“Although not every joke form contains as radical a reversal . . . nonetheless, the humor is occasioned by the sudden shift which is unexpected . . . This sudden reversal in preaching comes as the clue to resolution reverses the train of diagnostic thought. The resultant shock does not come in the form of …
Because Motives Are Only Two-Dimensional in Bad Fiction
“The preacher who does not dirty his homiletical hands with the fact of the deeper and quite fluid complexity of the motive world will not be trusted in the sermon, in a counseling chamber, or in the church board meeting” (Lowry, The Homiletical Plot, p. 46).
Which Hinders the Cure of Souls
“The greatest single weakness of the average sermon is the weakness of diagnosis” (Lowry, The Homiletical Plot, p. 41).
But Only As Long as You Are Facing Christ
“If you preach from your weakness, you’ll never run out of material” (Andy Stanley).
Why All Other Titles Should be Interesting
“It should be noted in passing that this is an important purpose in an announced or printed sermon title — to help upset the equilibrium. Most titles tend to do the reverse. They appear to be drawn from the sermon’s conclusion (the scratch rather than the itch). As a result, the preacher has to move …
A Real Sham
“Competent fiction writers understand the human predicament well. As a result, their fiction has the feel of fact — of reality, while our fact — our reality — often has the feel of poor fiction” (Lowry, The Homiletical Plot, p. 25).
A Double Bind
“There are in fact preachers who fall into these two camps. Paul Scherer once described them: The one knows what to say but doesn’t know how to say it, and the other knows how to say it but has nothing to say” (Lowry, The Homiletical Plot, p. 17).
Fluid or Static?
“I shall prefer to speak of the continuity or the movement of a sermon, rather than of its outline” (Lowry, The Homiletical Plot, p. 14).
Knots Untied
“Likewise, a sermon is a plot (premeditated by the preacher) which has as its key ingredient a sensed discrepancy, a homiletical bind. Something is ‘up in the air’ — an issue not resolved . . . Preaching is story telling. A sermon is a narrative art form” (Lowry, The Homiletical Plot, p. 12).
Sermons Built From Legos
“I used to feel guilty about the sermon which seemed to have its own demands and desires . . . Of course I was violating the rules of sermon making — for many years before I had been taught the engineering science of sermon construction! To change the metaphor, I had been taught sermonic architecture …