extremely helpful in pointing out how grammatical features communicate God’s word. This section contains jewel statements such as “Lexical meaning not only is inherent in words themselves but it also determined by their relationship to other words in context”. The book is worthwhile to read simply for that statement alone. That statement should be read and pondered and meditated on frequently and applied to every preacher’s bible study and teaching. This section contained an excellent 12 Step method for preparing sermons that is very helpful for staying textual and it even has a wonderful example of walking through this method with 1 John 2:15-17. There is not space to rehash everything in that example, but it did sound job showing how grammatical construction should be used to structure main points and sub points in a sermon… all based on textual grammar features from the biblical text.
It is very alarming to see in chapter 6 avorably quotation and reference to Bruce Metzger seeing as how this man has serious problems with his bibliology. (Pg. 144) There is a helpful section here on word fallacies. It’s also said to say that this section supports the rationalistic document hypothesis theory of the Gospels. (Pg. 151) But this section does have some great examples of areas of analysis for Hebrews 12:1-2.
There is a section on literary genres, though honestly it did not seem very engaging or interesting. There is also a section on Biblical Theology, however the author of this section seemed to over allegorize some of the stories of the Old Testament and these allegories seemed to somewhat contradict the main point of the book which is sticking to the text. This section did however have some good thoughts about being aware of phrases and words that are used through the scriptures and encouraging the reader to take note of those in his bible study. The closing chapters majored on the actual preaching of the word. The inclusion of the communication model was very elementary and was extremely boring to read and did not seem to help though some others might find it helpful. There was a helpful section on explaining the need to preach for a change of mind as opposed to external conformity.
Overall the book does a good job of giving you practical helps based on the foundation of the doctrine of inspiration, it is much more than simply a book with a bunch of pragmatic tips for teaching and preaching. This book could be helpful to many Pastors and Teachers.
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