Text Driven Preaching vs. Text Centered Preaching
What is the difference between a sermon that is “text-centered” and one that is “text-driven”?
Here is a chart I used at the Jacksonville Pastor’s Conference:
Text-Centered | Text-Driven |
Sermon from the text | Sermon about the text and derived from it |
Sermon based on a text | Sermon explains meaning of the text |
Focus on textual theme | Focus on textual theme as textually developed |
Sermon has a point or points usually drawn from the text |
Sermon only has as many “points” as the text has and are always drawn from the text |
Textual secondary information may or may not be developed |
Textual secondary information developed in relation to main point(s) |
Sermon structure may be imposed on the text |
Sermon structure is borrowed from the structure of the text |
Application relates to or has some connection to the text |
Application flows directly & exclusively from the text |
Primary application may or may not be derived from the main point of text |
Primary application derived from the main points of the text |
Creativity is generally unguided by the text |
Creativity is guided by the genre and textual clues of the text |
Tendency to pick short preaching texts for preaching |
Demands a natural paragraph/pericope/ thought unit for a text |
May ignore or sideline the author’s intended meaning |
Surrenders to the author’s intended meaning |
Context may be easily overlooked | Context is key to sermon development |
May not adequately express the substance, structure, & spirit of the text |
Expresses the substance, structure & spirit of the text |
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